When you have a little puppy, they want to play 24/7. They always want to play, but what happens when it’s raining outside? You have to think of new ways to entertain your little furry bundle of joy. You have days where the rain clouds will overtake the skies, and you can’t do much except the things indoors. How do you cope with this? Let’s have a look at ways that you can keep your pup entertained even when indoors.
Play Hide and Seek
Believe it or not, you can play hide and seek with your pets! It can be an enjoyable game for both you and your pet. To play hide and seek, you will first have to tell your dog to sit/stay (this works best for trained pups). After you have hidden, you can call out to your dog. You’d be surprised how much fun this can be. Not to mention, this can provide some of your more overly rambunctious pups with entertainment that will tire them out.
Play the Find the Treats Game
One of the best ways that you can tire out your enthusiastic bundle of energy comes from playing hide the treats. It’s a great nose game where your pet has to track down treats that you’ve hidden. As you tire out your dog, you also help them to develop the skill of using their nose. Get one of your dog’s favorite treats and scatter them around the room. After you have set the treats out, you will see if your dog can find all of them. Make sure you try to use smaller than usual sized pieces (break one treat in half or in quarters depending the size of the treat and your dog).
To keep the game going, don’t forget to praise your dog each time that he finds them. It might take a couple of games of practice before your dog will understand what, “Find the Treats” means, but once you get this going, you can have a lot of fun with it.
Improve Your Dog’s Obedience
What better way to spend your time than helping your dog to act more obediently. You might enroll them in a class where they can learn new tricks, but you can also get creative and try to teach your dog these things at home. Turn a gloomy or rainy day into a day for leaning some new skills and help them to become better behaved.
Let’s say that your dog has learned the basic commands, and you want to teach him some more. You might enroll him in the Canine Good Citizen program. Available to all canines, your dog will learn 10 new skills of obedience, and you will improve your bond with your dog while teaching him how to behave better in public. The best part is that it’s all done indoors so you avoid the not-so-fun weather.
Teach Your Dog to Clean up His Toys
Did you know that you can teach your dog how to clean up his own toys? Instead of simply picking up after your dog each time, you can teach him when it is cleanup time, and he will start taking his toys and putting them in a designated place. You can have a lot of fun with this. At the same time, when you teach your dog how to do new skills, you improve his self esteem, and you keep him stimulated mentally.
To get him to clean up his toys, you will tell him to pick it up and take it over to the container where he will drop it. You give him the drop command once he reaches the container. Praise your dog like crazy and keep praising him because positive reinforcement will help your dog more than negative reinforcement.
Keep Your Dog Entertained with a Stuffed Kong
Relieving dog boredom often comes down to giving them a toy and letting them play with it. Stuffed Kongs have become a popular choice because of how easily you can prepare them. To occupy your dog for a while, stuff his toy with dog treats so that he has something to do for a while. You can use a stuffed Kong to occupy your dog even while at work.
I like to use the classic Kong because of how it is virtually indestructible to my dog, and I can wash it in the dishwasher safely.
Take Your Dog Along for Chores
When it comes to dogs, they love to help and even more so, they love to be by your side. You could ask them to do something as simple as fetching your slippers. In addition, you could ask your dog to fetch you something from the fridge after you have taught him how to open the fridge. To do this, you tie a towel so that it will be easier for them to pull on the door.
Play Interactive Games
Dogs, especially certain dog breeds, can benefit a lot from puzzle games. Giving your dog some mental stimulation can even cut down on some of the less desirable behaviors like barking, aggression and excessive chewing. Even playing a game of tug of war can be incredibly fun for your dog.
Whether its raining outside or you can’t go outside for whatever reason, these are some of the things that you can do indoors. As you probably have discovered, the smell of wet dog isn’t pleasant. For that reason, you don’t want to take them outside if it’s too wet or is raining. Stay inside until the weather passes and keep them and you entertained.
