Enrichment/boredom Buster Ideas

[Pretty Miss Emma]

Well, I'm looking to steal as many of the brilliant DOL ideas as I can!!

Here's the deal... Since Emma (12yo, diabetic, mostly blind) has had pneumonia I'm not prepared to leave her outside unsupervised. She takes herself off to sleep on the concrete rather than using one of her cosy beds, or even the mat!! We can't afford a relapse of the pneumonia, so her days are now spent inside while I am at work. If the weather is pretty much guaranteed to be lovely and quite warm I'll leave her out (but let's be honest it's an early winter for Victoria!!). Before this she was used to spending days outside in the garden with Kenzie.

I leave either the TV or radio on for her. I also try to leave her with some sort of treat (usually a few treats scattered on the floor for her to sniff out, but have to be careful with this due to the diabetes!), but watching her find food I'm wondering if her eye drops are having some effect on her sense of smell making it difficult for her to find them easily.

So I welcome any ideas you can give me for environmental enrichment for her or if you have any other boredom buster ideas!!!! I know dogs do spend a lot of time sleeping, but I'm really feeling that she is getting a bit bored and I need to do as much as I can for that does not involve sight to keep her quality of life high (I don't think it's low, but I really don't want a bored/depressed dog).

Any help welcomed!!!

[SmoothieGirl]

If you are prepared to deal with the mess when you get home from work, what about paper towel or toilet rolls, without the tissue of course.

You could either scrunch up the ends of a couple, with maybe just a couple of treats in them for her to have, or just give her them to destroy without treats, which my two enjoy just as much.

Is she toy orientated? Maybe a nice squeaker toy or even just a plastic bottle for crunching, or one of the soft toys you can put a plastic bottle in. Or if she likes squishy toys, something nice to cuddle and nuzzle. Rotate every 2-3 days so she gets a new surprise every now and then.

Its hard in her situation, but I think you will find you are on the money, at her age she'll be sleeping lots, so she probably only needs a couple of distractions during the day.

Oh, another thought, what about a flavoured Nylabone? That might be nice, she can have the taste without the impact on her diabetes.

[rastus_froggy]

I am a big fan of the wobbler kongs, instead of leaving treats around the house you could put them in the kong and make her work for them. My dogs love the wobblers but aren't getting to use them as much since I have changed them to a raw food diet.

[Jam4na]

Wobbler kong is awesome! I have a Weimaraner puppy and he loves it Winner!!!