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Just going for a walk every day with your dog can be boring after a while, for both of you. But there are many possibilities to put some variety into your everyday routine. What’s important is that the new hobby should be fun for both. The following is a survey of the possible activities, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
Many dogs just love fetching an object and bringing it back.
“Such training has many advantages. With it, a dog can be mentally and physically pushed to its limit,” notes dog trainer Franziska Herre.
There are an endless variations, and such training is suited to both young and old. For advanced dogs, it can be done with great complexity, and in the end it promotes basic obedience and teamwork between human and dog.For example, the dog must remain sitting while the object is being thrown. This is good training for the important aspect of controlling the dog’s impulses. Being called back is practised when the dog, chasing after a dummy object, is whistled back.
Herre considers this training as clearly making more sense than simply throwing a ball. “Such stupid hectoring just burns the dog out.”
Fitness-oriented people can try out Canicross – jogging, skating or bicycling together with their dog, linked by a special harness. It must fit well on both, meaning it shouldn’t be tight anywhere or, in the worst case, cut off the dog’s air supply.
“Canicross is well-suited to sports-minded people with healthy, medium-sized dogs,” according to dog trainer Monika Gross. But she adds that the owner should pay heed to slowly building up the animal’s condition.
This game is suited to dogs of any age and size. In contrast to a normal Agility event, in this one the human does not run the course alongside the dog, but instead guides the animal from a distance to the different obstacles such as tunnels and arches.
In addition, the dog is not made to jump over obstacles, thereby sparing its joints. “I’m a great fan of Hooper Agility because the dogs have to work closely together with their owners,” Herre says.
Those who wish to teach their dogs new tricks might try out so-called “clicker training”, a method for showing the dog, with the acoustical sound of a click, when it has done something right.
“The clicker is fast and always consistent,” Gross says about the advantages of this method. “(By contrast) praise using one’s voice always introduces emotions into the mix.”
However, the human must be very focused and fast so that he clicks rapidly enough. For example, if the dog is to be rewarded for remaining seated, but hears the click only then when it stands up again, it is learning the wrong lesson.
Here, too, the animals are very well exercised mentally. In addition, it can be practised at home, so that the training can also take place in bad weather.
The dog is taught to look for a small object, such as a paper clip, a tea bag or a key.
“First, the dog is trained to touch the object with its nose,” explains Herre. To do this, the object is held in the hand, as soon as the dog nudges it, it gets a treat and the respective name is said, for example “paper clip” or “key”.
When the dog has understood the principle, the object is hidden, perhaps in one’s hand or somewhere in the room.
Only once the dog has reliably learned to retrieve the object, you can then add another object to the training.
Over time, the dog can have several objects in its repertoire to search for on command. – dpa/Sabine Maurer
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