Ideas for Doggie Games...can you help? Please!

OK all you dog experts….I would like to pick your brains!

This September I have volunteered to organize the Toronto West Highland Terrier Walk to raise funds for Westie Rescue of Canada. The event has consisted of a walk, a BBQ and then some “games” for the dogs and owners to play. :pawprint:

In the past they have done

•“Musical Hoops” (like musical chairs but with hoola hoops…dog and owner walk, music stops, dog and owners run for the hoop, first dog who sits wins!)
•Hot Dog Bobbing-think it is like bobbing for apples but the dogs go for hotdogs
•Cheezie Trails…cut up cheezies that make a trail…first dog to eat all their cheezies in their trail, wins

The previous organizers thinks we should come up with new games (guess they have done the above games for a few years)

So, here is the question...do you have any ideas about some fun games (for about 30 Westies or so) to play-with their Moms and Dads-(on leash) that you have done or have seen done that are fun?

How about catching a treat or toy - whoever catches the most wins?

Or you can put those hool-a-hoops to good use and have the owner stand in one with a few items (I use unfamiliar items with strange textures but you can make it easy and just use dog toys) about 5-15ft away - the dog who retrieves the most wins!

How about a mini-relay race or obstacle course that the dog and handler run together (you can have a couple of jumps and pylons to mark where people are to go - if you are familiar with barrel racing you can set something like that up)
Another race option - if dogs can hold sit-stays, you can have 5-10 out at time and have them sit-stay and then have the owners call them...whichever dog reaches his handler first wins!

Or simon says - one person starts off with a sit and then all the other dogs have to do it, those that don't are out those that do follow the next command which can be anything (speak, down, shake etc...) This one can be set up in teams where each team tries to come up with tricks that the other team can't do - then award points accordingly!

Have fun!:crazy:

A game similiar to musical chairs, have a circle or square marked out, all the owners walk around with dogs when it some time to sit, instead of people sitting on chairs they are attempt to be the first to get their dog to sit, in each round the last dog to sit, is pulled out of the game least owner/dog remaining is the winner.

you can also have a costume contest, a contest on what human looks most like their dog, longest tail, shortest tail, who has the deepest bark, the highest pitches.

You can have a dog race, if you possibly have a fenced in area put all the owners at one end and have someone hold the dogs at the other end, someone will annouce the start of the race, and all the dogs are realeased, the first dog to get to its owner is the winner

I saw a show on tv where the dogs were given a huge pile of old shoes , if they picked a red one they won some cookies.
also, one where they had pools of rubber duckies, if the dog picked one up and moved it to another pool he won a prize.

Found this site Games to Play with your dog. (http://users.tkk.fi/~mtt/belg_tricks.html) It's geared for Belgian Malinois, but you might be able to make some of them work anyhow. You could always introduce a new "trick" to the group and whoever's dog gets it first gets a prize?

There is also this one: Dog Scouts Games (http://www.dogscouts.com/funandgames.shtml) which might be some of the same as you already have, but maybe not.

Hope that helped, and please post pics after!!
Melissa