Preventing Dog Boredom

Sometimes life can get in the way and we become distracted by work, school, preparing dinner, attending social gatherings or organizing the kids. With all these things happening, we then come home and find that our pooches have dug holes in the backyard, ripped their beds to pieces and may even receive some unappreciative comments about how noisy they have been while we have not been home.

As frustrating as these scenarios can become, if you imagined being your dog for a minute, you begin to understand why they would be behaving this way, and the answer to this is boredom. There are ways that we can help our dogs keep entertained while we are out and about, which not only keeps our pets happy but also us, and of course our neighbors.

As we all know, our pooches are very food orientated, so anything involving treats will keep them both entertained and most of all, happy. A healthy, cheap and easy option would be raw meaty bones.  Most of the time these are quite time consuming for them and may even keep them busy for a couple of hours. Another food idea would be to use dry dog biscuits and scatter them around the back yard so they have to hunt for the biscuits.

There are many great dog toys on the market that help not only relieve their boredom, but stimulate the mind. Some of the most popular durable toys being the Kong and different types of treat balls.

Kong toys are quite popular as they are tough and durable, and can be filled with yummy treats that can keep your pooch entertained. There are also a Wobbling Treat Balls, which are round with weighted bottoms, so that every time they are touched they return back to the upright position, having the stuffed treats release as they play.

Everlasting Treat Balls are also highly durable and will even be a challenge for the toughest chewers. You can fill the ball with treats while it is covered with edible caps that they will have to chew through to get to the middle filling.

If your dog isn’t much of a chewer, soft plush toys can be useful, especially if they involve sounds such as a squeak, crinkle or crackle. Toys containing a plastic bottle are also becoming popular, as dogs tend to love the crinkling sound.

If you have only one dog they can become quite lonely by themselves all day, a friend to keep them company may also be beneficial to provide companionship and also provide a loving home for a second dog.

Why not organize a dog walker to spend a bit of time with your pooch?  Or even taking your dog to a doggy day care a couple of times a week? There are many dog-walking and doggy day care services around that can help keep your dog active, social and most of all, tire them out during the day.

As they say, a tired dog is a good dog!