Top 9 Easy & Cheap Games to Play with Dogs Outside

When it comes to bonding with our pups, nothing beats having fun outside together on a nice day. You don’t need expensive toys or elaborate plans to have a good time! In this guide, we’ll be taking you through our favorite games to play with dogs outside. These games will be cheap and easy to play without lengthy preparation.

From digging to scent work, we’ll have options for every pup (and dog parent) to have fun with your companion. Grab your leash and let’s get to having a fun time with your dog.

Benefits of playing outside games with your dog

Playing with your dog isn’t just a break from your normal routine, it’s an important part of your relationship with your dog. The primary reason we like games to play with dogs outside is to have fun with your dogs. Having fun with your dog helps strengthen your bond with your pup, which makes everything else a bit more fun. Our pups are only here a short time compared to us, so we think it’s important to have as many positive experiences as we can.

Another important benefit of games to play with dogs outside is the physical activity associated with it. Most dogs (even our coach potato, Prim) enjoy moving, exploring, and interacting with their world. Movement, especially low-impact activities, will help keep your dog’s weight normal, their joints healthier, and their muscles stronger. All are important, especially as your dog ages, but keeping your dog’s weight appropriate is the one factor that seems to minimize a ton of other health issues.

We’ve all heard the adage “a tired dog is a good dog”, but that’s only partially true. Physical exercise is important, but so is mental enrichment. I’m sure you’ve heard of the one dog who runs 3 miles with their human and then is still asking to play for hours when they’re home. Providing appropriate outlets for mental energy can help minimize troublesome behavior. If your pup doesn’t have a way to entertain themselves, they will find a way and you may not like the result.

If you’re looking for more information on the benefits of playing with your dog, check out VCA Hospital’s Play & Exercise article.

Some safety tips & other advice

While outdoor dog activities are a fantastic enrichment option for your pup, we still want to be mindful of some potential issues while performing them. To start, you’ll want to make sure you have a clear area that’s large enough for the activity you want to do. For example, a DIY agility course requires a much larger area than using a homemade snuffle mat. Ensure there aren’t any obvious ways your pup could get injured, especially if the activities include running. If you need help with keeping your yard clean, check out our guide on how to deal with dog poop until garbage day.

The next thing to consider is weather limitations. If it’s extremely hot out, shorter bursts of activity are more appropriate to minimize the risk of heat related issues. Extreme cold has similar issues. Too wet of an area can increase the risk of slipping, which is a quick way to end up aggravating joint issues. We’re not suggesting that you can only play outside when it’s perfect out, but be mindful if the conditions could be dangerous. Check out our guide on inside games to play with your dog if you need some options for the bad weather days.

Even if you’re careful, injuries can still happen, especially if your pup is particularly vigorous (looking at you, Goomba!). For our experience, Goomba was playing with his beloved Hero boomerang and tore his CCL. After 2 torn CCLs and 3 surgeries, he’s back to normal-ish, but it was a long year. The best way to avoid this is to know your dog and watch for changes in behavior. If they’re a little slow the next day, take it easy for a day or two before trying again.

If you find yourself in our unfortunate situation, check our both of our CCL injury related guides: symptoms of CCL injuries in dogs and CCL surgery recovery for your dog.

Our favorite games to play with dogs outside

Finally, the part you’re all here for: our favorite games to play with dogs outside! We’ll point out which games are cheap or expensive and which games work best for dogs who aren’t as toy motivated. For us, Goomba is extremely toy motivated and not very food motivated. Prim is the exact opposite and would run off a cliff for a treat.

If you need some help with your yard, check out our guide on creating a dog friendly backyard for your pup!

Digging (for treasure)

The first of our favorite games to play outside with dogs is digging! This may seem counterintuitive, especially if you’re worried about your dog escaping, but it’s a great physical activity for your dog. This is definitely a situation where you need to know your dog, but as long as your dog isn’t digging to escape, it’s a great way to have some laughs at your dog. We’ve taught both of our dogs to dig, Goomba for physical therapy and Prim for fun, and it’s one of their favorite commands to work on.

