What games does your Boxer like to play?

[gsmom]

I am looking for ideas of different interactive games / activities that I can play with my 2 year old Boxer. She isn't really interested in fetch (she will retrieve a toy once or twice and then loses interest), but she looves playing tug (and is good at dropping / leaving the tug on command.) Any other ideas?

 

[nalabear]

Nala loves to play with this ball that has a rope through the middle of it. we play tug but when i get it away from her i can throw the ball and she will go get it by the rope and bring it back and we play tug again. The ball is the size of a soccer ball and very durable. it has lasted us a year. She has so much fun with it. She releases on command also so if i can't get it away from her i always default to that

 

[Gatorblu]

I play hide and seek with mine! We were playing before I got BW as a matter of fact. While they are laying down I try to sneak out of the room (that's the hard part) and I'll jump behind a door or in a closet, sometimes behind a shower curtain. Or sometimes I'll throw something and when they go for it I'll hide. Arabella has been the best at finding me. Sometimes tho' it will take a couple of trips up and down the stairs for them to find me.

 

[Caney Creek]

Caney LOVES it when I hide a toy or a treat under her dog bed. She digs and nudges and flips it upside-down -- really gets her going :D If she's ever "uninterested" in a toy or something, I just toss whatever-it-is under her dog bed, and that instantly sparks her curiosity.

I have also been playing hide-and-seek, but not with me, with her toys and treats. The hiding spots have to be very obvious at first, but you can gradually make the "prize" more difficult to find.

 

[whiskers]

Hide and seek is a good one. Usually I'm the one hiding because it's a good way to practice recall, but sometimes I'll use her food and hide handfuls in random places. I tell her to wait as I'm hiding it, and then her cue to get it is "go find."

Tug and wrestling are her favorites though. There is nothing this dog loves more than being allowed to go wild and jump all over me and play bite. I don't enjoy it too much but I do it for her. Rules are in place though, she still has to keep a relatively soft mouth and it needs to stop when I tell her "enough." Sometimes I'll lay on the floor with a blanket over me and she just goes crazy. She could play like this all day and it usually wear her out pretty well.

 

[johann]

Johann likes the usual tug and wrestling. And being chased/chasing us.

He also likes to play "where's mommy"- I put a blanket over me and say where's mommy....then he goes nuts trying to pull the blanket off (always cover your face with your hands though! black eyes are hard to explain).

Another favorite is "blanket monster". He sits, I throw a big fleece blanket on him. He then goes crazy trying to get said blanket off. I usually make it difficult by wrapping it around hiim some and/or holding it in place.

 

[gsmom]

Thank you soo much for all of the suggestions!! We played hide & seek this morning..she loved it!! I tried at first to sneak away and hide, but that didn't work well with her (the velcro dog that she is.) So I had her sit and stay and then I ran upstairs, hid and asked her to Come. She had some difficulty finding me at first..that is until I started to giggle uncontrollably. I can tell that we are going to have a lot of fun with this game

Thanks again for the suggestions..I am going to try them all!

 

[whiskers]

Another thing, if she likes water.... on hot days I'll go in the yard with Juno and let her chase the hose. She has a blast trying to "catch" the water, it gets her running in all sorts of directions and for some reason she always goes for the highest point of the stream of water, which gets her jumping pretty high and practically doing backflips. Keeps her cool in the heat too. Although my mom is not a fan of Juno trying to eat the water every time she goes out to water the plants....

 

[gsmom]

@nalabear - thank you sooo much for the toy recommendation. I bought a "romp and roll" ball on a rope that sounded like the one you described and Paige looves it!! She didn't lose interest in fetching it, and because it has some weight to it, it definitely helped to tire her out. Here are a couple of pics of my happy girl

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss250/veganfeline/Paige New Toy/tiredandhappy.jpg

Thanks again!!

 

[Gatorblu]

We also "race". When we are outside, I yell "Who wants to race?", then I take off running. My dogs will drop anything they are doing to come run with me. Mind you, I am not the most athletic person so are races are short. I tend to use this when I want to redirect them away from something, say my vegetable garden. I have also learned not to do this at the dog park. Some other dog thought it meant tackle.(The fall hurt, and it was a bit embarrassing going head over heels and thankfully people picked up after their dogs!)