Card Games for Family Dog Training Fun
Terry's Tips > Card Games for Family Dog Training Fun
The entire family, even the youngest child or puppy, can play card games together. There are three important things to remember when dogs and children play together: 1) Supervision, 2) Supervision, 3) Supervision! Adults can be a team of one, children must be in a team with an adult. You only need one dog! Fluff can take turns being on everyone's team.
On a pack of blank index cards, write a variety of easy exercises that reflect some of the things your dog can already do well and some you are working on. Parents can encourage the child to draw pictures on the cards or cut out photos from old magazines to decorate them. It's can be a reading, vocabulary or spelling exercise as well as a train-the-dog exercise. How about math? You can put values on the cards and children can count up the score. Some of the cards can request that you subtract a number - good problem for the child and it makes the game less competitive! Help make up rules appropriate for your particular dog and family.
Safety and a positive attitude are the two most important features of the card game. To get you started, here are some sample exercise cards, some ideas for rules, and one basic game plan:
CARDS:
- Get a towel and wipe all four of your dog's feet.
- Walk all the way around a chair. Slack leash. Tight leash? Start over!
- Dog in a down-stay while you say the alphabet.
- Put a t-shirt on your dog
- Joker: everyone takes a 10 minute potty break.
- Sit-stay while someone rings the doorbell once.
- Help your dog impersonate a different animal
- Dog does a down-stay in front of the refrigerator, player removes/replaces food
- Dog stands still, while player does three brush strokes on the dog.
- Joker: everyone takes a break and has a snack
- Dog stays, player goes three feet away. Dog catches a tossed biscuit on first try.
RULES:
- Make teams. If children are involved, an adult and one child are a team.
- Determine a playing order. Shuffle the cards. Place them face down in a pack.
- First team pulls the top card.
- Set the timer for one minute.
- First team must perform the exercise within one minute.
- Be safe and appropriate in actions.
- If not, that card is passed to the next team until some does the exercise properly
- (This is an extra turn bonus for the team that can do that exercise.)
- Team that performs an exercise correctly within a minute keeps the card.
- Next team pulls a card. Take turns until all cards are gone, whoever has the most cards (or highest score) wins.