TotemSpirit Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I am hoping for some suggestions of toys or idea's for keeping dogs busy & entertained while people are at work. Hopefully not to expensive & possibly some home made idea's Maybe if we get enough idea's, Troy might pin this for others? .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkySoaringMagpie Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We are super unoriginal but our routine goes like this and seems to work. 1 - Half hour to an hour of running and playing in the morning 2 - Put into the kennels with a buster cube or a kong. If it's hot, the kong is frozen. Works fine as far as I know (no-one has pulled teeth chewing on the wire, or inspired the neighbours to complain). One thing I intend to do is get those collar bark & pace counters that Ian Dunbar was talking about at his seminars to see if that lack of feedback really does indicate that they are OK. Based on weekend behaviour tho', our guys tend to crash after morning shenanigans and don't really wake up again until around four or five pm. So perhaps I have it easy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pug Hugger Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Owning pugs I am not allowed to take them for walks in the morning as they would much rather sleep in my bed until 5 minutes before I walk out the door. At which point they move to their day time area (inside only) and presumably go back to sleep until I get home (put it this way the beds are always warm and the pile of toys is never disturbed!). I do up either a kong, buster cube or twist-n-treat for them each. Kongs I fill with little bikkies, liver, yoghurt etc and top with either yoghurt or some advance wet food and freeze so they have more of a challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvus Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Kivi being 10 months old and cooped up in a small yard with no friends for 10 hours a day, we are constantly wracking our brains for new things for him to do. The soft drink bottles with treats in them and plugged with peanut butter is pretty popular. We also have Kongs, flying saucer-shaped treat dispensers, and sometimes they get iceblocks of frozen stock with treats in it. We have also tried cardboard parcels with treats inside, and getting strips of cloth and tying them into knots with treats inside. This week we have some marrow bones that should keep him busy when he's in the yard. He now goes to doggy day care twice a week, which sure does work. We have neighbours that don't like barking dogs, so have to be all over it. Kivi was fine with a walk and a Kong right up until 2 weeks ago when he decided he would stand in the yard and bark all day. Peculiar, as at that point he was getting more exercise than he's ever had! I think he will settle down soon and be all right again, but doggy day care is pretty awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CP* Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 I have a lot of problem getting out the door in the morning with my dogs so I rotate the morning entertainment. - treat bottles - similar to what corvus does, water bottles with holes in them and kibble inside so they have to roll them around to get the kibble out. - little dog bones (I know, shouldnt give them unsupervised) - puppy treasure hunt. This is their favourite. I just cut up small pieces of treats and kibble and hide it all around the house or outside (outside I might just throw the kibble around but I still hide treats otherwise they find it too quickly). I lock them in the laundry while I hide the stuff otherwise they remember where I put things. This keeps them entertained for ages - at least long enough from when I leave to when its time for their nap. They get thru the Kongs and commercial treat dispensers before I even make it out the door so I don't bother with them. Mine also get an hour walk in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickasyoucan Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 We are super unoriginal but our routine goes like this and seems to work.1 - Half hour to an hour of running and playing in the morning 2 - Put into the kennels with a buster cube or a kong. If it's hot, the kong is frozen. Works fine as far as I know (no-one has pulled teeth chewing on the wire, or inspired the neighbours to complain). One thing I intend to do is get those collar bark & pace counters that Ian Dunbar was talking about at his seminars to see if that lack of feedback really does indicate that they are OK. Based on weekend behaviour tho', our guys tend to crash after morning shenanigans and don't really wake up again until around four or five pm. So perhaps I have it easy Yeah I'd like a webcam to see what goes on. Jake gets the same sort of exercise Anita mentions in the morning and is picked up for a walk by a neighbour at 3 or 4 pm, we then do some training when I get home at 6-7 pm. He has not done any damage in the house since he was about 1.5 years old and even then it was only minor chewing once or twice. I am pretty convinced he sleeps all day. My lovely neighbour says she often has to wake him up when she gets there. Sorry it's not a helpful suggestion other than to say other friends I have who do not exercise their dogs before going to work have much greater problems with boredom. I don't leave Jake with anything, he's not into Kongs and wouldn't eat any food till I got back anyway. Same with our springers when we were young. If they were left with a chew it was still there when we got home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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