I'm kinda unorthdox in the way I do just about everything, so I wanted some input on some of the things we've been doing to train Birdie. I involve my kids and the neighborhood kids in training "games" too.
Keep in mind that Birdie is training to be my service dog, so I want her to be indifferent to kids and their noises and movements.
"Hulla-boo" game: The object is for the dog to remain calm while the kids act like hooligans. The kids put on this game that has them jumping around and the dog has to down/stay at the enterance of the room and not get excited or participate even though she really wants to. We started with a few seconds and have worked up to almost 10 minutes.
Hide-n-seek: Birdie needs to be able to find a person on command in case I fall or I need help. I'll be in one room and tell her to find Daddy, she goes and finds him and nudges him with her nose. She will also find our girls, Petey and few friends too. We're about ready to work on a long lead since her recall is good.
Red Light/Green Light: Now this one gets interesting. It's whistle training from the Field dog class. Three short toots is come, one is stop & sit. I line up the kids and the dogs along the far side of the fence and give three toots to start and then one toot to stop them - "you're out" means you sit on the frog and don't get a treat. I started this training with just the dogs and the kids wanted to join in - which just increased the difficulty level for the dogs because they have to pay attention to me, not the kids.
Rally-O: Nothing more than heeling around an obsticle course - usually the million toys or lawn furniture in my yard. The Gremlin started off by following us around dragging a stuffed dog on a leash.
Tracking: I didn't create this one - the Gremlin did after watching something on bloodhounds on TV. She shows the dog a coveted dog toy or a dog biscuit then throws a blanket over their head, says wait and scampers off to hide the object (It took a little Daddy help to teach the dogs to wait) Then she comes back, gives the release command and the dogs go hunt for the item.
Distract the dog: The kids are instructed to ride on the bike path, roller blade or just make noise, leave toys everywere, drop food on the ground etc. I walk the dog through with the end goal being that Birdie makes way when needed, ignores the balls & toys, ignores the doritos or devil dogs, doesn't react to the kids playing lazer tag and doesn't chase the bike rider or skaters. Which she does pretty good at - except for the doritos. (The kids are all told that they are to never ever do these things to another dog - this is for training for Birdie only. I have parental consent and the parent's are there.)
No wonder the dogs are tired and the neighbors want to send their kids over to play.
So you thing this kind of thing is effective training when used in addition to the more structured training classes?