With the current measures in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it’s extremely difficult to exercise your dogs in the normal way. Being stuck at home for months on end is tough, whether we have two legs or four.

With this in mind, we’ve put together some tips and advice on how to keep your dog active - both in body and mind:

• Food games – rather than giving your dog their meals in a bowl, using an activity game will both provide mental stimulation and physical exercise.
  • Activity balls and interactive games are great ways to achieve this – you can access these from local pet stores or create your own from recyclable material. See the specific ideas below, courtesy of Dogs Trust and You Tube. If you have access to Facebook, there is a great group called Canine Enrichment, which has daily posts on how to make your own dog interactive games.
  • Play hide and seek – hide food either around your home or in your garden and send your dog to go seek them out. Again, this provides mental stimulation and physical exercise.
• Training sessions – practicing task work, teaching new tricks are great ways of working your dogs’ brains. Keep sessions short and sweet but frequent throughout the day. The key is making it fun!
• General fun and games – having regular play sessions with your dog will help provide physical exercise and mental stimulation.
  • Tug of war.
  • Fetch and throw ball/toy.

Have fun!

 DIY dog enrichment games

How to make your own snuffle mat:

Muffin tin hide and seek:

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/news-events/blog/2019/diy-dog-toys-muffin-tin-hide-seek

Toilet roll tube brain game:

 

Homemade DIY brain games - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blORWOIO02Q

How to make a treasure box - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGFThaeASJE

How to make a tennis ball treat dispenser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPHrCK4mjR8

How to make a spinning bottle game - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u35OVNX18c

Plastic bottle treat dispenser game: