How can you ensure your dog never feels lonely or bored? You can agree that dullness is a common dissatisfaction among humans and all living beings, including your furry friend. Every day as a pet parent, you should think, “Is my buddy enjoying itself?” If not, there are ways to bring joy to your dog’s life or to actually entertain your dog.
Entertaining a dog is part of pet parents’ lives. Keeping your dog entertained reduces boredom and unwanted behaviours, such as chewing or excessive barking. A happy dog usually has good manners and quickly engages with its owner, children, and other animals.
Playing with dogs strengthens the bond between them and their owners. It’s a time filled with shared happiness, deepening trust and understanding. As you play together, dogs pick up on social cues and learn obedience from positive feedback.
Look at these ideas on entertaining your dog and other related details.
Hide and seek with the mouth-watering treats
Dog treats are more than just delicious. They can provide a source of joy for your pet. Imagine looking for your favourite food across the house, and when you finally find it, it’s amusing, right? That’s another effective way to cheer up that furry buddy when you’re away from the house. They will spend a few hours searching and eating before they realize you’re back.
This technique should be used less frequently to avoid making it appear that there’s a treat to find whenever you’re away. Furthermore, it’s best to prevent snack spoilage when leaving for short periods.
Leave the toys nearby
Dog toys are a life-saver when you’re not close to the pet (and also when you’re around). It is such a fantastic way to keep your pet amused for a short time until you return. It’s wise to have various differently designed toys for multiple purposes. A few ideas are balls, chew toys, puzzles, treat dispensers, and comfort toys.
Play fetch or find-the-treat together
Playing with dogs is one of the most popular and effective indoor entertaining tricks. Fetch is a beautiful game involving throwing a toy for the pet to retrieve. You can also hide a treat, let the dog find it and eat it. Other dog games include tug of war, puzzles, and hide and seek.
Training
Did you know training your pet can be fun? It’s a combination of teaching them a few skills while spending time with them. This can be fun, especially if you praise them as they navigate across different training.
The positive thing about this idea is that you can never run out of things to teach them. You’re spoilt for choice, from commands to walking on a leash, socialization, clicker training, potty training, and house/crate matters.
Run your errands with them
Dogs love to participate. However, leaving your pet idle for extended periods can cause destruction or restlessness. To avoid this, tag them with your daily activities around the house or it’s better to play some games with your dog.
Let them stay close when you’re working on your flower bed, cleaning the house, cooking, washing the car, and everything else (that doesn’t endanger them). While they cannot do things themselves, they will feel entertained by being present.
Hire a pet sitter
Entertainment is timeless. Unfortunately, you will not always be available to spend time with your doggie. In such times, a pet sitter could become a worthy substitute. They will participate in every other amusement idea you’ve implemented in your absence.
For instance, the sitter can play fetch and other games with the pet or even take them for a walk. Ensure adequate communication between you and the sitter to keep yourself updated and relay meaningful details when required.
Leave the TV on
Another trick to amuse your canine best friend, even from a distance, is leaving the TV on. However, the type of content matters. For example, having your dog watch sci-fi movies would be absurd as they may be bored or confused.
Research shows that these animals find dog/cat-related content enthralling as they can relate to it. Choose a long video with random clips of dogs and enough food in the bowl, and go about your day. Again, the sound should be optimal to ensure they can still meaningfully engage in other activities.
