Beat canine boredom with these fun indoor games

Is your dog bored? Dogs are active and social animals, they like to interact with you and be part of the fun. Here’s a few indoor games to keep your dog entertained on rainy days and give you an opportunity to spend more quality time with your pooch.

Kibble hunt
Dinner is served on small paper plates scattered all over the house. Put your dog in a separate room while you place them, then let him out and watch him search. His nose will lead him to each meal.

Fun with a box & clicker
Start with one dog, one clicker and a hand full of treats. Spend the weekend charging up the clicker by clicking and then immediately giving a treat. Once your dog comes running after a hears the clicker then you’ve got it! Now, grab a box and set it on the ground. The moment your dog pays any attention to it, CLICK! And treat! He’ll wonder what the heck got him that treat and may go back to investigate the box further, click and treat again! Now that you’ve got his attention, try to shape a behavior. One of my dogs is convinced that he must paw at the box in order to get his treat, while another just knows that I want him to drop a toy inside. Be creative and click/reward for every different interaction and see what your dog comes up with!

The Doggie Stairmaster
Teach your dog to fetch up a flight of stairs. (carpeted only) This provide great exercise, just make sure you encourage him to come down slow!

Weave
Teaching your dog to weave through your legs is quite easy if you’ve got some tasty treats. Start with your dog next to you, then show him a treat and pull it between your knees, encouraging the dog to follow. Once he goes between your legs to the other side, reward him and repeat! Do the same for the other side, then put it all together for a figure eight!

Toy hide and seek
Name your dog’s different toys. For example, the purple pig can be called “pig” and the yellow ball can be called “ball”. Ask your dog to go ‘get ball” and point to it, if he brings the right one then reward him, if not just ignore him and point to the correct toy. Once your dog understand that each toy has a different name, you can begin to hide his toys and have fun sending him on a mission to a find a certain one.

Food toys
If you dog loves food (and what dog doesn’t?) then you can make use of the many food toys available. A popular one is the Kong toy, which is shaped like a beehive and has a hole in the middle for stuffing with treats. This will keep most dogs busy for a while as they try to unstuffy the toy and get the goodies inside.