Other ways than walking to entertain (and tire out) dogs please?

[TheFantasticMrsFox]

Currently we are doing a mammoth juggling act with our three dogs, two entire boys and one in season bitch puppy. She has been visibly bleeding for 10 days now but showing little sign of being "ready" yet. We have been sticking to a strict rota of two in, one out- my sitting room has more dog crates than furniture at the moment :o

So far the boys are intrigued with goings on but were slightly put off by her wild attempts to mount them, bite their ears and generally molest them in any way she can They can obviously still walk and we are ensuring they get plenty of exercise, as well as being out working every weekend which knocks them out for a couple of days.

The real problem is DDog3 who has been confined to lead walks for over a week now, and who spends far too long in her cage for a young dog. She has antler chews, stuffed Kongs when she's out and I have tried, with very little success, to teach her some tricks. A combination of too much energy and a hormone addled brain means that she is resistant to anything more than a basic sit at the moment. Is there anything else I could be doing with her or do we really need to just ride it out? Her discharge is lightening up in colour so I think walks may also be off the cards for a few days

[ender]

My dogs enjoy a game of indoor football, works best with hard flooring as ball rolls better. We use small rubber balls, dog holds one is his mouth and bats the other around with his paws, with occasional input from me if ball goes under furniture. My GSD X really concentrates and watches the ball carefully after he's made it move. Lab focuses more on trying to get 2 balls in his mouth at once. Half an hour of this really tires them out.

[MehsMum]

Have you tried hiding food around the room for her to find? Show her a chew or a treat, leaver her where she can't see you, conceal the chew and get her to find it. A few rounds of this will give her something to think about.

If she'll do a basic sit, have you tried a sit-stay? Also, if you have a long line, you do the same out of doors (as well as sprinkling a few tiny treat across a few square feet of fallen leaves for her snuffle around and find).

Can you tell, by the recurrent advice to use treats, that my dog is almost entirely food motivated?

[LoathsomeDrab]

Have you used a clicker with her before? 101 things to do with a box is great for getting their brains working and tiring them out.

[crapcrapcrapcrap]

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[TheFantasticMrsFox]

Thanks everyone :)
loathsome we have used a clicker in the early days, then our trainer advised we stop as she was introducing it later on, so she has some inkling of whats going on. Whether her sex-crazed brain will have any use for a clicker though is another matter entirely :o At the moment she seems completely unable to concentrate and is doing a good Taz impression, whirling round the place and taking random leaps at things- currently she's sporting a very fetching set of claw marks down her nose where she tried her best flirtatious advances on the cat :o