Is the weather too harsh to go for a long walk with your dog? How should you exercise them indoors?
We’ve compiled some of our favorite ways to learn indoor activities that are enriching and fun for you and your dog!
- Learn a new trick
- Scavenging
- Hide and seek
- Play together
Learn a new trick or command:
Learning a new trick or command can use up a lot of your dog’s excess energy. When teaching your dog something new, make sure to use lots of treats and break it down into tiny steps to help your dog learn. If you’re looking for some ideas for what to teach your dog with videos explaining how to teach them, sign up for a ReadyDog membership! Our favorite beginner-friendly commands are touch, look, and sit.
Scavenging:
Scavenging is an instinctual, natural activity for our dogs and you’ll often find them doing it during your walks. An easy, wallet friendly way to meet this need is to gather some boxes from your recycling, put treats in them, close them up and lay them out on the floor. Let your dog search through the boxes and use their problem solving skills to get the treats out. Some dogs will rip and tear at the cardboard, which is completely fine, but if your dog tends to eat cardboard – this may not be the best game for them. If that’s the case, you can scatter treats or their kibble in their toy basket, around your house, or in a rolled-up towel and let them scavenge away!
Hide and seek:
Hide and seek can be with you, food, or a toy. If you’re playing with your dog, you can wait until they are distracted or have another person distract them while you go hide in another room. Once hidden, call out to your dog, (only once!) and wait. If they need a bit more help, you can call them again. When they find you, give them lots of praise and a treat reward. Repeat! If playing with a toy, choose one of their favourites, get them in the mood by playing tug or fetch, then start off easy by showing them where you hid it, walking them over to it (but don’t let them get it quite yet!) then walking them to another room and releasing them to go find it again. Once they find it, celebrate by playing with them. Slowly make it more difficult to find and ask them to go look for it. Always reward them with a play when they find it!
Play together:
Playing together can strengthen your relationship between you and your dog. Playing tug, fetch or chase in your house can help them expend some physical energy and work on your bond with your pet. Keep in mind your dog’s physical abilities, what space you have, and not to let the play go on so long that they become overtired or overstimulated – especially if they are a puppy!
We know it can be hard to find ways to exercise your dog when it’s too cold out, so we’re here to offer a helping hand as best we can!
