You have got a tight schedule for your entire day, and there is your dog, jumping around and wagging its tail to grab your attention.
They want you to play with them.
We know you also enjoy playing with your fur babies. It’s no less than a stress buster; it brightens your mood and makes you feel alive and energetic. However, during winters when days are colder and shorter, it becomes difficult to take your dog outside for their training and exercise. Same goes for hectic days - you can’t invest significant time in taking your canine to a park and play games to keep them entertained.
Solution? Well, you can add some creativity and plan indoor games to keep your dog active and alert. Here are our tried and true tips.
Games to Keep Your Dog Busy and Safe Indoors
Playing indoors is a great way to keep your dog active, busy, and away from trouble. The best part is both you and your dog will enjoy it.
Don’t know where to start?
Let us help. Today, we have come up with three fun games to keep you canine on its toes, take a look -
Hide and Seek
Hide and seek is an exciting game to play with your canine. It is a fun way to help your dog develop their natural scent tracking abilities.
In hide and seek, make your dog stay while you hide at a spot. Once set, call your dog- ‘find me’. Treat and reward them generously when they find you.
Once your dog understands the rules, you can play hide-and-seek anywhere. Playing the game outdoors makes it more difficult as they will be competing with more distractions. Surprisingly, dogs don’t get sick of it even if you hide a few repeated spots over and over, so it will be easy for you to play inside the home.
Tug of War
Many people have a misbelief that playing tug of war can make the dog aggressive. From what we know, playing it with little care and caution makes it a fantastic exercise for your pet. It has some simple rules:
- The dog should wait for you to present the tug toy.
- They must set the toy free when you ask.
- A proper response to sit, wait, and down commands during breaks in play. It helps to generate focus and discourage over-excitement.
The type of tug toy you choose to play is important. Choose the right texture and size by considering the size of your dog. Smaller dogs might enjoy playing with a soft toy, while strong, peppy puppies might like a rope toy. Go for the tug toy that puts enough space between their eager mouth and your delicate fingers.
Tug of war is an easy game, you may not require much space, and can also add a couple of training sessions in between to make your dog stay fresh.
Find the Treats
Find the treats is yet another easy-peasy game where you use the favourite treat of your dog.
To play, make your canine stay while you hide treats all around the living space.
If it is the first time when your dog is playing this game, begin with placing the treats in plain sight to make them aware of the idea of the game. It may take a while for dogs to rely equally on their sniffing ability along with the visual signs. After a few rounds, you can begin hiding treats at some difficult spots.
Always try some new & creative dog activities to engage your pup’s brain and body. You can find more interesting games to play with your dogs in our next blog post - stay tuned with Bully Billows!
