Dog Boredom Busters
by Dani Jones When you have long days away from home the last thing you want to hear from your neighbours is that your dog has been barking all day! Entertaining your dog is all about enriching their day, adding different stimuli like smells, sounds and games at home or providing external interactions. Before you head out for the day, remember to take them on a nice long walk, run or play. When you need to leave them, here are some fun ideas to minimise dog boredom:
Toys
There are numerous food-based toys on the market to help entertain your dog throughout the day. They are much like puzzles for dogs. Owners put wet food or kibble inside the toy and the dog needs to figure out how to get the food out. Popular brands are Kong and Buster Cubes. There are more advanced toys which look more likes mazes and involve dogs having to take pieces out of a puzzle to get to the treats if your dog needs more of a challenge. Remember if you’re going to use food-based toys the calorie intake needs to be taken off their meals to avoid an overly round dog.
For dogs who aren’t so interested in food (yes, they do exist!) a simple idea is to alternate the toys they have access to. Each day they will have a new selection of ‘friends’ to play with.
Games
These games can entertain for hours. They involve self-serve games like throwing tennis balls such as the iFetch Ball Thrower or All For Paws Interactive Fetch N Treat, which also releases a few treats when the dog returns the ball.
For dogs who like herding, there are balls available which can be filled with water, sand or gravel or balls inside other balls. This means the ball continues moving once the dog pushes it. They come in sizes for all dogs, not just the larger breeds. Jolly Balls and Teaser Balls are examples of these.
Another game to set up is a treasure hunt with treats. Strategically place treats around your yard and/or home which your dog can sniff out during the day. This may require a bit of pre-training, unless your dog is a natural sniffer dog.
TV/Radio
For dogs with separation anxiety, try leaving the radio or TV on for your dog. The sound of voices is an easy way to make your dog think they aren’t home alone.
Icicles
Meaty icicles are used at zoos and can entertain even the largest animals. For a dog-sized version, freeze chunks of meat, treats or toys for them to discover in either plain water or low salt broth and leave them in your yard, balcony or bathtub/shower recess for indoor dogs. The bigger the ice block, the longer it will entertain your dog. These make for a great treat on hot days.
Play Dates and Daycare
With play dates and dog daycare centres, dogs can entertain each other under the supervision of an owner or daycare staff. With play dates owners can alternate supervision responsibilities, or if you have a friend or neighbour who works from home, they can do the minding.
Daycare provides a large space with LOTS of dogs playing together. From experience, the quality and supervision differs greatly between centres so shop around. Most have two or more areas to separate smaller or quieter dogs from the bigger ones, some will take dogs out walking during the day, some have a large team supervising the dogs (as opposed to some I’ve seen who tend to leave the dogs to entertain themselves) and some have trainers to work with dogs with behavioural issues.
Note that most daycare will require dogs to be desexed and vaccinations up to date. Dogs generally get assessed before their first day to see if they are suitable for group play.
Dog Walker – ME!
If you prefer your dog to get a more personalised play session, then a dog walker is for you. We do solo walks and small group walks, which I keep to a maximum of four dogs.
Solo walks a great for high energy dogs because we can play non-stop fetch, go running, swimming or walk at your own dog’s speed without dawdlers slowing us down. They are also good for timid dogs and dogs with behavioural or social issues.
Group walks suit most dogs and involve a short car drive picking up their walking buddies on the way to a local dog park. Once at the park well trained dogs can walk off-lead with others remaining on-lead.
Remember variety is the key when trying to prevent dog boredom. You can mix and match all of the above throughout the week to ensure your dog is a happy dog 🙂