How to Keep Your Dog Busy

Dogs are thinking animals. They need to be mentally stimulated and require regular exercise. If their owner does not provide them with activities, dogs will often create their own jobs. Unfortunately, doing jobs like re-landscaping the yard, removing base boards, and marathon serenades for the neighborhood are not in demand among most human populations. There are ways to keep your dog mentally stimulated and be able to stay sane as well.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Kibble
• Imagination
• Interactive Dog Toys
• one half hour
• chewable dog items

1. Have a variety of chew toys and chewable items available to your dog when you are unable to interact with him. Leave out 4 or 5 items that your dog will like to chew. Some suggested items might be rope knots, cow hooves stuffed with oatmeal and frozen, bully sticks, rubber chew toys made specifically for chewers.

2. Change out which items you leave for him every few days and take up the items when you are home. This will keep the toys novel and interesting to your dog.

3. Add in a few toys that make noises or flash when nosed or rolled. Many dogs enjoy toys that "do" something. Again, do not leave them out all of the time as this ruins their novel appeal.

4. Hide dog treats and chews around the yard or house for him to find. A dog who is sniffing around for a treat is not barking or chewing.

5. You may create a digging space for your dog by filling a children's sandbox with playground sand and some doggy treasures like chewables and hard dog cookies.

6. Instead of feeding your dog his daily ration of kibble from a bowl, stuff any one of the various interactive rubber dog toys with some kibble and a small amount of peanut butter, baby food, or yogurt. Most of these toys resemble a bell or beehive with a large hole and one end and small hole at the other. Once your dog has mastered using this toy, get several and hide them so that he may hunt for his food.

7. Keep in mind that most dogs require more than 30 minutes of daily exercise. In addition to their normal exercise routine, take 30 minutes each day to do activities with your dog. Brush him, train tricks, play with toys, or just snuggle in front of the television.

Tips & Warnings

• Rotate toys and chewables often to keep them new and interesting
• Make time to be with your dog, he learns from you. Teach him.
• The more time a dog spends doing the right thing, the less often he does the wrong thing. Give him many chances to be right.
• Do not increase your dog's anxiety by scolding him for misbehavior in your absence. This teaches him that you are volatile and unpredicatable.

[Desula]

on 5/1/2008 Biscuit & Cookie thank you for the article. We're going on a "Kibble Hunt" tomorrow night!!