- Lately, we've been doing a lot of stuff with puppies.
And we actually have 6 other dogs,
including a couple of seniors.
So today, through the magic of editing,
we have been teleported to the sheep farm
where Mac, our 9-year-old Border Collie, and I
are going to herd some sheep
and then after, we'll talk a little bit about
some activities that you can do with your senior dogs.
(Dog barking)
(Dramatic music)
Go for a swim.
Go for a swim, bud.
- Oh, man.
Gotta take care of the old guy.
Good boy, bud.
I have to say that
one of the coolest things about coming to watch herding
is that I get to be a spectator for a significant other,
because most of the time,
whenever I do anything to do with dogs,
I'm always the one who's like out there doing it.
So it's fun to like,
learn about something that
I don't know really anything about
and to be able to sit and relax
and enjoy, enjoy the experience through a different,
you know, through a different side of things.
And I have a really soft spot for Border Collies,
and to be able to watch them in their own craft
and to learn about this whole other side of dog sports is,
it's pretty cool.
I just love coming.
- So another really simple, low-impact activity
you can do with your senior dog
is play a game, something like hide and seek.
Now, I mean here's Grand Slam.
He is certainly not an older dog.
But I'm going to give a toy that he really loves,
and I'm going to hide it somewhere in our living room,
make it a little bit more messy than it is.
But I'm going to hide it somewhere in our living room,
then I'm going to ask him to go find it.
We'll see what- how long it takes Slam to do it.
But the really great part here is that
I'm going to be with him,
I'm going to be encouraging him along the entire way.
And then once he finds it,
he gets the reward of having the bone
as well as a little bit of engagement with me
while I play with him.
Now the key here is
the first time that I take Slam out to go find his toy,
I've got to make it really easy to find.
And I've gotta make it very obvious
what we're trying to find here.
So, first thing's first.
I'm going to take this ball
and put it in between these two dog beds.
I mean it's really obvious where it is.
Slam even saw me put it in there.
But I'm not really concerned about that.
What I really want to do is show him the process,
teach him that when we go looking around
and I ask you to "find your bone"
once you found it, I'm going to make a big deal about it.
And this is what we're looking for.
So let's give that a try the very first time.
We're going to just walk in the room.
I'll ask Slam to find his bone,
and when he does,
we're going to make a big deal of it.
Okay, so we're going to make this fun for Slam,
but we're going to make it really simple.
So he saw me even put the bone under there.
The bone is very obviously sticking out
from underneath the bed.
And I'm just going to convince him.
We're going to walk toward it
and ask him to find his bone.
And when he does,
I'm going to make a big deal.
Okay, buddy. Ready?
Okay, find your bone.
Find your bone.
Where is your bone?
Good boy! Good job! Way to find your bone!
Good! (laughing)
He obviously loves this.
Good boy, way to find your bone.
And he figured that out pretty quickly.
Now, we did make it really easy.
But we're going to make it a little bit harder this time,
but we're going to have the same party
once he finds his bone.
Now many of you may be thinking,
"What if my dog doesn't love toys?"
or what if your dog isn't as excited about toys
as they are of food?
Now remember,
this isn't about the article that they're finding.
Or- this is all about the process.
So, for you guys that have dogs that love food
and not really big fans of toys,
you can do the exact same thing with a piece of food.
Now, I've got a really stinky liver treat.
And I'm going to use this liver treat,
and I'm going to put it inside
of our little doggy toy basket,
and I'm going to get Slam-
we're going to walk Slam out of the room.
I'm just going to plunk this basket down,
and then we're going to search for the liver treat,
and I'll show you that it's exactly the same process
as it would be for a toy.
Find your treat.
Where is it? Where's your treat?
Where's your treat?
Oh, yaaay! (Hands clapping)
Good boy! Alright. Here's your treat.
And he got it!
So that was-
that was a little bit easier than finding a toy.
You can see uh- we used a really stinky treat
which makes it a little bit easier for Slam
because he can use his nose to search around
and find that treat.
But you know, this game is just as much fun for the dog
whether it's a toy or a treat.
And some dogs maybe treats more than toys.
But it's lots of fun.
- So another fun game that we like to play is hide and seek.
So we hide on the dogs and then call them,
and then they have to try and figure us- uh-
figure out where we are.
