Rainy days. Mondays. Covid days….too many days where we are stuck indoors oflate. But fear not, as Anvis is here to offer valuable suggestions and tips on how one can keep the dog engaged while indoors.
- Hide and seek - Scatter treats around the house in nooks and crannies so you can have your dog search for treats and keep themselves occupied. Sometimes hiding their toys under cushions or blankets can also do the trick! If you want to get really playful, then join in the fun and be the one your dog has to seek! It’s a great family entertainer too - the kids will LOVE it!
- Obedience training - We cannot stress enough the importance of keeping up with training despite the age or breed of the dog. It is a great idea to introduce a 10-15 minute session of training 2-3 times a day if you are stuck indoors. Get the dog to think & pay attention so you are set with a calm, balanced dog!
- Obstacle courses too - with the stay-at-home lifestyle we are living nowadays, we surely have a ton of empty boxes lying around. Let’s put them to good use by teaching the dogs basic agility (jump, crawl, weave etc)! However we have to make a point that these are to be done only if your dog is in good health with no joints or other movement issues
- Game of fetch and tug! If you do have a slightly bigger space for the dog to run, then do let the dog fetch its toy and if you’ve a retriever breed, then you’re bound to have a lot of fun! Tugging is another fun exercise, but a word of caution before you play this game - your dog needs to know tugging etiquette ; in other words, it needs to know how to drop an object, how to take an object and not be using nipping and biting methods to get access to the toy whilst tugging. If you’ve all this under control, then tug away!
- We will cover more about scent games in another blog, but for now, let’s use the inverted cups game (with a treat hidden under a cup) to keep the dog engaged. It’s a rudimentary form of mental exercise, but if you’d like to step it up a notch, then stay tuned for our future blog!
Now, it must be said this list is not exhaustive, but it is a good start to keep your dog engaged and to work on your relationship with your buddy too. To learn more on how we train a dog to play these games, feel free to reach us at Anvis! We’d love to help!