Our favorite part? The supplies are free! If you’re teaching your dog how to dig inside, an old towel or blanket is a perfect place to start. If you’re outside, some loose dirt is all you need. Depending on how messy your dog is or how muddy it is outside, a bath or wipe down could be useful, but not required. If you need some help on cleaning up, check out our guide on how to clean your dog’s collar. If you trust your pup not to eat dirt, burying a bully stick partially in the dirt will really excite them.

This is best for dogs that aren’t left outside unsupervised, escape risks, or for dogs who could use the workout to their front legs. Also, you’ll need a spot where you don’t mind your dog digging. Those restrictions aside, we leave a spot for Prim to dig outside when she wants to. It’s a tall spot in our yard that we’re planning on leveling out (someday). We find that if we leave a spot for her, she’s less likely to pick random spots to dig, like our plants. Check out our guide on dog proofing a fence if you need help keeping your dog in your fence (or away from your plants!)

We spent a lot of time dog proofing our yard because our dogs like spending a lot of time there. If digging isn’t one of the games to play with dogs outside that you’re interested in, no worries! This is the only destructive activity we have on the list! If you’re looking for some additional resources on making your yard safe for your pup, check out the following guides we made on dog-safe plants:

• Dog safe flowers
• Dog safe shrubs
• Outdoor plants safe for dogs

DIY agility course

The next of our favorite games to play outside with dogs is less destructive, but will require a bit of cheap DIY. Creating a DIY agility course for beginners is a great option to feel out if you and your dog enjoy agility activities without the commitment to the expense and storage of the required items. Initially, your course can be any equipment that is easily available for your dog or easiest for you to DIY. Some of our favorites to start off with are agility jumps and dog tunnels. We find these are easy to modify for any difficulty level and you can probably make them with items around your house.

For example, you can make your own DIY agility jumps with 2 outdoor chairs and a broom. For a tunnel, you can use a collapsible laundry hamper and cut out the bottom. It doesn’t matter if it looks pretty, the idea is to try it out for a low cost. If you and your dog enjoy it, then you can buy a fancy piece of equipment with the features that are the best for you. If you’d rather just buy good and cheap equipment to start off, our favorites are Trixie’s dog tunnel and Trixie’s cavaletti set. The cavaletti set is perfect for learning jumps!

Beginner dog agility is great for anyone, especially if you start off slow and make it a positive experience. If your dog isn’t active initially, start with brief sessions of easier difficulty until they get the hang of it. For example, lower your jumping obstacles until they are close to the ground. You’ll have plenty of time to increase the difficulty later, if that’s fun for you and your dog.

When we get equipment, we prioritize safety & ease of storage/movement since we don’t have the room to store a ton of equipment. If your dog has an injury or other mobility restriction, this is likely not the best activity to start off with until you get an all clear from your vet.

We wrote a bunch of different guides for beginner DIY agility equipment. Here’s a list of all the current ones:

• agility jumps
• agility hoops
• agility tunnels
• weave poles for your dog
• dog agility platform
• agility dog walk
• cavaletti for dogs (we recommend these as a starting place for jumps or as jumps for smaller dogs)

Frisbee (or fetch)

Next on our list of our favorite games to play with dogs outside is frisbee or fetch. This iconic game is a great low-cost option if your pup is willing to participate. For us, Goomba is a very willing participant, but Prim is less interested in this than other activities. This is definitely an activity that you want your dog moving around before doing. Just like humans, warming up can help minimize the risk of injury. Even if it’s just a walk or following you around the house, it’ll help your dog be ready for activity, especially if they are toy-crazy.

Depending on what your dog likes, the supplies required can vary greatly. Some dogs will chase anything like sticks, others prefer specific toys. Goomba will participate with a lot of different toys, but his favorite is his Hero Boomerang. We get months of interactive play out of each one we get, which is much better than the 5-10 minutes a normal toy lasts. It’s definitely our favorite of their outside toys for large dogs.

Fetch or frisbee is great for active, healthy dogs that don’t have any injuries. If your dog is older, slower, or less active overall, it’s still one of our favorite games to play with dogs outside. Just remember to take it slow and adjust the intensity based on your dog’s behavior. You can even restrict fetch to throwing or roll objects on the ground to help your dog be less crazy. We did this for Goomba during his lengthy recovery from CCL surgery.

