Wine In One Hand, Clicker In The Other: Chair Games ft. Linda Hughes

What if one of your most effective training sessions happens on a chair?

In this episode, we dig into “glass of wine” games: short, calm, indoor training sessions that turn bad weather, busy days, pain flare-ups, or limited mobility into genuine progress.

Anchoring yourself in a chair strips out all the noise.
No over-helping.
No micromanaging.
Just clear information, steady reinforcement, and a dog who suddenly understands exactly what you mean.

That simplicity builds confidence fast and strengthens your relationship in a way a muddy sprint never will.

We break down practical indoor training you can use tonight:

• Retrieve-from-a-chair (precision without pressure)
• Strong hand targets and chin rests for calmer handling
• Verbal cue discrimination so your words actually matter
• Living-room scent searches that grow optimism and reliable returns
• Confidence circuits—tiny, customisable routes for puppies and sensitive dogs

Movement fans get a full toolkit, too:

 • Cavalletti rails for rhythm, balance, and clean trot lines
 • Balanced stands for core strength and stillness
 • Position changes—sit/down/stand, bow, “look forward”—for tighter focus and better body awareness

Every idea has the same goal: repeatable wins in close proximity that build trust, clarity, and better behaviour.

When you do step outside again, you’ll walk out with cleaner cues, more control, and a dog who sees you as the most exciting thing in the room.

Ready for a five-minute chair session tonight?

Hit play, grab a handful of treats, and tell us which indoor game your dog loved most.

If this episode helped, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share it with a friend stuck indoors with an energetic dog.

Chapters

• 0:12 Mission And Promise Of The Show
• 0:28 What Are “Glass Of Wine” Games
• 1:42 Why Train Indoors Or From A Chair
• 2:46 Chair Games For Limited Mobility
• 4:22 Indoor Skills: Targets, Retrieve, Focus
• 5:14 Confidence Circuits And Puppies
• 6:35 Cavalletti And Better Movement
• 7:55 Balance Stands And Mindful Work
• 10:44 More Indoor Ideas And Tricks
• 13:42 Relationship At The Heart Of Training
• 15:17 Final Push To Try Chair Games

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:12

I'm Larry Langman, I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Indoor games, you called them something different though, to me. I was thinking indoor games and chair games, you called them glass of wine games. You make me laugh, you're so wicked. You're so wicked. So glass of wine games. Now, I've got lots of different reasons that I need to train in a chair or indoors. I I have so many reasons for myself, but I also know you deal with students that they'll have their own reasons too. And if I think about my students and myself, I personally, if it's really awful, like windy, I mean it's quite windy out there today. But if it's if it's really, really wet, sideways rain, the ground is awful. I have sports dogs, they work agility as much as I want to exercise them. I really don't want to injure them. And when they go running down in the woods and it's completely muddy and slippy and sheets of rain and sliding, I personally don't find it fun for anyone. I actually also find it with multiple doors can be a little bit dangerous. And so for me, I'll sometimes play more indoor games when I have days like that. And it's not often that you have a day after day after day, but I will think about my indoor games. My indoor games also, I'm lucky enough at home to have a hydrotherapy centre and other bits here. So we've got different indoor games, but I've got a lot of indoor games. Now I know you play indoor games as well, or as you like to call them. Glass of wine games. So what's your reason for your glass of wine games? Because I do think it's great to inspire people to do it. Laziness, basically. I love it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:45

It's categorized as laziness. It's it it's it's a way of making training and doing things with your dogs achievable. So there's plenty of times when I might be with somebody or with my own dogs, and there's something that needs work. I don't want to go, oh, I've got to do a training session, I must go here to this place or go and stand in that space and be in that headspace. You know, I'm gonna put sit down with a glass of wine in the sitting room, I might even have some music on, and I'll have some treats or some toys, and I'm gonna work on the little bit that I want to work on with that one dog. That makes it very like easy to do, achievable. Yeah, absolutely achievable and pleasant for everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 2:32

Especially with a glass of wine in your hand.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

What are you going for? Red or white? Oh, it's always white.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

It's always white. What type was a favourite? Oh, Chardonnays I love as long as they're not over-oaked. Okay, Chardonnay, white Chardonnay. She's off with her wine games. So what give me an example of a game that you'd like to play from a chair, or you typically will pick as a chair game.

