Entertaining Your Dog in the Winter
By: Jay Jenkin | Posted: 01st March 2010
People are not the only ones you can get a little stir crazy in the wintertime. When it is cold and dreary outside, with snow on the ground, dogs can suffer from the same winter blahs that affect people. This is especially noticeable for dogs that spend most of their time indoors. The lack of exercise can deeply affect your pet. This in turn, will affect you. Here are a few tips to keep your puppy happy and even provide you with a little entertainment.
Invest In Some New Toys
Like most people, dogs get very excited when you present them with a new toy to play with. Picking up four or five new toys from the pet store or even the grocery store, will provide hours of entertainment. The trick is to not pull them out all at the same time. Present one to your pet, and put the rest away.
Once a week, rotate the toys, having only one out of time. This will give you a month's worth of playtime at a cost of only four or five toys. By the time the four weeks rotate, the first toy will seem new again because your pet hasn't seen it for three or four weeks.
Get a Kong
A Kong is a wonderful dog toy that is made of hard rubber and shaped in a cone that is hollow inside. Stick a little peanut butter or a doggie treat inside it and give it to your dog. Your pet will think it is in heaven. They really enjoy working to get the treat out, and it can take them hours to do so. You can also put the peanut butter stuffed Kong in your freezer for a few hours, which lengthens the time tremendously.
Train Your Dog
Spend a few minutes a day teaching your pet. Dogs love learning new things. In the old saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks is absolutely false. Learning a new command, such as sit, stay, rollover or even play dead stimulates the dog's mind and also reinforces you as the alpha leader of your pack. Use the praise and order food treats to reinforce the lesson makes it especially enjoyable for your dog.
Exercise Your Dog
Even if you cannot get outside because of bad weather, you can make sure your dog gets exercise indoors. Buy a few tennis balls from your local sports store. Even some pet stores carry them as well. Spend 10 minutes twice a day throwing the ball for your dog and letting them chase after it. If they do not like balls, grab a squeaky toy. Often the extra noise will grab their attention and cause them to run after it.
If you have a treadmill at home, you can train your dog to walk and run on the treadmill. In some houses, this is the only use the treadmill gets. Do an online search for this subject and you will find instructions on how to teach your dog. It does work well, but you need to be very careful in how you train your dog to use the treadmill.
These four tips will help both you and your pet get through the long winter months. Spending some time in a little bit of money on your dog will keep you both entertained and make the winter seem shorter.
Jay has been interested in family, finance and health issues for many years now.
Please visit his latest website at http://usedinverstiontable.net/ which helps people find the best Used Inversion Table and information and pricing on all types of different Inversion Tables.
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Tags: few minutes, pet store, playtime, puppy, peanut butter, grocery store, old dog new tricks, lack of exercise, freezer, new toy, pet dogs, wintertime, new toys, snow on the ground, alpha leader, hard rubber