Rain, Rain, Go Away
Tropical Storm Andrea just blew thru Gainesville, bringing with her a lot of rain. This was the first tropical storm of hurricane season, and there will likely be a few more. No matter what part of the country you live in, there is something that will keep your dog inside for days at a time, it may be sun, snow, rain, or your busy schedule. Here are five strategies to keep your dog from going stir-crazy in your house.
1. Hide & Find Dinner
Feeding your dog out of a dinner bowl is so boring. Make dinner time a thinking time by having your dog work for it. You can use a store-bought food dispensing toy, or make one yourself. You can also hide pieces of food around your living room, and have your dog search out each piece. Just remember where you hid the food, so your dog finds them all (with some help from you if needed). You don’t want to leave food out for uninvited guests. Of course, these work best if your dog is fed a dry dog food.
Use canned food to stuff a Kong, then freeze it. Once frozen, give the Kong to your dog and your dog will spend 30-60 minutes getting every last bit of food out of the Kong.
2. Nose Work
Teaching your dog to use their nose will exercise their brain, and mentally tire them out. Here is a video we made on starting your dog in Nose Work.
3. Tricks
Tricks are a fun way to train your dog. You both enjoy the training, and the rewards afterwards. Your dog has a neat trick to show off to your friends, and your dog will be the center of attention, earning praise, pets, and treats for a job well done.
Dream Dogz offers Trick Training, where your dog will learn lots of tricks. We also have many videos on YouTube demonstrating how to teach a variety of tricks.
4. Treadmill
Treadmill training is a great supplement to daily walks with your dog. If you don’t have one already, you can find used treadmills on Craigslist or at Play it Again Sports. We have a treadmill at Dream Dogz to get you started, and YouTube has some great videos as well.
5. Place & Sit on the Dog (Leash)
You know how we love Sit on the Dog (Leash). We also love Place. For Place, you teach your dog to go their bed and to stay there. You don’t want to use a crate for this, as you want the walls to be mental walls to keep your dog there. We use placeboards (raised dog cots) to train this, as they are easy to clean up, easy to clean under, and raised above the ground so there is a difference in height and the dogs quickly figure out what it is we want them to do. However, we have used towels, yoga mats, and dog pillows to train this. The dogs will learn, no matter what bed you use.
When you can’t take your dog outside, due to weather or life circumstances, make sure you provide mental and physical exercise for your dog. What do you do with your dog to keep them sane when they are stuck inside?