SPEAKER_00: 2:51

So because I do competitive obedience, so a lot of what I do is the little tiny bits that need doing. So little presents, little goes through my legs, retrieve, you can teach retrieve, sat on a chair.

SPEAKER_01: 3:06

That is fessive to, and the reason it's better to is because you are almost anchored, so you can't get chasing around or trying to help them, or you can do very little from a chair. And and I also know a lot of our handlers, handlers it here at Absolute Dogs. Hello, guys, it's lovely to see you. But a lot of our handlers, they might be in some way unable to move. So maybe you don't have the full ability to use whatever it is that you're using or not using. So it might be, I know I've had a customer recently with a hamstring injury, and I've had another customer who's had an Achilles injury, and I know another customer actually has a bad ankle injury. All of them are in in chairs. Yeah. So training from chairs.

SPEAKER_00: 3:43

Training from chairs is really, you know, it it has a huge amount of value in it. I'm certainly with some of the people I work with who've got limited mobility, but they want to build a relationship with their dog, they want to be working with their dog at home. They they come to my group training days because they can do something with their dog, but they have a day out, it makes, you know, it makes them something to do with something. As well as the community, connect, have a cup of tea and a piece of cake and a Natter with your friends, and do a bit of dog training and have a laugh because everybody has a laugh in my glasses. That's lovely. It's lovely. So, but then when they go home, they might do they might do little scent findy games. So they'll put little caches of things around the living room and then sit down in their chair and direct the dog to go and find them. And the dog brings them and they get this reward for bringing the things. There's lots and lots of things that you can do with limited mobility from a chair.

SPEAKER_01: 4:38

And if we think about indoor games, so we move it on now to indoor games because actually, like you said, from a chair, there's lots for me, hand touches, uh, chin targets. Yes. Uh, retrieve is a definite like gold mine for me. I quite like um verbal discrimination games. Yeah. So playing any level of verbal discrimination, uh I love playing find it. So I love getting my dogs to find it. I also really, really like playing look forward games from a chair because I go and put them in front of me so they have to look forward. Something I know you're working on at the moment. So the look forward games I really, really like. And I love look forward for my dogs, I think it's very strong and good exercise. But yeah, indoor games. Let's go indoor games, so let's go one bigger. So let's go for some of our favourite indoor games. And one of my favourite indoor games, if you haven't already seen it, go seen it, go and check out the Absolute Dog Store confidence circuits. I blooming love. I love them because you can make them tiny in a small house, you can make them big in a big house, you can make them complex for a skilled dog, you can make them simple for a dog who's just baby and learning. You can play them with a puppy like your new puppy Bobble. Introduce Bobble to everyone. What is Bobble?

SPEAKER_00: 5:38

Bobble is a toy poodle. He's four months old, just just four months old. And he but he has a lot of confidence, but obviously I'm building his confidence doing circuits and things. Lovely.

SPEAKER_01: 5:51

And it's the sort of thing he can play right from like Daydor, right through to maybe Senzi, who would play for very different reasons.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

Why would she play confidence circuits? That's for forward focus and for being quiet and concentrating on her job. Engaging her brain. Engaging her little male brain. Yes. Big, big male brain. So all of this morning was doing confidence circuits, but she was doing serpentine carriage. And she but she learned from just you know two little stations and three cones, just building it like everybody should learn it. Going backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and then as soon as she got the concept, then she doesn't she she'll just go follow the circuit and come back to the second station. Great. And her movement, we I've been doing a lot of work with her with her movement because she's been on the treadmill to get her fit and healthy and able to move nicely for my dog sport, and her movement's greatly improved.

SPEAKER_01: 6:49

And for your goals, what is one of our goals? We're going to cross, we're going to craft everybody. Yes, we are. That was a good connection. So I think it is an important thing that we start targeting now. So start focusing on it now. Now, confidence circuits, if you haven't checked them out, go and hit hit the website. It it they are for me one of the best spaces to spend time and learn and grow and do. Another one for me is an indoor game, would be Cavalletti, and I know for you too, similar to confidence circuits but different. Why do you love confidence circuits and cavalletti?

SPEAKER_00: 7:18

So, sort of what's what's for me? It's all about movement, it's it's all about the dog understanding how to move, particularly for Ulla, how to trot. And her movement this morning was brilliant. It's there was not a pole knocked at all. So she's come on, come on in in leaps and bounds. But yes, so learning how to so I need a collected trot. So she needs to know how to come from extension into collection. So it's all very technical, but it is lovely about knowing where her feet are, lovely. Managing her body.

