Part of the fun part of having a human in your life and a “Forever Home” is playing games. My human wasn’t talented at this, at first, but I have broken him in with some simple games. Eventually, we moved up to the harder stuff!! He’s a great guy and pretty trainable- most of that’s because he’s willing to listen and learn what will make our relationship healthier and happier. I keep telling him “listen to me buddy and life will be grand!” I get the oddest looks when I say that.
To start with, I took him out in the backyard after one of our long weekend walks and began to play “fetch.” I brought the toy to him, he threw it, I went after it- you know the routine, I’m sure. Except. Sometimes, when I bring him the toy, I don’t let go so we can play tug-of-war. I hold tight and go ‘round and ‘round with him. He loves it! Sometimes I let him win and watch him go flying. I try hard not to laugh.
After we’ve played for awhile and we’re both tired, I like to set the toy down right in front of him. After a grueling game, and I’m resting, he likes to sneak the toy away from me. He throws it and far. I sit there and look like I don’t care. I do. But, not at the moment. He’ll say “Go get it! Go get it!!” I look at him like, “you go get it! I’m tired!” Sure enough, he goes to get it. He moves across the yard rather slowly and I just watch him. He comes back and throws it again. Sometimes, I’ll go get it, sometimes I’ll just sit there being all tired and everything. Once again he goes to it and comes back. This is a wonderful way to make your human exercise!
When the weather turns cold, my human’s interest in being outside tends to drop way back. Not sure why he’s like that. Just a little chilly to me! Anyway, we take our games inside to the family room. My humans don’t keep anything breakable in there so we play fetch with a Kong or a rope toy. Not as much room to run around, but we do have some and play tug of war or keep-away! The best part about playing indoors is Mom gets involved and they play keep-away. The humans are catching on to this and its really great- Mom sits on the coach and Dad sits on another chair. They throw the rope toy back and forth and I try to catch it. One of them usually always fumbles a throw and I grab it and run around the room like a proud dog!! Of course, it’s always to show off my talent and skill.
The most fun I have with the indoor games is when Dad comes home from work tired. He lets me out, we have dinner and he lays down on the couch to relax. Once he’s gotten to where he’s almost asleep, I grab the toy, bring to him, and place it right in front of his face. If he doesn’t know that I am there, I will growl, and get louder, until he does wakes up and grabs the toy!! This usually scares him to death! It’s great fun. I wait for him to drift off to sleep and I do it again!! Once again, he startles and wakes up. Throws the toy and I’m off again.
Dad’s great fun. He’s never gotten mad at me for doing this. He’s mentioned several times to Mom that I’ve been good for him especially when walking and playing games!
