Tricks you can teach your dog inside in the Winter

Wintertime is traditionally a time when dog owners either stop training completely or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, taking time to train intensively to prepare for spring competition. If you find yourself in the middle, interested in training but not in braving the cold or preparing for competition here are a few tricks you can train your dog to do inside in a small space:

Scent discrimination is a "trick" that can be taught indoors. Annie and I play the "Wait... find it" game- which I think is kind of like hide and seek for dogs:

I hold a treat and tell her to sit, then give her the command to wait. I go into another room and put the treat down somewhere on the floor, behind a chair, on a chair, etc. I go back into the room where she is waiting and say "okay (releasing her from the stay)... find it!" and she runs into the room looking for the treat and when she gets it she gets the treat and LOTS of praise.

We started with the treat in the middle of the floor and now I can hide it and she really uses her nose to find it. It's fun because she exercises her mind and her nose.

With clicker training, this same game can be used to teach the dog to "search" a room for something that smells like meat or any other scent you train with ( when they find the non-food item, they get a click and food treat).

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