Teaching your dog to come when called
can be a somewhat tedious process. We
have to cultivate a bond, generate
spatial gravity, and teach the meaning of
the word come through focused training
exercises. Once you get through those
pieces though you can use some cool
games to shore it up and keep it strong.
One of our favorites is Hide-and-Seek.
How to teach it and play it, coming up!
Ian here with Simpawtico Dog Training
and before we get into hide and seek
please make sure you're subscribed so you
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check that YouTube description for notes,
links, and resources about stuff we
talked about. Now one of the most
important takeaways from learning about
developmental games is how important
play is. And honestly we've been sneaking
this idea into our videos the whole time.
I mean the very first thing we do with
any dog is our engagement game. It's fun,
it's playful, it's dynamic, it teaches
communication and focus while appealing
to things that really turn your dog on.
And so as we move along in our training
everything is a precursor to play which
contributes to motivation and commitment.
Every time we go out we play. Then we
have engagement. Then when we have
engagement we ask for obedience which is
going to be super easy at that point.
This is part of the power of play. I mean,
heck, volumes have been written about the
importance of play in schools, in the
workplace, in relationships...so why would
it be any different between you and your
dog? I think though people not only tend
to undervalue play but also
misunderstand what constitutes play. If
your dog thinks training is play we can
cultivate a passion for it and we can
make it super fun and rewarding for them.
Good engagement also builds confidence.
We want our dogs to thrive in a
multitude of situations. We want to be
able to take our dogs with us as we move
around the world. Confidence and
stability are really important to that.
Another concept I've mentioned on this
channel before is spatial gravity. We
want to develop an attraction between
you and your dog where they have a
tendency to orbit around you and spiral
inwards, a kind of centripetal motion.
This is important to our work as well, so
let's dive in! Hide-and-seek is one of
our favorite activities and it is a
powerhouse game to play with your dog.
Not only is it a lot of fun but it
really refines some great skills,
specifically stay, come, and engagement in
general. Here's how it works.
Your dog should have a good grasp of
stay and come before you start.
Make sure you've practiced both of these
before you start. You'll want some room
to work. If you have a large house this
works great; if you do not or you live in
an apartment you'll want some safe,
fenced-in place to play in. If you've
done any work with a platform it's not a
bad idea to start on that, and that will
help your dog figure out the game faster.
Put your dog into a stay and walk away
out of sight. For the first few runs of
this you want to make it super easy for
them to find you so they get the gist of
the game.
Don't make it too difficult to find you
or they'll give up and the game will be
counterproductive. I would say just stop
wherever you went out of sight. Call your
dog. When they find you, move into a
prolonged and joyous reward event.
"Wednesday, come. Yes! Ggood good good. Good girl.
We're gonna make it a ittle harder, gonna make it a little
harder. Okay? Okay!"
"Wednesday, come!"
"Where's daddy?"
Where's Daddy?
Where's daddy? YES! Good girl sweetheart!
Oh that was tough!"
This ought to be an easy thing
to build on. Then simply make it
progressively harder to find you.
"Wednesday come!"
Where is daddy? YES! Good girl!"
Always explode into a long and amazing
reward event. It's got to be worth it to
find you. When I first moved to New York
State in 2007 I moved into a massive
3,000 square foot Victorian house. When
Dexter was a puppy we'd play
hide-and-seek in that house and he was
so good at it. I could put him in the
family room and hide in the closet of an
upstairs back bedroom and he would go
and go until he found me.
You can have someone restrain your dog to build drive
just like we do for restrained recall
practice, as long as your dog is
comfortable with the helper and with
being restrained. Eventually though this
game is best played when it's one-on-one.
Don't ratchet up the difficulty too fast
and that also means to watch out for
distractions. If you have to play this
outside somewhere there's a greater
chance that those competing motivators
will pull your dog from their search.
Make your hide accordingly easy for them
so they are continually successful. All
right everyone, I want you to have some
real fun with this. Remember you need to
have already spent some time teaching
come and stay so don't get too excited
and put the cart before the horse. Once
you're ready for this you guys are going
to have a blast. Now questions for you:
what are some of your favorite games
and how are you incorporating more
dynamic fun and play into your training?
Let's connect and talk about it in those
YouTube comments. As always keep learning,
keep practicing, and we'll see you again
soon. Have fun and thanks for watching!