Flirt poles

Using flirt poles is one of our favorite games to play with dogs outside, especially if you only have a small area to play in. We’ve used one for years with our dogs and it’s a great way to extend the life of toys, especially if you have power chewers like us! It’s a pretty simple device (a toy attached to a rope attached to a stick), but provides a lot of versatility in locations you can use it. It’s our recommended toy to start with if your dog has a high prey drive or if you have very little space for play.

There are a few different ways you can create a flirt pole, but the easiest way is to attach a piece of cord or rope to a stick. If you like DIY options, check out our DIY flirt pole. It’s extremely easy, cheap, and works great! If that’s not up your alley, we recommend the Squishy Face Studio flirt pole as our preferred option. We’ve had it for years and it’s held up great. Either way, it’s a onetime cost for the flirt pole, but you may have to replace the toy if your pup is good at getting to it.

The flirt pole ranks on our list of favorite games to play with dogs outside. It’s best for dogs who have a high play or prey drive and is our preferred option for extending the duration of toys, too. It doesn’t do as well for older dogs or dogs that have mobility restrictions. Your dog doesn’t need to be doing backflips to have fun. Since our pups are getting older, we typically use ours on the ground or head level for them and try to limit wild jumping.

Food-based enrichment

Although typically performed inside, food-based enrichment is a great option for games to play with dogs outside. It’s by far Prim’s favorite activity, and Goomba enjoys it, too! This category is vague on purpose, but food-based enrichment is essentially anything that’s fun for your dog outside and involves food. This can range from using puzzle boards on your deck to scatter feeding in the grass. It’s a great way to get your dog comfortable with noises that make them uneasy, as well.

The supplies required will vary depending on what type of food-based enrichment you’re doing with your pup. If you’re wanting to keep it cheap or free, check out our favorite DIY dog puzzles for some inspiration. Some of our pups’ current favorites are treat dispensers, snuffle mats, Pupsicles, and Toppls. Although some of these have initial costs, they are extremely cheap after that. For example, you can easily make frozen Pupsicle recipes for less than $0.50 per refill.

Food-based enrichment is great for any dog, but fantastic for those high food drive dogs like our Primmie. After having her for 7 years so far, she’s just as food motivated as when we got her. It’s a perfect option to help your pup relax outside, especially when they are slightly uncomfortable with a noise. If your dog has little to no interest in food, this will be more challenging, but still possible. You can always get better rewards (one of our favorites is freeze-dried beef liver) or do the enrichment before mealtime, when they are at their hungriest.

Check out our favorites if you’re looking for more canine enrichment toys. Many of the options are great for dogs who don’t need to be as active. We’ve used these (and more) when Goomba was recovering from CCL surgery.

Hide & seek

Hide and seek is the cheapest of our favorite games to play with dogs outside and doesn’t involve any additional supplies. As with all outside dog games, you’ll want to make sure where you’re playing is safe for your dog. The process is identical to the game when you were a child, but we find knowing 2 commands makes it much easier. We’ll need a solid stay so that you can find somewhere to go and a solid recall command to bring your dog to you. If you don’t have those yet, we highly recommend Puppr’s app. They make it easy, and both commands are in the free version of the app, as of when we are writing this.

You don’t need any supplies for this, which makes it the cheapest of the games to play with dogs outside listed. Depending on how motivated your dog is, kibble or your treat of choice will be perfect. We use Stewart freeze dried beef liver, which our pups go crazy for. Some other options are cheese, peanut butter, or wet food, depending on what your dog likes. If your pup likes toys better, that’s even easier to use with the same process. Goomba loves when his reward is a toy and his current favorite is this Hero Boomerang. We’ve had our current one for 4 months and it’s still in good shape.

Hide and seek is great for any dog, as long as you have a solid stay and recall. You can easily change how fast and intense your dog is by changing the difficulty of where you hide or the reward. For example, if you have an older dog or pup with mobility restrictions, hiding short distances away with a medium quality treat will help keep them from sprinting. If your dog is extremely active, hiding on the opposite side of your yard with a desirable reward will get them moving fast and burn some energy.

We love seeing our dogs searching out where we (or treats) are and think it’s adorable. This activity is a great way to get some mental enrichment, too, because your pup has to use their nose to find you or the reward. You can also perform this activity inside or the other side command on days when playing outside isn’t an option.

