08/11/2024
THE CUP GAME!!!!
This is such an easy, cheap, and useful game to not only enrich your pup but also build trust and confidence in fearful dogs!! The only materials needed are solo cups and a treat that may be cut up into tiny pieces so you don’t overload your calories and can offer many cups to play with.
We used all-beef, low-sodium hot dogs cut into 1/4ths long wise, then cut into sliver-sized slices horizontally. 1.5 hot dogs are used in total, so splitting that between the two minimizes the food content. 🌭
⚠️ WARNING: if your kiddo has pancreatic health issues, avoid hotdogs to not overload the pancreas! ⚠️
This is enriching in MANY ways!
- Building confidence! 🏅
(Great for shelter dogs with trauma)
- Mental Stimulation! 🧠
- Useful in increasing scent working skills! 👃
- Improving problem solving skills! 🧩
- Relieves boredom! 😴
In addition to offering enrichment, this builds relationship and trust by engaging with them on their search! ❤️
This is a great exercise to do when there’s a rainy day, which is why we played today! These kiddos were restless, so CUP GAME ACTIVATED! 🥤
Those of you with dogs who have world fears or are scared of certain areas of your home, outside even objects - THIS IS USEFUL!! Once your kiddo has a well-established correlation that the cup = treat and fun, place the cup in the fearful area, OR A FEW. With your encouragement they can overcome their fear of areas or items by associating the cup that has a high reward and confident feeling correlation, they can begin to associate that scary place with positivity! Keep in mind you’ll need to do this slowly, lots of positive encouragement and place the cups in a trail leading up to the scary place. Once my fearful kiddo, Reya (black dog) has a well-established relationship and correlation with the cup, I will showcase this in action by using cups in her scary places! Stay tuned! 😜
Once your dogs become confident with the game, you can make it more challenging by placing cups in odd places, such as the ones seen here!
- wobble boards!
- Placing the cup on cardboard boxes! 📦
- Placing them onto chairs (that are supported) 🪑
- Placing them under chairs! 🪑
- Puting them in boxes! 🗃️
The last thing I’ll point out is how Reya gained confidence within one game!
- The beginning of the video, she is hesitant and afraid to approach the cup. Mom to the rescue! I grabbed additional treats and placed them on top of the cup as well as around the cup. When she was brave enough to oh so gently touch the cup, I knocked it over for her to encourage her.
- The middle of the game she was touching cups by herself, but still needed help here and there. However, you can see her ears are no longer tucked back, and her tail is slightly up rather than a fearful low and leaning back stance!
- By the end of ONE game, this kiddo was even brave enough to knock over a cup that was on a cardboard box! 🎖️
You can also see how her trust built with me throughout the game. At first it was hard to lure her to the cup as she was hesitant in my intentions. But the middle, she was wagging her tail every time I gave a verbal positive congratulations on getting the treat as well as looking to me for guidance. At the end, all tail wags, searching for more and even gave a big ROOOO in enjoyment! 🔊🐶
Last note: SAVE THE CUPS FOR FUTURE GAMES! It helps them correlate the positivity and cup = treat best if you use the same color every time. 😉 So, these shall be placed in the doggie shelf for future fun! 🤩
Please feel free to ask any questions if you are having trouble with getting your dog to knock over the cup - we’re here to help! ❓
ENJOY!! I look forward to seeing future cup game videos so we can all see the fun!🤩
