2 dogs under house arrest, idea's needed to occupy them?

[hennipenni]

Our 2 dogs are under house arrest as they both have kennel cough, one is a 18month old show cocker who is not at all food orientated but is easy to occupy with clicker training and sleep!

The other is a 9month old working rescue lab who we've had for a fortnight, she's very food orientated and we've done the usual splitting her meals into smaller meals in kongs, plastic bottles etc, hiding food for her to find, clicker training with her food, lots of general training etc. We are keeping them inside as advised by our vet but have to let them in to the garden to play and let off excess energy etc but the poor lab is climbing the walls as she'd just started to go on decent walks with us which she really enjoyed.

Has anybody got any other ideas to help keep her occupied? She's getting into mischief because she getting bored but will happily settle in her crate when put in there.

[Vibbe]

How about spreading their food in the garden, then letting them find it themselves?
I'd do different training in the garden - retrieving, recall and teach new things - could be something like 'play dead' or other fun commands.

[needastrongone]

I sometimes hide treats in a cardboard box, then tape it up, make our dog 'wait' them 'find it'. Makes a mess and is better in the garden but does occupy our dog for a while.

101 ways with a box, Google it. Kikopup videos for tricks on Youtube?

It's hard, isn't it?

[longjane]

Why can you not lead walk round the roads away from other dogs?

[Eastpoint]

We did as Longjane suggests, eastpuppy1 is incredibly lively normally but while she had kennel cough didn't need long walks.

[NumptyNameChange]

does that not teach dogs to tear apart cardboard boxes needastrongone? it sounds like fun but i'd worry they'd associate cardboard boxes with tearing them apart and getting praised for it.

[PseudoBadger]

If the lab likes her crate you could beg borrow or steal Susan Garrett's 'Crate Games' DVD and have some fun.

[Floralnomad]

Personally I'd stick them in the car ,drive somewhere remote and walk them ,its unlikely you will meet too many people . I try to keep mine in when he has KC ,but he's had it 3x in 3 yrs despite being vaccinated so he's catching it from somewhere ! He never goes to kennels and doesn't particularly mix with other dogs .

[needastrongone]

Well, most of my cardboard boxes don't usually contain large pieces of cooked, smelly liver, so generally are very boring and not worth ripping up or even sniffing

And usually, my cardboard boxes contain bottles of wine, so it's usually me ripping them open to get at the contents

[needastrongone]

I also agree with Floral, there's a very large wood, about 10 minutes drive from here, that actually has a public bridleway running though it, although so few people seem to know about it.

I often take Ddog there, it's so beautiful and peaceful, we rarely encounter anyone else.

[cq]

Our favourite indoor game with over energetic lab is to play fetch up and down the stairs. I stand at the top & throw, she runs down and back up with it endlessly!! Great exercise. Prob can't do it too much with a youngster though - stretchy tendons at that age, and not great coordination.

[NumptyNameChange]

cq don't mean to be critical but you really want to be careful with that. some people don't even let their labs climb stairs because of their hip issues let alone run up and down them. sorry if i sound critical but worth looking into.

needastrongone - good point - was just worried about coming home to find the dogs had had a fun game of destroy the boxes under the christmas tree

my dogs are not very entertained - i'm a bad owner. the lab is in the hall moaning at me through the living room door as i speak. she's very moany at the minute due to me being a bit overstressed and not walking her as much as usual.

[hennipenni]

thanks for all the replies, we will try all that has been suggested. The lab did go out for a short walk last night which seemed to help settle her, we live in a very heavy dog populated area and even just street walking means we meet lots of dogs. The scattering of her breakfast kept her occupied for a while (along with digging up my garden and emptying any flower pots she could find!)