Mastiff Playtime!

[amcwilson]

I’m looking for good ways to play with my 7/8 month old Mastiff mix, Bernie. I have a lot of kong toys I stuff with treats when I want to distract him, but not sure what the best interactive games are. We ATTEMPT to play fetch. He does better inside than out – knows the command “give†which will make him drop the ball, but many times would rather just lay down and chew on it. Outside, I can barely even get him to go chase the ball.

Like all dogs, he loves to be chased, but I don’t want to play this way with him because I’m worried he’ll start thinking it’s a game when he grabs something he shouldn’t and I need him to drop it. I’ve also heard that playing tug of war can make dogs aggressive. We played this a little when we first got him, but have stopped.

Would love any ideas you all could share with me!

 

[musicdeb]

Play hide n seek with you hiding and hiding treats. Play tug of war with a rope, but you need to win at all times.

Those are the only 2 games I can think of right now.

Remember to avoid excessive running, jumping, and climbing stairs until he's 12 months of age to prevent injury and give his bones time enough to mature.

 

[amcwilson]

Remember to avoid excessive running, jumping, and climbing stairs until he's 12 months of age to prevent injury and give his bones time enough to mature.

Thanks for the tips! On the excessive running and jumping, I've never heard this before! Bernie loves playing with other dogs and I love it too because it means he will be really tired afterwards and I can get some stuff done. He has a handful of playmates and also goes to daycare once a week. The dogs are constantly running and chasing each other. Didn't know this was bad for him?!

 

[musicdeb]

Yes, you can exercise a pup 5 minutes for every month of age. They are prone to injury due to their bones have not matured enough until age 12 months. He can play but not excessively.

 

[QY10]

An easy scent-based game that I was with Angus is I will turn my back to him, put a treat in either my left or right hand and then with the treat concealed in my fist, hold both fists out to Angus. He gets to sniff out which hand the treat it is. He just bumps the hand he picks with his nose. If he picks the right hand, then he gets the treat and lots of praise. If he chooses the wrong hand, I show him that theres nothing in it and then he simply chooses the hand with the treat in it.

It's not a physically demanding game, but it's mentally stimulating and gets him working on using his nose to solve simple problems. He enjoys the treats and love, too.

 

[DennasMom]

I have a few "interactive" games that don't require me to move much....

1) Blowing bubbles. Denna LOVES to chase bubbles (not all dogs do). She will run and jump, though, so you might want to limit this activity if you see too much hard jumping at his age.

2) "find the treat" - At a recent fund raiser, a local woodworker made some "wine cork crossbows"... designed to shoot wine corks, it does a great job with treats of the right size, too. I stand in one spot, and just shoot treats this way and that, and tell Denna to "find it". We work on her following hand and voice signals (left/right/forward/back, etc) for direction, too... which she needs more work with... to help her find the treat.

3) Tug. We do play tug. As long as the human controls the game and the dog will 'give' the tug toy up when asked, it's a good game. Our dogs learn very early on that teeth on skin will NOT be tolerated (yipe, then game ends, immediately).

4) Fetch - with the tug-toy (in our case, a rope)... we play some tug, I ask for a 'give', then throw the toy for her to go get. Her reward for bringing it back is another round of 'tug'. She does occasionally want to play keep-away, but we don't play her game... we're mean that way.

Teaching some mental games - like QY10's scent game, or hide-and-seek, or just teaching tricks (roll-over, shake, etc) is all good, too. I had a thought of teaching Denna one new trick out of a "100 Dog Tricks" book each week... it was a good thought (but we haven't found time, yet). Mental exercise can also be exhausting for a puppy.

 

[powergc]

We play a "game" that Tony learned in puppy class. It's just tug, but I'll stop and randomly say "sit" or "down" and when he obeys the command, then I say "Good! OK" and he can tug again. The faster his reaction time, the faster he gets to play again! He's a huge tugger, so he loves it... and it is good for me because we get to do a bit of brushing up on his training commands. And he ALWAYS drops it when I say "sit" or "down"

 

[amcwilson]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Just bought some bubbles, which I'm excited to use! Like the idea of "hide and seek" and am now not afraid to play tug (me always winning). Will try hiding some treats, just need to keep my maine coon kitty in another room as he is more of a food hound than the dog!