Give me some indoor games to play with my dog

[fruitstick]

He's only had a short walk today. We played with the ball outside for about 10 minutes so he's run around.

It's now freezing and dark and I'm feeling ropey after a long day at work. I don't really want to take him out.

What can I do to give him a bit of stimulation instead?

He had a long walk yesterday off lead and will get another one tomorrow.

Flatten out old tshirt, add a few treats, roll a bit, few more treats, repeat until full then tie in a loose knot and throw on the floor.

Flatten bod roll inners. Add treats inside them and stuff into non flat bog roll tube.

Muffin tin game: treats in tin, toys on top, dog has to find treats

Find it

Tea towel rolled with treats in an knotted

Do some trick training

Put some treats on the floor and tell him to find it/ seek /...
Make it more difficult by placing them in the corner or on a chair in a bowl, or bucket as he gets used to the comand.

You can then over time expand to different toys.

We close him in one room then scatter training treats throughout the house.

He then knows the command to find them and runs round like an idiot sniffing them out.

Hide and seek:
Make him stay while he watches you hide a treat (on a chair, under a newspaper, behind a cushion), then let him go find it. Repeat until you're both bored.

Recycling destruction:
Find a box in your recycling (cereal box works well), stuff it with other bits of recycling (e.g. newspaper), and sprinkle kibble/treats throughout the box. Give him the box, let him rip it apart to find the treats.

Chess? 😁

Scent work. Tear up a few strips of an old cloth and put them in a jam jar with cloves so they take on the smell. Hide the cloths around the house and tell him to go find (give him a sniff of the jar so he gets the scent). Mark and reward
when he finds it.

Practise your commands - stay/sit/come here (you can do ‘boomerang’ with another person)/lie down/watch me/to heel/spin round/etc. Mark/reward

Teach him the name of a couple of toys and ask him to touch the ball/teddy/whatever, or hide them and tell him to find the ball etc. Mark/reward

These are excellent thank you.

He's a spaniel so should love a bit of scent training but he's quite rubbish! Often steps over the tennis ball lying in the grass!

He will get it, you have to guide spanners to not do everything at spanny-mph and use their nose well.

Mine loves a Nina Ottoson puzzle every so often too.

He's not being rubbish.

Think of a where's wally picture. We can see the tennis ball but your spaniel is seeing a where wally picture of scent. So he is concentrating on all the other scents around. - it is us that is being rubbish only being able to see the tennis ball

Also spaniels looooooooove the actual scenting so you often see them avoid the area where the scent is or where the item is so that they can carry on scenting for longer.

He is being a genius sniffer

We had steak for tea. I put some of the fat in a loo roll.

He thought it was Christmas 🎄

We've also been practising his down, which to be honest we'd got out of the habit.

I used to play "guess the hand"...treat in hand, behind back, both fists then presented. He had to touch the correct hand with both nose and paw to constitute a guess.

i used to send my girl (also spaniel) to the other side of the room, balance a treat on my knee then flick it in her direction for her to try to catch.

Also used to get her to sit in front of me while i balanced a biscuit on her nose, she wasn't allowed to have it until i said so. Then she'd flick it in the air and catch it.

I do scent work. I did a short class with ddog which he loved. I bought some cat nip and the little toys off Amazon. I give them a spray and hide one at a time around the house then ask the dog to 'go find'. He loves it!

I've also got a spaniel. My dc often does 'guess the hand' with a tiny bit of ham/cheese/ kibble in it. He's so clever!

I have a border collie & he loves to practice all his tricks & believe me there are many of them!!