Game Based Dog Training: What’s It All About?

It sounds a bit like cheating doesn’t it? Playing games with dogs. Instead of serious training! 

I used to fall into the ‘serious dog trainer’ camp, and rather looked down my nose at trick training and playing games with dogs. 

I am still serious about the importance of dog training, but training methods have changed and things are very different now. Most dog trainers recognize the value of teaching dogs tricks, and breaking dog training exercises down into bite sized chunks. 

Let’s take an example using the ‘sit-stay’

Here’s an excerpt from Step 3 of an exercise taken from my Grade One Gundog Training manual, written in 2006. (step 1 was to sit the dog, and step 2 was to drop the leash that you were holding).  This is how I used to teach a step-away-sit-stay back in the day!

Step 3. 

Take one step back away from your dog and immediately step forward again.   Don’t give him chance to think you are about to leave him. No sooner have you stepped away than you are back again.  …..

Later in the same step it says:

….When you can do this five times in a row without the dog moving a muscle, you are ready to increase the distance.

Sounds pretty fair right? This was actually quite progressive for its time. 

Many trainers would have gone for more than a single step to begin with. But the problem was, a considerable proportion of dogs would fail, even on that single step, and get a correction for doing something that they had no idea was wrong. 

So nowadays, we break it down even further. 

How I teach a ‘step-away-sit’ with games

Here’s an example of how I teach a dog, to hold a sit stay while I step away from them, today. This might seem an awful lot more involved than the more traditional version above, but it’s actually far quicker for many dogs. 

That’s because you move straight through the five steps with very little chance of the dog failing. There are multiple rewards in a short space of time. And there’s opportunity at every step to repeat the step in order to reinforce the dog for parts of the exercise where they are a bit uncertain. 

Best of all, at the end of the game the dog will be keen to continue. You’ll find lots more games that help build a solid sit-stay, in my Core Skills online training course, this is just one example of the way we break things down

STEP 1

Touch: Cue the dog to sit. Keep your weight on your right foot. Touch your left foot behind you and bring it back in again. Feed. Repeat to the other side. Feed and release the dog. 

STEP 2

Double Touch: Cue the dog to sit. Keep your weight on your right foot. Touch your left foot behind you and bring it back in again. Repeat to the other side. Feed and release the dog. 

STEP 3

Plant: Cue the dog to sit. Plant your left foot behind you so that your weight is between both feet. Then bring the left foot back in to join the right foot. Feed. Repeat to the other side. Feed and release the dog. 

STEP 4

Double Plant: Cue the dog to sit. Plant your left foot behind you so that your weight is between both feet. Then bring the left foot back in to join the right foot. Repeat to the other side. Feed and release the dog. 

STEP 5

Step: Cue the dog to sit. Plant your left foot behind you and bring your right foot to join it. You have now taken a full step back. Return to your starting position and feed the dog. Repeat with the right leg. Feed the dog and release. 

This is a surprisingly quick game to play, it takes just three or four minutes, and the dog has a really high chance of winning. 

The old way often involved repeated attempts, each one accompanied by a correction, and a dog that was increasingly disillusioned with training. Not to mention a handler that was increasingly frustrated and impatient.

The advantages and pleasure gained from modern training games are why so many dog trainers have transitioned to modern training methods, and they are also the reason why no-one is headed in the opposite direction. 

Game based dog training is the future

So a dog training game is essentially a training exercise or specifically a part of a training exercise broken down into its smallest possible components. 

Calling it a game differentiates it from more traditional training exercises where failure played a larger part. And emphasises the fun element that is inherent in a system where winning is the main feature!

The benefits of training games are far reaching. They enable us to eliminate punishment from our training program, which improves attention and aids recall training. It also builds trust and confidence in our dogs, and deepens the bond between us 

Games speed up training, and they take minimal time, enabling dog parents to easily fit training into slots in their busy daily schedule. 

If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll give game based training a go. And let me know what you think in the comments below!