Florida winters are mild, but there will be some days when
it’s not nice enough to take your dog outside. You may also be required to stay
indoors because one of your family members is sick. However, your four-legged
friend will still feel energetic, so it’s a good idea to think of some things
to do to keep your dog busy indoors.
Teach Your Dog a Trick
Dogs are very smart. You can teach them to obey a variety of
commands, and they’ll enjoy the learning session. It’s important to watch your
dog for signs of inattention, because that’s when they can no longer focus on
the lesson. For example, younger dogs may only be able to focus for a few
minutes, but you can repeat the training session several times throughout the
day.
Teaching your dogs can be simple and basic in the beginning.
For example, your dog needs to learn how to sit and come. But you can also
teach your dogs a few fun things, such as these:
- High five
- Army crawl
- Dance
- Collect garbage
- Kiss
Play Hide and Seek
If you played hide-and-seek with your dog, you would lose
every time. They have an amazing sense of smell and will find you wherever you
are. What could be fun is to play hide-and-seek with their food. Instead of
putting the food in the usual place, let them find it around the house at
feeding time. It could be fun to watch, but don’t expect this to last very
long.
Play the Cup Game
This game is popular with children, but it works just as
well for your dog. For this, you’ll need 3 cups, and you put them upside down.
You’ll hide a treat under one of the cups and leave the other two empty. Then
you rotate them around for a little while and let your dog find the treat.
You
can experiment with letting your dog watch you shuffle the cups and doing it
while he’s not watching. It will be interesting to find out if he uses his
memory or his nose to find the treats. Your dog may even have a favorite color
cup and keep trying the same one. Of course, you should let him have the treat
when he finds it.
Play Tug of War
Dogs are smart, and you need to exercise their brains. That’s
what teaching tricks and playing hide-and-seek games are for. But they also
need to exert themselves physically to stay healthy and happy. Dogs that don’t
get enough physical activity are more likely to get in trouble. One indoor game
that can make a big difference is tug of war.
For that, you can use a thick rope and let your dog have one
end while you hold the other. Now it’s time to see who can keep holding on to
the rope. Medium-sized and big dogs are strong enough to pull you across the
room, but that doesn’t mean you should let them. Instead, you could try
catching them off guard. Keep the rope slack and don’t pull on it until they’ve
also let loose a little. Of course, you should do this in a room of the house
that’s safe to play in – at least put any breakable items out of reach before
you start.
Teach Your Dog to Do Chores
You would have so much more time to do fun things if it wasn’t
for household chores. Whether that’s doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, or
sweeping the floors – it takes time to keep your house looking neat. Why don’t
you teach your dog how to help you? It will be fun for both of you and
eventually, cleanup will be done sooner.
You can start by letting them put things away. As long as
the items aren’t particularly fragile, your dog can be a huge help. They can
carry things where they need to go. You can put up a bin for them to put their
dog toys in and start teaching them how to do that first. They could even learn
how to take the garbage out and put garbage into the trash can.
There are lots of other things you can do with your dog
indoors. For example, nothing beats cuddling up to a good movie for a thorough
petting session. Your dog doesn’t have to be active all the time, either. Your
four-legged friend always appreciates when you spend time with them.
