Sunday, February 19, 2012

Another Dog Game!

This one's a favorite, and gets played almost daily: "Where'd you go?"

You can play this both inside the house and outside, all you need is something to hide behind. As you and the dog are walking together somewhere, let him get ahead of you and then slip away and hide. Below, Monster and I was leaving the kitchen for the living room, when I instead hid behind a cupboard.

There you a- eeek!

And when the dog comes back to see where you went, you jump out at him and roar (from dog height, not from above). So the dog backs off around the corner again, and the game resets. We like to repeat a "found you" three or four times, but you'll quickly see how long your dog thinks it's fun.

In the case above Monster also has a rawhide bone in his mouth, that works fine for us but isn't necessary. If your dog has resource issues you may want to avoid that, though.

If your dog is skittish or uncertain, you can of course be more gentle in the "jump out and scare him" part! Or skip that entirely.

What's it good for? Maybe it helps Monster feel less threatened by people doing unexpected and odd things, moving suddenly or raising their voices. I wouldn't play this game if Monster showed any signs of discomfort, but it's clear he loves it. You can't quite see it in the photo above, but to the left of the refrigerator there's an oven with dark glass making a kind of mirror. Often when we play in this particular spot I can see Monster stopping just before the corner and looking at the "mirror" to see where I'm at, then he'll grin and trot around the corner. He's not actually scared, is my point, or even surprised.

(And yes, Monster can see and understand what's in a mirror. He also likes to watch TV - especially sports or anything with bears. And no, he's not just listening. And yes, I'm sure about the mirror. In fact, he often comes up behind me when I'm brushing my teeth in the bathroom and seeks eye contact through the mirror. It's a bit of a pain, because I try to make sure to always reward eye contact, meaning I now have to keep dog treats in the bathroom which goes against my hygiene principles... Still, it's also kind of awesome, so I'm not really complaining!)

You know, people say I look kind of dumb... Shows how smart they are.




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