What games boost dogs confidence?

Searching and hunting games can help boost a dog's confidence, such as hiding food around the house and garden and encouraging the dog to find it. Make this very easy to start with, but in time leave treats inside items and at different levels. Hide a toy somewhere in the house or garden and encourage the dog to find it, again really easy to start with, and throw the toy as the reward. Scatter feeding, throwing a dry proportion of food in the garden and encouraging the dog to search for it, is also a confidence-building exercise. Playing with various activity toys, such as Nina Ottosson or Trixie Activity Toys, with a handler can also help. Fun Agility, such as setting up tunnels, weave poles, and jumps in the garden, can be a confidence-boosting activity for dogs, if appropriate for their age and breed. Encouraging a dog to walk across different surfaces and manoeuvre around objects, such as stepping over poles or weaving through cones, can also help build confidence. Reinforcing basic training commands, such as sit, down, and come, on a daily basis can increase a dog's confidence, as can playing with toys and engaging in fun activities, like chasing a ball or playing tug of war.

The First Step Is Training Your dog will not only be better behaved and safer through positive reinforcement training, but training will build confidence in a dog through the skills they learn. If your pet is on the shy side, playing games gives them something they can focus on, learn, and get verbally rewarded through praise. 1. Find the treat – What dog doesn’t want to sleuth out something delicious? This game relies on your dog’s natural ability to find things using their nose. The reward of finding the hidden treat also helps to build confidence in a dog to explore. 2. Play a game with your dog – Interactive games decrease boredom, inspire exercise and direct attention, and bolster the bond you share with your pet. 3. Teach your dog tricks – Trick training like roll over, beg, shake, and so on are fantastic methods of encouraging your dog to learn. When your dog masters each of these more complex tasks, they will be happy to please you, which bolsters more confidence. 4. Give your pet mental enrichment puzzles – Treat dispensing puzzles require your dog’s full attention. 5. Touch exercise game – This game of teaching your dog to touch your hand, the palm or the back of the hand, with their nose is one of the simplest things for them to understand and remember. The exclamation of “touch” will eventually be reward enough and give your pet that ego boost for a job well done. 6. Free Shaping – This game encourages shy or hesitant dogs to try new things without worrying about doing something wrong. You shape a behavior with a series of small steps as they dog experiments and learns new behaviors.

One favorite game to play is the “anything goes” game It´s not a shaping game per se – because there is no end goal and no criterion – but it looks a little like shaping, and it´s actually a booster not only for confidence but also for shaping games later on. You need a clicker or another marker and tasty, easy to swallow treats. Let´s play! Start with tossing a treat on the floor a little bit away from your dog. Let the dog go to the treat and eat it. As soon as he swallows he is likely to do something – raise his head, move a pay or take a step: click and toss another treat in the other direction. Repeat! Pretty soon you´ll notice how the dog is doing more and more deliberate movements – mark and treat for everything. This is a great way to show your dog that he is in control – he can actually make you give him treats by his actions alone. Use a barrier such as a fence or a row of furniture if indoors to boost dog’s confidence. Stand at the same side as your dog and toss a toy or a treat over the fence. Release your dog and see if he can solve the puzzle – running away from the toy, to the gate and to the toy. Make it super easy at first, standing just a little bit from the gate. You want your dog to feel confident. Body awareness and the ability to control every muscle is a confident booster, and training your dog to balance on sofa cushions, fallen tree trunks, boulders is a great way to ensure this. Use things you encounter on your walk or things you have at home. Work in your dogs pace, rewarding every step on the way. Use a harness to make sure you can safely steady your dog if needed. Help you dog down by lifting him if the obstacle is tall.