I was doing some research on how to keep dogs entertained while we are away from home. There’s the common notion that A Busy Dog Is A Good Dog. Or A Bored Dog Spells Trouble.
While this may not apply to your well-behaved friend, the information may be something your doggie would like you to have. 🙂 Because it COULD add to their enjoyment when you are not around to entertain them.
I found this article on WikiHow. The solution centers around interactive toys. More specifically, food toys. Like peanut butter (or other favorites) stuffed in an interactive toy. The article goes into some detail on this.
The main idea is to find the perfect point of challenge for your dog. You don’t want it to be TOO easy to get the treat out. Otherwise he’d be done in no time. But if you make it too challenging, he may not think it’s worth the effort.
And the other tip is to test it out while you are at home. So you can see beforehand how messy or clean this is going to be. AND if your doggie doesn’t even pay attention to you while working on the toy, that means Mission Accomplished. The toy is keeping him busy AND entertained !
Here’s an excerpt from the article.
Gather up interactive treats, dog food, and toy stuffing (such as peanut butter or Kong stuffing, small dog biscuits or milk bones).
Make an honest assessment of your dog’s smarts, creativity, and stubbornness. Interactive food toys can be stuffed in a way that makes it easy or hard to get the rewards out. As a general rule, the smarter the dog, the more challenging you can make it. If it’s too hard, then the dog’s motivation disappears.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Article source: WikiHow
Image source: Jim Winstead on Flickr