SPEAKER_01: 7:50

So indoor game for me, those are two. My third indoor game uh that I quite like to play. I I like to play a level of fitness where I get my dog to do a balanced stand. So I get them on two different objects or four different objects, and I work on the balanced stand. And once they're in a balanced stand, I then uh just give me a hand for a minute. So say you're my dog, I'll then just do gentle pushes to see whether they're able to hold and maintain that stand. I actually find it quite therapeutic for myself. It makes me slow down because it all takes it all slow and it makes you slow it right down. And for me, I'm someone who struggles to think do things like meditate or read. Like I've got so many lovely books up there, but as soon as I open one, I'm like, oh, I must do this. Oh, those birds need feeding. Oh, the chickens need something and they've run away, actually. Where have they gone? Anyway, the chickens are back there somewhere. Uh and so there's always something to do that like pops in my brain. Whereas when I'm doing this, I can't be anywhere but with that dog. Yeah, because if you are, you're gonna be gone. And I say when I'm riding Liza's horse, if I you've got to be on the horse. If you're not on the horse, you're off the horse.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

But that's about your passion for animals. So when you're interested in animals, isn't it? You are connected to the animals. Interesting, and that gives you the ability to then focus and doing uh really with yourself in the moment is the struggle.

SPEAKER_01: 9:07

Yeah, it's hard. This is coming from your your back, your your your butt your background, isn't it? Yes, but everyone your background?

SPEAKER_00: 9:14

I'm I was a therapist, so yeah, but it it's but it's nothing there's nothing wrong with that. Just because people say, Well, you really should be.

SPEAKER_01: 9:25

The other thing I do, sorry guys, we're now going into the therapy session. The other thing that I do is I'll feed the chickens and be very, very happy just throwing grain. Yeah, and then the other one would be feeding fish. So if I go abroad, we don't get lovely like water fish here, it's too cold. Um, however, if I go abroad and I'm feeding fish and you get all the tropical fish like flying around, they for me, I'm just mesmerized, like completely mesmerized. And for me, that's almost like a meditation field. Yeah, but when I try to sit in the field, I have a candle and no, I just sort of go, I'll leave the candle on because it smells nice, but other than that, I'm out. And I find it very hard. But the animals are the connection that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 10:03

It's that is your um that is your way to the the more meditative state. And so so you you know, you are doing meditation, but it's maybe you need to be more consciously aware that that is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01: 10:16

Yeah, it's it's almost like for me, it's consciously so slowing down and focused. It's constant it's conscious focus. So that's what I'm doing there.

SPEAKER_00: 10:26

You you can't say I I I can't meditate because you can give them the right channel to take you on the topic. Yes. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

So indoor games for me do that. They do that. No, they they allow me to do that because and a typical time when I pick an indoor game when it's excessively hot. We don't live in Australia or America, so sadly, it's often not excessively hot here. When it's excessively windy or rainy, like we've had days here, we live in Moorland. So if you haven't visited Bowerland, come and visit Bowerland. It's very beautiful. I mean, you've been many times, haven't you? And it's a lovely, it's a lovely training experience. However, like mid-winter, if you get a storm, it can be pretty wet and it can be pretty like what would they call it? Gnarly. Like it can be really quite like chaos when it's a real bad weather week. And so if you're in that weather, then I will pick something to do indoors. Um, and I and I'm very, very fortunate we have got hydrotherapy on site as well and the arena. So you've kind of always got something to do undercover. However, I would also say having indoor in-the-house games for me, walk backwards. I'm teaching you a really good walk back right now.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

Q control, sit-down, stand, bow, all your little behaviours, all of the fun. You can tidy all of that up indoors. Agreed. Very clear. Agreed. There's a lot to do, is it moving in those are just very clean, very important.

SPEAKER_01: 11:40

What would be some of your favourite indoor games? So obviously, we I've taken a few, but what would you fancy after that? Other indoor games without the glass of wine, or at least in the chair with a glass of wine. Priorities.

SPEAKER_00: 11:51

I I love teaching my dogs to do things, tricks like tidy up. Um open a cupboard door, close a cupboard door, close a door, put the shoes away.

