Every dog is different and needs a personalized training approach, but there’s one dog training game I teach to almost every client.

In this blog I’m going to tell you what that dog training game is, how to play it, and why I think you should try it with your dog!

(Prefer video content? Watch this Youtube tutorial)

I want to teach you this really simple dog training game that I think will vastly improve your training results.

All that you’re going to need is:

• a long leash
• a handful of really tiny training treats
• a loaded marker word

How to play:

Step one: Cue your dog to return to you

To begin training, place two to three treats on the ground for your dog to sniff and find while you run to the end of the leash. As soon as your dog is done with the treats and looks up at you, call their name.

As they move towards you, say your marker word to let them know that they’re doing the right thing and to promise them a reward for that action.

Give them a treat from your hand when they get to you.

Then place two to three more treats on the ground as you again run away. Repeat this many times.

TRAINING TIP: You want to make sure as you’re doing this that you’re not presenting the treats as a bribe to make them come back to you. Instead you want your dog to start coming back without seeing the treats first.

Once you find that your dog starts running back to you before you get a chance to call their name, it’s a sign that you can move to step two.

Step two is to phase out cueing them to return to you

In step two you’re still going to drop treats on the ground for your dog to find, but this time don’t call their name.

Instead, just wait for your dog to start coming over to you voluntarily.

When they do, again mark and reward!

Rehearsing this without calling your dog back to you is where the magic of this training game happens.

Why?

You’re building a heavy reinforcement history of your dog looking for you and coming back to you as their default behaviour without you even needing to ask them to.

By dropping the treats on a surface such as grass or snow, the dog is distracted trying to find them as you run away. Then after this planned distraction, the next behaviour is them searching for and following you!

By conditioning your dog to pay attention to where you are and to come back to you voluntarily, you’re going to get better results with any skill or behaviour where engagement matters )such as recall, leash walking, and reactivity work).

It’s also a fun, simple dog training game for burning off excess energy and bonding with your dog.

You’ll be shocked how much more engaged with you your dog is after just a couple sessions!

Happy training, I’ll see you in the blog post 🙂