[ShutterbugMom]

I am looking for some fun indoor ideas for Scout. I can tell he is pretty bored sometimes. We have had lots and lots (did I say *lots*) of rain all winter. The yard is truly a mess and he doesn't want to go out in the rain. I can't blame him. He goes out and does what he needs to do and runs back in.

His favorite game is "shove a ball under a piece of furniture and let mom retrieve it for me." Obviously, this is *not* one of my favorite games.

His other favorite game is "stand at the top of the stairs and bark at the cat through the baby gate." Again, not a favorite of mine..LOL!!

I practice all his obedience and trick commands and try to have a new bone hidden away for these days, but he needs more stuff to do because we've had these rainy days 2-3 days per week for months.

Any good ideas out there?

 

[Finn's Fan]

Some indoor fun activities:
1) Hide and seek. You put him in a stay, you hide, then call him (once). Make it easy at first, then get creatively difficult.
2) Find the treat. Use a 12-muffin pan, put a treat in one of the muffin holes. Then place a tennis ball on top of ALL the muffin holes. Pup has to find the treat. It's interesting to watch whether they knock the balls off with their nose or pick each up with their teeth. Some get so distracted with the tennis balls that they never find the treat!!!!
3) Play "find it". You decide whether the "it" is a ball, article of clothing, dog toy, whatever. Rub a dog treat on the article, let pup smell it, put dog in a wait or stay, hide the item then give the command "find it". Make it pretty easy at first to avoid frustration, then ramp up the difficulty. Great mental exercise.

 

[Vanfull]

My kids have been playing lots of the muffin tin game. They LOVE to be the one to set up the tray and put it down for the puppies almost as much as the puppies love it.

We play "FIND IT" quite a bit too. We break our treats up into small pieces and the puppies wait on one side of the gate while the kids hide treats in the room on the other side. Then we open the gate and yell FIND IT and they go looking for the treats. We are gradually making it a bit harder to find the treats.

Beyond that I could use ideas too because winter seems really LONG!

 

[ShutterbugMom]

Thanks!

Thanks for the ideas....we will try some of them out. I can tell he is bored some days (we've had days lately where it literally rains ALL DAY. The yard is a mess.) I feel bad because he just looks at me and wants to play all the time. I do feel bad because he seems bored, but obviously, I can't play with him all day...LOL! I try to alternate chores / work and playing with him every hour or so, but he still seems bored.

 

[MikaTallulah]

Lucky would retrieve almost anything is asked. I would dump the dirty laundry in the bathroom and send him to bring it to me piece by piece. It kept him busy for a while. This did backfire a few times when he brought an entire basket of clean laundry into the laundry room with the dirty.

Buddy and the yorkies love to play "find it" with treats of toys.

 

[shallwemichele]

We have a 14 week old pup who can't go outside yet (until vaccinations are complete) and we live in a condo on the second floor. Some ideas (come up with in desperation):
* kibble under a big plastic lid from nut jar, on kitchen floor;
* hide the kibble—breakfast all over the house (with him seeing me hide some but having to find some on his own);
* tug and jump with a rope hung from a hook anchored in the ceiling, rope toy attached;
* wrestle and roll with a hard cardboard construction tube (ten inches across and three feet long);
* get the balls thrown through a long tunnel made by folding and taping together the box the puppy pen came in

 

[vcm5]

Great suggestions! How about playing a monkey in the middle type of game with a partner to work on recall? Just have both of you stand on either end of a big room with treats and take turns calling the dog and give treats when they arrive at you. The faster the more treats and the bigger the praise!

 

[MikaTallulah]

We have a 14 week old pup who can't go outside yet (until vaccinations are complete) and we live in a condo on the second floor. Some ideas (come up with in desperation):
* kibble under a big plastic lid from nut jar, on kitchen floor;
* hide the kibble—breakfast all over the house (with him seeing me hide some but having to find some on his own);
* tug and jump with a rope hung from a hook anchored in the ceiling, rope toy attached;
* wrestle and roll with a hard cardboard construction tube (ten inches across and three feet long);
* get the balls thrown through a long tunnel made by folding and taping together the box the puppy pen came in

Where doesn't puppy go potty if they can't got outside?

 

[2Retrievers222]

Puppies can go outside. Vaccinations won,t be complete until 1 year. How long are you going to keep puppy in house for?

 

[shallwemichele]

We use pee pads on the balcony, and we "suggest" he goes at certain times, and he just goes there at other times. Not too many accidents these days. Six hours in the crate at night.

In our area vets ask you not to let the puppies go outside where other dogs might go until they've finished the parvo shots, at approximately four months. We've heard that it kills puppies, and out vet told us she sees two cases a week.

 

[2Retrievers222]

She probably meant places like dog parks. Take your puppy outside. Go walk in the trails.