So I found a pretty good hiding spot.
We have this cute little nook in our kitchen
where we put a dog
but if the dogs can hang out while we're in here.
Ken has Slam somewhere else in the house,
so I'm gonna go in here and see what happens.
We'll see if I can fit.
Slammy ...
Slammy
(shrieking and laughing)
You came here the first time.
You can smell me (laughing).
- Brain games are always something that you can do
with any age of a dog.
But it's especially helpful when you can do it
with something like a brain game with your senior dog,
because it's low-impact, you know,
you can really moderate the amount of activity
that you're doing.
And I mean, just nearly every dog will work for some food.
So, I'm going to show you
we're not just talking about store-bought ones.
Although I do like this kong wobbler.
Now, the nice part about this is that
you can put the treats inside the bottom of this kong.
And it's through the-
there's a weighted bottom on it,
and you can screw the top back all the way to the bottom.
And then give it to your dog and allow him to figure out,
Okay, okay- figure out how to get those treats out of there.
But these sorts of activities are so helpful
for problem solving.
It really requires focus from your dog.
But the store-bought brain games aren't the only option.
We've actually got a couple of suggestions for things
that you can do with your dog
that doesn't require you to have any sort of extra toys,
just the things that you already use with your dog.
Certainly one of the go-to exercises
or activities you can do with your senior dogs
is something like taking them for a walk.
Like a dog of any age can go for a walk.
But you need to sort of keep in mind one consideration,
and that's the level of activity or the amount of walking.
For example, we just had Mack at herding for-
I mean he was herding sheep for almost an hour today.
- A lot.
- Yeah, it was a lot.
So we didn't bring him on the walk today.
And I know he's 9-years old, but we just don't want to
you know, run him into the ground so to speak.
We know being a little bit older,
that we need to moderate his activity,
and we thought that
maybe just having the younger dogs out on the walk today
would be enough for Mack.
- And I think it depends on the dog as well.
Mack's the kind of dog that will continue to
run and run and run and won't pace himself.
So if you have a dog like that,
it's important that you take that responsibility.
Some dogs might not exude as much energy
or be as prone to be running.
- Yeah.
- But it's something that
you need to be responsible for, yourself
because a lot of dogs won't do it themselves.
- And you'll see, Kale will actually reward the dogs.
Even though they are older dogs,
you should take some opportunity
to train through some of this.
While we're out, yeah, we've got some-
she's got some kibble. - It's not very exciting.
I just brought kibble, but-
- Yeah, but it works. And it's a great opportunity
to just work through some of the training.
There's no distractions.
The dogs are out having lots of fun.
But Kale's rehearsing, the dog's coming in,
and they're being rewarded for something like
a response to names.
So, it just sort of reinforces the idea that
the dogs come in when they hear their name.
- One of the things that's good about having multiple dogs
is teaching them to have enjoy doing recalls.
So if you don't want the whole pack,
you can just have one.
So, we use our dog's name for that manner.
So if you call their name, usually the other ones know
we don't need them, we just need them.
Need the one, I mean to say.
Hip! Good girl.
Yee hee hee hee!
Good girl, shaking bacon.
Yes, good girl.
And it really is nice when they know to come
the first time you call them.
I don't have to yell and shout.
You can just call them and they run over.
Which is why it's always a good idea
to continue randomly reinforcing them.
I don't bring food every single time.
A lot of my dogs enjoy to play tug as well.
So sometimes, we'll bring a toy.
But sometimes, you just call them over and pet them
and give them some affection or some love.
So you know, always training, making it fun.
(Fun music)
- And last but certainly not least is trick training.
So you can do trick training with any age of dog,
any level of motivation.
It's all about finding that really exciting, valuable uh-
treat for- to reward them
and just shape whatever the behavior is.
So, we have a long list of videos that we publish
on trick training and all.
I'll post a link to a playlist in the description below,
give you some ideas, give you some suggestions
as to things you might want to train with your dog.
You can see Slam is really enjoying his time.
- He's still so happy that he found me.
- Yeah, he was pretty excited about that.
But on that note, I wanted to wish you guys
happy training from Ken and Kale.
Don't forget to do something awesome with your dog today.
(upbeat music)