We have a few goals we can accomplish with this game.
The first, is to teach our dogs to focus and follow commands, even when in an excited and aroused state. We will purposefully excite our dogs during this game, and then ask them to follow simple tasks to lay the foundation of this skill.
The second, is to help eliminate bad behaviors. If your dog has a tendency to jump or nip or bark when excited, this game is a great way to teach them to go into “working mode” when they are excited instead of “OMG-I-am-so-excited-I-want-to-wrestle-you” mode.
The third, is to build mental stamina. This game is fast paced and excited, so we can keep our dog’s attention on us for much longer than a traditional training session. We will make it very rewarding to focus on us during this game.
The fourth, is as an outlet for excess energy. Combining mental and physical exercise in the same game is the perfect recipe for a content and relaxed dog. We can use this game to help us take the edge of our dogs after a long work day, when we are cooped up inside, or just as a regular exercise activity. We can provide a much higher quality of exercise with 10-15 minutes of this game then we can with a walk around the neighborhood.
How It Works
Step 1: Suicides
Grab a handful of training treats. Get your dog’s attention and run away from them to get them to chase you. When they catch up, place a cookie on the ground and run away again. Repeat a few times until they get the hang of looking for cookies on the ground when they catch up to you.
Step 2: Single Trick
The next time your dog catches up to you, ask them to do their best trick (the trick that is easiest for them), instead of just placing the cookie on the ground. Once they do the trick, reward and run away. You can alternate between doing a single trick and placing a cookie on the ground at this step.
*If your dog jumps on you, do NOT reward them even if they complete the trick after jumping on you. Simply run away and try again.*
Step 3: Multiple Tricks
As your dog gets better at this game, try stringing several tricks together in a row before running to a new spot. Feel free to go back to doing “cookie suicides” if your dog regresses.
The Highlights
Be Quick: You don’t have to run fast, but you have to act fast. Keep the dog on their toes. Have your cookies ready to go and ask them to complete tasks or move with little/no down time in between. Puppies have especially short attention spans and any lapse in direction from you will have them making their own fun (and you probably won’t like their choices).
Choose Easy Tricks: When we first start, we just want our dog to keep working with us continuously. Don’t throw in fancy or complicated tricks, keep it simple.
Beware of Back-chaining: If your dog jumps, then sits, and you reward for the sit… you actually rewarded them for jumping then sitting. No cookies after bad behavior. Move and start over if they make a bad choice, and try to give them a command sooner when they catch up to you.
Increasing Difficulty
As your dog gets better at this game, you can increase the difficulty in a number of ways. In the video below, I’m demonstrating a more advanced version of this game with the same dog.
Some notable changes in the second video include the following:
I’m not running any more. He is already thoroughly convinced that paying attention to me is worth it, so I don’t have to work so hard to keep him engaged.
I’ve replaced the running parts with a “reset cookie.” I simply toss the treat away from me and encourage him to get it.
I’ve added much longer trick sequences to this game, so he is focusing on more difficult tasks for longer periods of time.
I’ve incorporated more tricks into the game. Down, pound it, and push ups.
I’ve added difficulty to the tricks in the game. I’m asking him occasionally to take a step in order to “touch,” I’m asking him to complete the circle and twirl without a food lure (but still using a hand signal), I’m asking him to down without a hand signal, and I’m asking him to start switching between sit and down positions.
Variations…
As your dogs training improves, and they have more skills to pull from, feel free to add them to this game. I included a video below of another variation of the game using only the place command.
Staying on place does require a fair bit of self control, so this is something to work up to, and not a starting place.
Maverick is 10 weeks old in this video, so it is possible to teach this in a relatively short amount of time.
