Too lazy to go outside or bad weather and your dog is bored? You might give a look at these fun ideas of games that you can play inside the house.
1. Stairway dash
If you have a stairwell, make it a game to run up it and burn some serious energy. To get the most exercise from this game with the least risk to your dog’s joints, start at the bottom of the stairs. Put your dog in a sit-stay and throw the toy up to the top landing. Make it more exciting by keeping your dog in a stay while creating a build up, such as saying “Reeeady…. ready….. GO!” and let your dog dash up the stairs as fast as he can to retrieve the toy. Let your dog come back down the stairs at his own pace, encouraging a slower return since it’s the downhill climb that risks injury. After 10 or so repetitions of this, most dogs will be totally tuckered out.
2.Scent work with hidden treats
Teaching your dog to discover prizes using only his nose is a great game for the body and mind. While all dogs have a great sense of smell, sometimes they have to be reminded to use it, and this exercise can get your dog excited about solving the problem of the hidden prize. Set up a bunch of boxes or opaque containers (start with at least four or five) upside-down next to each other and, without your dog seeing you hide it, place a prize (a favorite toy, a bone, a treat, whatever works) under one of the containers. Next, encourage your dog to smell the boxes and as he (hopefully) pauses at the one with the prize, lift up the box and enthusiastically congratulate him on his discovery. Let him eat the treat, fetch the toy, or indulge in whatever prize your dog found. Soon, your dog will know what’s expected during this game and be excited to sniff out the prize. Keep adding more boxes and space them at farther intervals to increase the challenge as your dog’s scent work improves.
3.Hide and seek
If your dog knows that “find it” or a similar command means to go look for something hidden, then hide and go seek is a great indoor game to have fun with that command. To play, just show your dog what it is you’re going to hide — like a favorite toy, or even a person! — and then put him somewhere he can’t see you. Hide the item, then go get your dog and tell him to find it. Give him vocal clues if he needs help, like “gooooood” when she gets closer or “uh ooohhh” when he gets farther afield. Give hints if needed, by pointing or walking toward the hiding place, until your dog really has a grasp of what this game is all about. When he finds the hidden object, make a really big deal out of how brilliant he is. Make the praise worth all the effort he put into tracking down that object. Eventually, he’ll catch on to what the game is about and get faster and faster about looking and finding.
4.Obstacle course
If you’re going to do something, go all-in, right? Setting up an obstacle course for your dog and helping teach him how to navigate the obstacles is a lot of fun. A lot of work, sure, but you’re stuck inside on a rainy day so why not! Here are some suggestions for what to use:
A sturdy milk crate, stool or other item to balance on
A kitchen chair to jump up on or run underneath
A box with two open ends that he can crawl through
A basket alongside a pile of toys he has to place in it
A pole on two stools or boxes that he can leap over
A hula hoop to jump through
A frisbee or ball to catch
Create a few obstacles and guide your dog through each, building up to go faster each time through. Make sure to reward your dog with lots of praise, tug games or other high-value rewards each time she gets through the obstacle course. Make it fun, rather than work. And you can make it as challenging as your dog needs. For example, you can work on having her pick up a toy and carry it with her as she crawls through an open-ended box or balances on a crate. Tailor the game to your dog’s physical ability and the types of tricks she enjoys, and be sure to offer lots and lots of praise for her attempts at the obstacles. After all, this is all fun and games!
5.Tag You’re It
This really is a fun game. You’ll need a partner for this. Each of you gets a pocket full of treats. Start across the room from one another. One person calls the dog and rewards him with a treat, then the next person calls and rewards. Get farther back so that soon you’re calling from different rooms, and then from all the way across the house or apartment. The more your dog runs around the house, the better! Since we’re trying to maximize exercise and minimize food intake, once the game is going and your dog is excited, only treat every other or every third recall and use loads and loads of praise and excitement or a tug toy as a reward the rest of the time. You can increase the excitement your dog feels playing this game by calling to him and then starting to run away, so your recall is also a game of chase. This is a great game outside of the house too.
