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TIC-TAC-TOE

 

 

 Draw or tape out a large tic-tac-toe board (#) on the floor or pavement.  You can use rope or spray paint (or chalk) if you are playing on the grass.  Divide people up into two teams.  One team is X's and one is the O's.  X's go first so they have an advantage.  They are the SITS.  O's will be doing DOWNS.  The first team's captain decides where to put the X, and sends one of his players (one that can hold a sit for a long time) out to that spot first.  Then the O team captain decides where to put his team member, and they go out and place their dog in a down.  If you have dogs of varying degrees of training, then, the sub-novice people can stay on leash, the novice people can stay close to the dog (but NOT on the playing area), and the advanced people have to go back to their team area and sit or stand to watch the rest of the play.  Players continue to fill the squares with X's and O's until one team gets three in a row, or it is a draw.

Different versions:  In one version, any dog who moves himself out of the position he was placed in (goes from a sit to a down, for example), is removed from the board, and that team has one less X (or O) out there.
In another version, if a dog changes positions, he STAYS in that position and becomes the other letter (from an X to an O), whereby he would be helping the other team.  In a third version, handlers are allowed to cue their dogs to remain sitting, or to pop back up into a sit.  They are not allowed to "correct", just to "cue."  If they are going to try to fix the dog, they have to do it before the other team puts another dog out, or they lose the opportunity.