5 tips for keeping your dog busy with snacks
This way, you can integrate tasty snacks perfectly into everyday life and also offer your dog a change and something to do. After all, it's not just physical exercise that's important, but also keeping your dog's brain busy with brain games, for example.
Especially in the winter months, walks are often a little shorter, so we like to move the training sessions or play into the house or apartment. Here, too, there are great ways to keep your dog challenged and occupied and boredom is certainly not an option. We have thought about how you can integrate the tasty snacks into training or play to offer your dog a great change.
The search games can be played anywhere and offer your pet a meaningful and species-appropriate activity. You can simply hide the snacks around the house or apartment and let your dog search for them. If possible, start in one room and gradually increase the search radius. You can start by hiding the snacks in small gaps, for example between the couch and cupboard, and gradually make it more difficult. Snacks with an intense smell are best to start with.
By learning new tricks, your dog will be mentally challenged and will be happy about success and a reward. Tricks should always be learned in a playful way and not overwhelm your dog. Start with short frequencies and reward your dog regularly with a tasty snack. Through the confirmation, he will quickly understand what you want from him and have a lot of fun.
A sniffer rug is also perfect for small search games and has become one of the most popular search games at home. The rugs are available to buy, but are also very easy to make yourself. You can hide small snacks between the pieces of fabric and let your dog search for them.
In the shell game, your dog should find out which cup the snack is under. You can build up this game piece by piece. Start with a cup and choose a surface on which the cup can tip over relatively easily. The dog should understand that it should knock over the cup with a snack underneath. To do this, you can place the edge of the cup on the snack at the beginning so that your dog realizes more quickly that there is a snack underneath and the cup falls over more easily. Once your dog has understood that he should knock over the cup with the snack , you can expand the game accordingly. Gradually increase the level of difficulty by adding more cups to the game and changing the surface. This game can be very tiring, so you should give your dog a mental break after 3-5 minutes.
You can incorporate very simple things into your daily routine, such as carrying the newspaper, putting the laundry in the basket or putting your own toys in the crate. Dogs love such brain games and above all they love the reward and confirmation from us humans. You can also build up these exercises bit by bit. Start with small exercises, for example getting your dog to hold something in its mouth. To do this, take a light toy or an old sock, place it in your dog's mouth or ask him to take it, give an appropriate command, for example "hold" and reward your dog with a snack after just 1-2 seconds. You can keep repeating this exercise until your dog can hold the object for a longer period of time. You can then practise retrieving and integrate this into everyday life. We are sure that you and, above all, your dog will have a lot of fun with it.
