Pouring outside and your dog's disappointed because she can't go out? We have a few ideas for indoor play and to keep them busy and entertained.
1. DIY a dog toy out of old stuff
Do you have any clothes or socks that you want to throw away? You could use these unwanted fabric to DIY your own unique dog toy.
We have an abundance of long socks which we don't wear and we will tie them up with various knots at different points to create a toy for our dog. She absolutely loves playing tug of war with the socks. Probably seems like a new toy whenever the knots are different.
2. Play the "Go Find" game
How to play:
a) Bring your dog to go to 1 designated corner and ask her to stay.
b) Then take out some yummy treats and place them strategically around your house, all the while making sure your dog is not peeping at you.
c) Return to your dog and tell her to go find and she will scurry around the house looking for treats.
This is our dog's favourite game and we play it almost every day, and she never seems to get bored of it. Although we have already ran out of locations to hide those treats, she still plays the game like it is the first time.
This might take a few tries to make it work but once your dog knows how the game goes, trust me, it will be awesome for both you and your dog. And it is good for mental stimulating!
3. Play fetch at home
This game is not only great for outdoor, it is also great indoor! Just make sure they do not knock things over in their frenzy rush and remember to use a soft toy in case you throw it on breakable furnitures accidentally.
4. Play catching around the house
Sometimes we just go back to old school and start chasing the dog around the house, or let the dog chase you around the house.
You might need a little bit of space and obstacles to enhance the challenge, but be careful of knocking things over or injuring yourself. This is awesome because you and your dog will both get to exercise. Our dog prefers to be chased rather than chasing us though - maybe because she is a female?
5. Learn new tricks or refresh old tricks
Spend some time to practise your dogs old tricks that they have learnt before. Get them to be better at their tricks! If you need verbal command and hand gestures for a trick, upgrade by only giving either verbal command or hand gestures.
Or better still, go watch some youtube videos and you can teach your dog some new tricks. It will wear them out mentally and physically.
6. Play fetch at home version 2.0
As with point 3 in the list, this is an upgraded version whereby you can mix and match multiple games at 1 time.
a) What we did is whenever we throw her toy for her to fetch, we will run away and she will come chasing us with the toy in her mouth.
b) We would throw the toy and then run and hide and let her try to find us. Maybe hide behind 1 of the room doors or behind the couch.
c) Another way requires 2 person. 1 of us will throw the toy to the other person and our dog will run towards the 2nd person. Then the 2nd person will instruct her to perform some tricks before giving the toy to her so that she can bring it back to the 1st person.
This is not an exhaustive list and we believe there are many other ways to keep your dog entertained. What other games can you think of?