Bored Dog Busters!

My dog's lives drastically changed in the last year and a half. I got pregnant, had a baby and we moved from Oregon to California.

While I kept up on their lifestyle most of my pregnancy, towards the end I had to slow down. We stopped herding sheep for my safety, and took a hiatus from flyball. We did less hard physical exercise, but took more leisurely walks and played brain games.

When my daughter was born, I relied on friends and my husband to take the dogs out to the park or on walks for the first month or so. One of my best friends, Mandy, took them to her place for a few days and they got to enjoy trail rides with her horse, play on her property and play ball with her dogs.

Then we moved to California and all had to readjust. I found a flyball club to join and have found new ways to keep the knuckle heads entertained. You would think that with me at home most days with my daughter that I would have tons of time on my hands right? Not exactly!

My 9 month old, of course, needs lots of attention. I still need to do house chores and have some time to myself (usually nap time). With the weather being so awful lately, I found my dogs were getting the short end of the stick by the end of the day. I started keeping a very informal log (pen and paper) of how long I did what activity with each dog. The first day I was saddened to see that aside from normal care (feeding, pottying etc), the dogs were only getting 30 mins of quality time each! Maybe I wouldn't have felt so bad if they weren't Border Collies or the fact that I am a dog trainer or that their former life consisted of agility, herding, flyball, river trips, beach trips, hikes, training, dog park etc. My log has helped me a lot though in the past week. I have been remembering more creative things to do with them in leiu of the weather. I thought I would share some for those other bored dogs at home!

We work on commands as needed throughout the day, but sometimes they need a refresher in commands that aren't given every day. When we do command time at home, we tend to do it in 5 minute spurts with each dog alone or together. I don't want them to burn out. I want them to think it is fun.

- 5 mins of known commands and current tricks: I have been practicing Lucy's lie-down on recall, sending her to her bed, directionals around the couch and coffee table, duration stays while I clean (hey, two birds with one stone!), "say your prayers" and "night night" which is when she rolls herself up in a blanket.

For Lex I have been practicing backing up, nose targeting, leave-it, crawl, "say your prayers" and directionals as well.

- 5 mins of nosework: nosework is actually a class/activity that people do with their dog that can be easily done at home. You take some small boxes or paper towel rolls and place a smelly treat in it (I use hot dog right now). Just place the treat in one box while your dog is out of sight and then line the boxes up in a row. Let your dog loose and cue "Go find." When the dog finds the right box, give the treat out of it. I took this a step further and want them to alert to the box and not destroy it trying to get the treat out. As soon as they find it, I cue a lie-down, then give the treat. Now Lex finds it, and automatically lies down. Nosework really gets them excited to use their nose and tires them out quickly. Plus it is a confidence building exercise. For a dog new to this, I would probably put the dog on leash so they aren't looking all over the place for the treat. Also, limit the box number at first and build up to more.

- 5 mins of laser pointer: Lucy hates the laser, so this is only for Lex! I put her away and then basically just let him go bonkers with the laser. I can't do it for too long because he gets a little OCD about it. Once we are done, I put it back in a drawer so he doesn't obsess looking at it lol. We actually had to take a break from using the laser for about a month. We used it so often he was just staring at it all the time. We only play laser once a week because we don't want that to happen again.

- 10-15 mins of fetch indoors: pretty self-explanatory. Sometimes I do this with just one dog, or both. Lucy tends to be a hog, so Lex needs his own fetch time. I also throw tug into the game.

- 10 mins box-work: this is flyball specific. We work on our box turns with our practice board.

- Going to work: sometimes I bring the dogs with me to a private training or to Petco.

- 30 mins walk: when the weather permits, we take a walk with the baby in her stroller or carrier.

- 5 mins massage: both dogs loooove being massaged. I had never done this formally, but Lucy was never too thrilled when I just rub her belly or neck for 30 seconds, so I decided to give her a full 5 minute massage! Boy was she happy and so chill afterwards!

- Flyball practice: every Sunday (although not in the next month due to tournaments and bad weather!), we go to flyball practice for 3 hours. Tired, tired pups till the end of Monday.

- 30- 60 mins kong time/search: while I can give the dogs a Kong or bone to keep them occupied, it is more fun for them (and me) to have them find it first. Today I used some hotdog and put one little piece in two kongs and had them do this over and over and over. I hide the kongs, they find them, get the hot dog out, then bring it to me for re-loading. In fact, it is going on two hours at this point since I put bigger pieces of hot dog in a made it more difficult! I was also able to get all my chores done while doing this. Win/win!

-10 mins of bubble time: my daughter loves bubbles and we have this great little thing we got from gymboree baby class that blows out a lot of little safe non-toxic edible bubbles. The dogs also love biting and eating the bubbles, so everyone gets a turn with the bubbles.

Do you do any creative fun things with your dog at home during bad weather or just in general? Please comment if you do!