Obedience training

Obedience training may not be flashy, but it’s a great option for games to play with dogs outside. For one, it’s extremely affordable and you may not even need any equipment at all. It’s also a great way to advance your dog’s training, too! Even sitting in the presence of distractions is difficult for many dogs, even ones with very good inside sits. Any commands work great outside, but remember to be patient with your pup. Most dogs will struggle initially with commands in the presence of distractions.

For obedience training outside, you only need whatever supplies you used for inside training. Typically, this is only a quality treat (our favorite is Stewart freeze-dried beef liver) and we find most dogs love it! If your training is in a rut, an app or other program for a trick list is a great option, too. Our favorites are the Puppr app and Do More With Your Dog, which we’ve been using recently. You can’t go wrong with either option, and we use both consistently.

As far as games to play with dogs outside go, obedience training is great for any pup. It’s a great way to make any commands you use more consistent, which means your pup is more likely to listen. You may have to use special treats or toys initially, especially if your dog gets distracted easily. That’s no problem, and you can always work toward using more traditional treats or kibble as your dog gets better at the behavior. We’ve used peanut butter, cheese, or chicken to help our pups start the learning process.

Stay/Recall work

If you’re looking for a way to burn some energy with our favorite games to play with dogs outside, you’ve landed at the right spot. Stay/recall work is a take on obedience training, but changed so your dog is burning some energy. All you’ll need for this game is an okay stay and a solid recall, which you may already have. The game’s simple: find an open space, have your dog to stay, call your dog to you, and find another space. That’s it!

Besides an open area, the only supplies you’ll need are something to recall your dog with. If your pup loves food, we’d recommend chicken, peanut butter, or freeze-dried beef liver. If your dog prefers toys, whatever their favorite toy is will be perfect. Goomba’s favorite is this Hero Boomerang, and he’s a lunatic for it!

This is one of the games to play with dogs outside that’s perfect for any dog who’s not injured. If your dog is older or slower, alter the game so they not have to go very far or won’t have the chance to run. If your pup is a ball of energy and healthy, increase the distances and quality of the treat. More desirable toys or treats will encourage your dog to move faster. You can decrease the quality of the treat to encourage slower movement, too.

We play the same game inside on our carpeted areas when we’re not able to play with our pups outside. It’s been a great substitute for walks on days when the weather is too bad.

Scent work & other nose games

Scent work (or other sniffing activities) is an extremely broad category of activities that the majority of dogs will enjoy. If your pup has an extremely low food drive, other games will be easier to play with your pup. For the rest of us, your dog will love this! This can range from something simple, like hiding treats around outside for your dog to find, all the way to competitive scent work. We’re focused on the fun portion of this, so we’ll leave the competitive activities to better qualified people.

Of our list of games to play with dogs outside, this is Prim’s favorite! She’s wildly good at sniffing out kibble and foraging is by far her favorite activity. If you’re doing it for fun, all you need is your reward. If you want your dog to find specific scents, you’ll need that, too, but it’s optional. We recommend starting with stronger smelling treats and then transitioning to a training treat or kibble, depending on what your dog will play for. As you could guess, we like Stewart freeze-dried beef liver and it’s smelly enough to keep your dog motivated, but not enough to annoy you.

This is great for any dog who enjoys sniffing or has a decent food drive, which is most pups. Even if your dog isn’t particularly food motivated, they can still enjoy nose based activities. For us, Prim is the resident food drive dog, and she’s excellent at pointing out lost kibble or treats. She’s always right, even if we can’t immediately find it, and we quit doubting her years ago.

If you’re looking for some ideas to get started with nose work, here are a few relevant posts to help:

• Creating a “find it” pile out of old toys
• How to make a DIY snuffle mat
• DIY dog puzzles
• Puppr (they have a course on scent work)

Conclusion

Our dogs love playing outside and approve of all the games to play with dogs outside on our list, but they still have their favorites. For us, Prim’s favorite are food-based ones, specifically food-based enrichment and nose work. Goomba prefers toy based games, like fetch and recall work with a toy.

What are your favorite games to play with dogs outside? Share your favorites with us on Instagram by tagging @TheRulyBully or by dropping us a line by email! We love hearing new ideas (and our dogs love trying them out)!

Have fun!