sit at any time. He advises practicing a release and sit every 30 seconds and mixing in short training breaks before resuming the game—a great reward for your dog’s compliance. To get your dog to release the toy and take a break, he coaches to “waggle a treat in front of her nose” and guide your dog into a sit before releasing with praise, the treat, and offering the toy for more tug time. Playing tug like this teaches dogs that it’s not a big deal if someone takes their toy away as they’re likely to get it back—or something better (food!), thus reducing guarding tendencies. What if your dog takes the toy before you tell her to? Dr. Dunbar enforces a 30-second time out before asking for a sit and offering the toy again. Same mistake three times in a row? Game over, no exception!
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NOSE WORK
“Nose work is a lot of fun,” says acclaimed veterinary behaviourist Dr. Nicholas Dodman. Nose work activities allow dogs to harness their noses’ amazing ability to detect scent. Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to our approximate six million. And the part of a dog’s brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is proportionally 40 times larger than ours. In nose work training, dogs learn to identify and locate a particular scent, often hidden in cardboard boxes, either inside or outside. This fun, mentally engaging work makes use of your dog’s most powerful sense—his sense of smell. To get started, find eight fun scent games you can play with your dog at home at moderndogmagazine.com/nosework.
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AGILITY COURSE TRAINING
Agility courses are simply terrific for dogs. In agility, dogs have to think and remember what comes next in the course (mental engagement), get to run off steam (physical exercise), and work with their favourite person (quality bonding time)—it’s a perfect activity. Furthermore, agility trains your dog to listen while providing them with a terrific amount of exercise. Join an agility group and make new friends, human and canine alike! Or, if joining a group is keeping you from getting started, you can create a DIY agility course in your backyard—get the how-to at moderndogmagazine.com/diyagility. moderndogmagazine.com
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