SPEAKER_01: 12:04

Yes. All of those sorts of things. Fetch me my slippers, yes, and my glass of wine. Can you imagine? Bob or I know that bringing the glass of wine. I can imagine Senzi serving it. Right with her but but on a serious note, I I do think that like little like tidy up jobs and task jobs, I think they're very, very good for the problem solvers or the dogs that need to learn to problem solve. And I know when I've had a nervous dog, the problem solving games have been very, very useful. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 12:36

But I I mean, and I do a lot of that, I've done a huge amount of that with Ulla mostly because she needs to have a job to do. And she will, in fact, come and say to me, I want something to do, I need something to do.

SPEAKER_01: 12:49

I think you and I would be like that if we retired, like properly, wouldn't we?

SPEAKER_00: 12:52

Like you would be like, What shall I do now? My my phrase is I'm bored now.

SPEAKER_01: 13:00

I'm bored now. I had the funniest experience once, really funny experience. We're teaching this massive workshop, everyone was so like engaged and everyone was awesome. And this other lady who was getting it all wrong and couldn't understand it, went, I'm bored. It'd be really boring. It was just like such a cracking moment in dog training where you think everything's getting right, and you've got this great group and everyone's interested, and everyone's on it, and then this one lady at the back, I'm bored. I was like, Okay then, uh let's move it on. So, yeah, in indoor games again, I I do really like movement games like you. I love teaching a trick. I love if you haven't got the tricks book, get on with the tricks book.

SPEAKER_00: 13:33

Tricks book's a cool book, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Yes, it is, absolutely like a Bible of tricks, full of so much brilliant information, and right from the ground, so right from there, or the tricks badge, tricks badge is really, really nice if you want to watch it visually, depends what type of learner you are. Um, I love a book, but I struggle to sit down and read one. So actually, I although the tricks book is different because you can take a training with you, you can flip it over and you can refer to it, use it as a reference. Exactly that, but a brilliant indoor opportunity because sometimes when you're indoors, you want to pick things with limited space because you haven't always got the space.

SPEAKER_00: 14:02

And and we have to remember that everything we do with our dogs, whether we're doing dog sports or whether they are companion animals, is about relationship. It's all about building that relationship and strengthening that relationship.

SPEAKER_01: 14:17

I was thinking about this mum's cat earlier. So she lets out her cat. So her cat hasn't hasn't been let out yet. She's uh not been spayed and she's a baby still. And so because she hasn't been let out and she hasn't, cat's out of the bag. No, the cat is not out of the house yet. I actually think because she's over six months, I actually think they will have no problems with that cat because I think she'll always want to be inside, and I think she will go out a bit, but I think she'll quite quickly come in in because there's been such a family established to her, like she knows her family. Whereas I think a lot of cats they don't necessarily have that established before they go out, and it's the same thing with anything else, isn't it? It's relationship. It is so when you're doing indoor games, wine games, chair games, whatever you're doing, you're close proximity to your dog.

SPEAKER_00: 15:00

That's right, and you're building a relationship with your dog that's positive. Nice to approve, yes, absolutely, and that's the basis of all our relationships with dogs, it's that that building that connection and putting money in that bank account always.

SPEAKER_01: 15:15

Lovely, no, really, really lovely. So, guys, if you don't already train your dogs indoors or you don't already play chair games or wine games, get your chardonnay, go grab it, recommended by Linda, and grab your your pot of treats or your toys or whatever else you might do and play in a chair whether you're limited mobility, so you're playing for the limited mobility reason, like lots of our clients do. Or whether you're playing because you want to do obedience and actually a lot of the behaviours are close, or whether you just fancy a glass of wine and you don't want to go on dog train anymore because it's cold and it's wet and it's miserable or whatever it might be, or maybe you just fancy the opportunity to try something different in your house, it's gonna build relationship, it's gonna build you and your dog as a robust team, and most of all, you get the opportunity and the comfort of your own home, and that's really and then you can show your dog off as a cracking dog that's either got everything on cue or can do fancy tricks or whatever. And you've done it all in proximity, you've done it all in a safe space so that when you do take it out, you really can take the show on the road. So I think it's a lovely opportunity. Thank you, Linda. Super stuff. Really enjoy always talking to Linda and you guys go and get that glass of wine so you can play your chair games today.