Your Best Dog: Keeping Dogs Busy

A busy dog is a happy dog. It's up to you to keep your dog busy.

One of the mistakes many people make is underestimating that it takes a lot of energy to get your dog busy. If you don't find things for them to do, they will find their own things to do.

Some of the common behavioral issues that stem from lack of something to do:

Hyperactivity
Destructive chewing
Digging
Excessive barking
Neurotic behaviors like biting, licking, and tail chasing

These are but just a few of the ways a bored dog fills his time. You may recognize some of these symptoms in your dog or others. Dogs have to have something to do!

All dogs should be thoroughly exercised everyday (which we will cover in another lens more in-depth), and they should have things to preoccupy themselves with. For our dogs, many of these methods relate to food.

Here are some suggestions for keeping your dog busy and happy:

Busy Toys: This is one of easiest and fastest methods. Purchase several different kinds of toys that can be stuffed. The Kong or similar toys (or even sterilized, hollow, natural bones) make good stuffers. Kong makes stuffing paste, but my favorite stuffers are peanut butter and canned squeeze cheese. You can even mix kibble into the peanut butter to stuff various toys with. To always have one on hand, pre-stuff several and freeze. This way, when you want one, you have one ready to go!

Work for Dinner: There are two ways to go about this. First, the Buster Cube is an excellent example of a toy that is filled with kibble, and as the dog moves the cube about, kibble is released. You can put portions of your dog's dinner in the cube. There are several styles of similar products. You can also hide your dog's dinner. If you only have one dog, trying hiding a few piles of food through out the house. Make notes of where the piles are and make them easy in the beginning. This encourages your dog to 'hunt' for his food and really use his nose and mind.

Bubble Crazy: This is a great interactive way to keep your dog busy. He should always be supervised with this. Use a bubble blowing machine and combine that with specially make dog bubbles. These bubbles are flavored so that they don't taste like soap. Dogs love to have the never-ending supply of bubbles that are tasty to try and catch.

Training: It goes without saying that nothing keeps your dog busy like training him. Whether you want to train for obedience or just tricks, keeping your dog's mind busy will make him a happy worker everyday.

These are just a few suggestions for keeping a dog busy. There are many, many more! For other ideas, please visit my other Squidoo pages:

Your Best Dog: Games to Play With Your Dog
Your Best Dog: That Dog Needs Exercise