Our kennel club had our first (hopefully annual) Dog Play Day. Several hours of playing silly games for fun and prizes. What an incredible day of fun and laughter for everyone. For those of you who belong to local dog clubs or even informal groups, these are great ideas for a day of fun that involves the dogs, and obviously a little bit of training background, but all contests were voluntary- you could just watch the whole day if you wanted. Probably at least 20 dogs were there!
Since we met at the agility field there was a "how many can you do" in 40 seconds. There was a novice & advanced section and you just went in with your dog to see how many you could complete in 40 seconds.
Then a spoon race where you had a small potato balanced on a spoon (no holding it down with your thumb!) while heeling the dog, do a 365 circle at the center line, heel further then a 180 and come back. 4 - 5 teams went off at the same time.
Then a cup of water filled to the brim, heel the dog to the center where you do a left about turn and the dog goes right. You manage your glass of water however you want to, as this Rally move requires moving the leash from hand to hand! Since one hand was holding the water, I opted to drop my leash completely then pick it back up on my continued heel. At the turn-around point you had to ask your dog to come front/sit/stay, walk around then heel back to the finish line. Your water cup was measured after your run to determine who returned with the most water still I their cup. Here's what a Left-About-Turn looks like, switching the leash hand as the dog goes around:
There was another exercise full of Rally exercises but instead of signs they were called out as everyone heeled their dog in a huge circle.
And Musical Chairs - All heeling their dogs in a big circle while music plays, when music stops you stop and down your dog. Last dog to lay down gets eliminated and music starts up again. There were about 15 dogs to start and we made it to 3rd place. J & Reckless won. Reckless has the most spectacular natural down elbows first followed by her butt.
And a 2-team race: dog-person-person-dog, people have arms linked and the 4 move together weaving 3 cones.
Here's Asha & me doing the spoon race. Did I ever mention how she loves to bark? She decided I was taunting her with something in my hand so she started barking at it non-stop. I was sure if I didn't stop laughing I was going to drop my potato, but we made it.
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I'll try to get more on YouTube or at least a couple of screen shots of those other exercises...
Since we met at the agility field there was a "how many can you do" in 40 seconds. There was a novice & advanced section and you just went in with your dog to see how many you could complete in 40 seconds.
Then a spoon race where you had a small potato balanced on a spoon (no holding it down with your thumb!) while heeling the dog, do a 365 circle at the center line, heel further then a 180 and come back. 4 - 5 teams went off at the same time.
Then a cup of water filled to the brim, heel the dog to the center where you do a left about turn and the dog goes right. You manage your glass of water however you want to, as this Rally move requires moving the leash from hand to hand! Since one hand was holding the water, I opted to drop my leash completely then pick it back up on my continued heel. At the turn-around point you had to ask your dog to come front/sit/stay, walk around then heel back to the finish line. Your water cup was measured after your run to determine who returned with the most water still I their cup. Here's what a Left-About-Turn looks like, switching the leash hand as the dog goes around:
There was another exercise full of Rally exercises but instead of signs they were called out as everyone heeled their dog in a huge circle.
And Musical Chairs - All heeling their dogs in a big circle while music plays, when music stops you stop and down your dog. Last dog to lay down gets eliminated and music starts up again. There were about 15 dogs to start and we made it to 3rd place. J & Reckless won. Reckless has the most spectacular natural down elbows first followed by her butt.
And a 2-team race: dog-person-person-dog, people have arms linked and the 4 move together weaving 3 cones.
Here's Asha & me doing the spoon race. Did I ever mention how she loves to bark? She decided I was taunting her with something in my hand so she started barking at it non-stop. I was sure if I didn't stop laughing I was going to drop my potato, but we made it.
I'll try to get more on YouTube or at least a couple of screen shots of those other exercises...
But many of us in the club are older and retired or older and still working. There are more younger people than we use to have, and there is a bright young boy about 9 or 10 who works with his dog.
