Pet Picnic

• After attending a few classes, make an effort to get to know the other dog owners who also seem to genuinely care about raising a healthy, well-trained and socialized puppy.
• Share your idea about starting a puppy playgroup with them and collaborate to choose a time and date that works well for your schedules - Saturday morning, or Sunday afternoon perhaps.
• Once a month, or during the warm months, plan a pet picnic that lasts a few hours longer than the usual play date. Encourage the dog owners to bring their families and friends for a festive, furry weekend picnic in the park.
• Create a potluck list, and rotate responsibilities to bring meals. Or, ask everyone to bring their own picnic for their pooch and guests, and simply rotate the responsibility to reserve picnic tables.
  

Musical Dog Beds

Similar to musical chairs, musical dog beds will challenge your pet's speed and obedience skills.

How to Play:

1. Ask everyone to bring a dog bed to the pet picnic. Prep for the game by arranging all the dog beds in a large circle on a flat grassy area, with one less bed than there are dogs playing the game.

2. Bring a loaded iPod and battery-powered speakers (or boom box with CD) and have someone man the music. Playing a song like "Who Let The Dogs Out" is a must for the pet party picnic theme while the pet owners walk their dogs around the outside of the circle on leashes.

3. When the music intermittently stops, all the pet owners should get their dog to jump onto a bed and sit down to claim a spot in the next round. The last dog left without a bed is eliminated.

4. Raise the stakes by giving away dog toys, new collars, gift certificates to Petco or Petsmart, or even a new dog bed each week. For the bigger ticket items, arrange for everyone in the play group to pitch in $5 to pay for the prize.

Fetch Relays

This game is a fun exercise for groups of well-trained dogs who know how to fetch.

How to Play:

1. Bring multiples of the same rubber dog bone to the pet picnic; these will serve as the relay fetching sticks. Make sure to buy a size that all dogs can easily carry.

2. Break the dogs and owners up into relay teams with at least two to three members on each team. Have each relay team line up behind the first owner & dog pair on their team, and space each group ten to fifteen feet apart to avoid interference.

3. Set up a judge facing the line of teams about twenty five feet from them. The judge will determine whether the owner has thrown the dog toy far enough for their dog to fetch it.

4. The relay begins when the judge says ‘Go!'. The first owner in each team will throw the dog toy at least as far as the judge, and ask their dog to fetch it. If the dog toy doesn't make it within two feet in front of the judge, the owner will have to retrieve the toy and throw it again. This keeps the game fair with all the dogs running the same distance to retrieve the toy.

5. After the first dog successfully fetches the toy back to the owner, the toy is handed off to the next owner and dog pair in the team to continue the race until all pairs have gone.

- 1 pint of fresh, cool water per dog, especially on a hot day. Accomplish this by filling washed-out gallon milk jugs with water, and storing them in a cooler with ice in the shade. 

- Dog treats, chews, and dog toys for the pooches to enjoy while the people are eating. Giving each dog a flavored rawhide chewing stick or pig ear during lunch time is a great way to keep them occupied and keep their noses out of people's plates. 

- Two doggie cleanup bags per pooch to keep the park just as clean as when you arrived.

For Humans:

- Sandwiches, chips and fresh fruit for the people picnickers. Make sandwiches on long French baguettes, and cut the into thirds for individual serving sizes. Bring one or two large bags of gourmet chips like Kettle Chips or Vickie's, and let guests pour a small portion onto their individual plates. It's much more affordable than buying individual sized bags. 

- Apples, cherries, strawberries and watermelon hold up well on hot summer days, though skip the latter if you want to avoid sticky watermelon juice everywhere. The first three options are perfect for grabbing an individual portion size from a big Ziploc bag. 

- For drinks, mix up a big batch of lemonade from a mix, and squeeze in a few real Meyer lemons to create a fresh-squeezed flavor. Toss in a few mint sprigs for an extra refreshing zing.