Party Game Ideas For Dogs

Party Game Ideas For Dogs: If you are searching for ideas for games to play with your dog and his four legged friends at any future party, here are a few ideas of games Archie the Clumberdoodle took part in at his annual Christmas Doggy Party.

Archie goes to obedience classes (yes really) with the Plymouth Dog Obedience Club and every year the instructors organise a doggy Christmas Party for all their pawpuls!!!    However you would not recognise them as they dress up in fancy dress and as you will see from the videos Archie’s Instructor is the one dressed as a Punk Father Christmas.

It is organised mayhem with various doggy games and a fancy dress competition (for the dogs) and all the dogs and owners who attend have a thoroughly good couple of hours.

As it is difficult to take photos and videos whilst trying to control a very excitable dog, so I asked my husband Steve  if he would like to come to a fun evening out.  I said that he would very much enjoying taking some photos and videos, and he might even get a cup of coffee and a mince pie.  He took a bit of persuading but eventually agreed.  So there are a few videos to watch of dogs (and owners) enjoying some of the party games.

Well, the evening didn’t start very well, as we got there about 20 minutes late due to an accident and were held up in a very slow moving queue of traffic.  I wondered if it would be worth turning around and going back home as soon as we were able to do so, but decided that Archie shouldn’t suffer, and as it turned out it was worth it, so please read on.

PARTY GAMES

OBSTACLE COURSE

There were two teams who had to go over a  little obstacle course and obviously the winners was the team who completed it the quickest.  It started with two hoops that dogs and owners had to stand in and then bring them up over their bodies, which was quite difficult when Archie did not want to stand still and it was impossible to get us to go through at the same time.  It was a little easier if you had a smaller dog as there was more room to manouevre.  The hoops were followed by a little jump and then the final obstacle was a  tunnel.  Now Archie was fine with the jump and the tunnel as he goes to agility, so he showed off a bit here.  However our team lost.

LEG GAME

This really is a fun game and really has to be seen to be believed.  Dogs and owners walk around the hall to music and when the music stops, someone shouts out a number between 0 & 6 .  You have to be good at maths and problem solving as the slowest owner and dog who do not have the said number of feet and paws on the ground is out.  Now as you can imagine “6” is easy,  the dogs 4 paws and the owners 2 legs.  However when it comes to say “3” it is not as easy e.g hold the dogs’ 2 front paws so he is standing on his 2 hind legs and then the owner stands on 1 leg.  “0” is a good one, as the only way to do this is for the owner to lie on the floor, feet raised with the dog stood or sitting on their tummy.  So you will see grown adults rolling around the floor with their dogs which even Father Christmas was seen doing, and all of us stone called sober!!

Now I don’t like to be a bad loser, but if your dog is small enough to actually pick up they do have an advantage, as if “2” legs are called the owners can pick their dogs up and they just stand on their own two legs. However, if you have a large dog, like Archie we have to lie on the floor, our feet raised and then get the dog to put 2 paws on our tummies and leave the other 2 on the floor – see what I mean!!!  I think this game should be done twice, one for small dogs and one for larger ones.  Well it is the winning, not just the taking part!!!  Needless to say we didn’t win this one.

MUSICAL PAPER

This is a twist on musical chairs.  There are pieces of newspaper all over the floor and when the music stops, you have to find a piece of paper and make the dog sit on it.  The dog who doesn’t find a piece of paper is out, or if your dog is not sitting on the paper you are out, and so on until there are 2 dogs left fighting for the last piece of paper.  We didn’t win this one either.

A COUPLE OF GAMES INVOLVING SAUSAGES

A sausage was placed in a bowl by the instructor whilst your dog sits and watches licking his lips.  The lead is taken off and the dog has to stay sat whilst the owner walks around a couple of cones and back to the dog who should still be sat down and not having been tempted by the sausage.  Then as a treat if they managed to resist the temptation, they then got the sausage.  This was just a test of willpower but I am most surprised that Archie actually did this as he does love sausages.

Then we were put into two teams.  A large sausage was put on the floor at the other end of the hall.  An owner and their dog had to run up to that end, the dog being allowed to pick up the sausage, run back to the other end with the dog not actually eating it.  Once back at the other end of the room, the owners had to prize whatever sausage was left in the dog’s mouth, which is almost impossible when the dog is still trying to swallow it and teeth tightly shut to stop you putting your hand in.  The idea of the game was to weigh each team’s rescued sausages and the team with the heaviest amount won.  Eachh dog in the winning team was actually given a whole sausage as a reward (I hasten to add these were fresh ones, and not the pieces that had been removed from the dogs’ mouths).   Hurray we won that one, and I have to say that I managed to get quite a lot out of Archie’s mouth which was quite amazing and all fingers still in tact!!

FANCY DRESS

After the first couple of games it is then time for the dogs to get their fancy dress outfits on.  Not all took part, but those who did  were in competition with each other to win a rosette for the best costume.  Archie wore his reindeer jumper with its twinkling lights and to complete the outfit he had a pair of reindeer antlers on which also lit up.  It was a hard decision for the judge but I am pleased to say that Archie got 4th place and a lovely green rosette.

MOST HANDSOME DOG

There was a competition for the prettiest bitch and the most handsome dog.  I have to say that the dogs outnumbered the bitches probably by 3 – 1 so there was stiff competition.  The judge for the dogs  was the teenage daughter of one of the other owners who was persuaded by one of the instructors to have the responsibility of doing the judging and a stirling job she did too!!

She made us walk around the hall with the dogs hopefully behaving themselves and walking nicely to heal so she could have a good look at them all.  Then we had to go into the centre of the hall and she walked down the line asking for each owner to make their dog do a trick.

Now Archie is quite good at tricks and as Steve was present I nearly got him to come and join in as this is one of Archie’s favourite tricks.   Steve gets down on all fours and then Archie promptly  jumps on his back.   However when I looked across at Steve I got the “look” so I decided against that and got Archie to do his “shy dog”.  I get him to lay down and then say “shy dog” and he puts his head down between his paws.   Others gave their paws and high 5’s but clearly the judge was impressed with Archie’s talents as she awarded him 1st place and presented him with a lovely red rosette.

The very last surprise was Father Christmas going around with his sack of doggy Christmas presents.  Archie chose a squeaky soft cheeseburger which he started to chew the bit of fabric that resembled the cheese before we left the hall( well it did look very realistic).

All evening at regular intervals the instructor would go around the hall giving the dogs treats, not just one but handfuls, so not only treats and sausages that they won during the games but extra treats throughout the evening so I am surprised that Archie (and all the others were not sick).  No wonder he put on weight.

Archie came home absolutely exhausted and so did I and as soon as he put his paws through the front door he was practically asleep.  He really did enjoy himself.   So was it worth going to after the awful journey there? well of course it was, all those extra treats and of course winning 2 special rosettes, so he is already looking forward to next year.