Pat Miller in her book 'The Power of Positive Dog Training' describes this game to play with your puppy as a way to reinforce foundation behaviours in a fun way. Pat uses a lure to move the puppy between the moves and while I've used this with several dogs, I also found using the target stick to be just as effective for many clicker-wise dogs. Ruby is the first dog I have worked with who needed neither the lure nor the target stick to set up this game. She is an exuberant puppy with so much energy that you have to be on your toes to keep up with her. Little wonder then that this game sprang to mind when I was looking for ways to turn the tables. If you have an enthusiastic puppy with more energy than you know what to do with, try playing puppy push-ups to keep your dog on her toes and to build some depth to these foundation cues.

Taking your dog for a walk is all about having a connection. It starts by walking them on a loose leash with your full attention on them; before long your dog is checking in with you and rewarding that attention with a connection. After a while, you start to walk in synch, step by step. You won't burn calories this way, but you will have a much more enjoyable walk with your dog.

Playing tug with your dog, once he knows the rules, is a great way to help your dog improve self-control and reinforce the power of using opposite cues. Beau and I play this game inside on wet days to burn off some of his excess energy and work his mind as well as his body. I get a bit of a workout too.

Two-year old Beau helped me with this demonstration to show how hand targeting can be used to hold a dog's attention and keep him engaged when you are on the move. Hand targeting can be used as a preparation activity for a recall.

Blue is a bit of a master at targeting, but we haven't done it for a while and so this was a bit of a test for us both. Blue didn't disappoint. We have some polishing up to do on his response to the cue, but that is more me than him. This was a fun session.

A demonstration of target training using a target stick. Beau is a 2 year old who is learning to target with more than one part of his body. Bonnie is 10 months old and has only recently been introduced to the target stick. This impromptu session was of her own instigation.Dogs love to train.