Is your dog driven by a motor even if they have a big walk?

4 Feb

You are not the only one! Below are a few activities you can include in your daily routine to tire your dog’s brain!

When the brain is tired - the body will follow but remember, our dogs are athletes! Well… Some of them! They can run for miles but taking them for longer walks to tire them out will only make them fitter and able to walk more without being tired.

- Sniffing -

1) Scatter treats on an old towel and wrap it (and even put a knot on if your dog is particularly savvy) to let your dog sniff the treats out. Use a towel you’re not attached to as there is a big possibility it will be shredded!

2) Scatter treats in grass in the garden or on a walk and let your dog sniff them out. They may not be interested in them initially in the areas they find more exciting so start this one in the garden. You can use both of those methods to feed your dog their breakfast or dinner. You can use trees outdoors to hide treats in tree bark as well. You can purchase a snuffle mat if you’d like an easy sniffing enrichment.

-Shredding -

1) Have a cardboard box and fill it with packing paper, smaller boxes, empty toilet rolls etc. Hide some treats inside. You are very welcome to get creative with those and make it as difficult as you’d like. They may be weary initially so start with easy ones and progressively make them more challenging. Use a mix of daily food and some high value treats like boiled turkey in the box to make it even more valuable.

-Chewing-

1) Use long lasting natural chews from websites like ancodogtreats.co.uk or jrpetproducts.com. Chewing is a great activity which helps to get rid of stress hormones in dog’s body. Chew can be a good idea for the evening to calm down and add calming enrichment.

-Licking-

1) It may be useful to invest in a Licki Mat or just spread something tasty on anything that is safe to lick. You can spread pate, yogurt, liver paste, wet food or baby food on it and even freeze it to last longer and cool them don on hot days. This will help your dog to calm down a lot.