I’ve got 9 winter boredom busters for a happy dog for you today. Thankfully, we are not bored around here. Mom loves to be out in the winter, so our lives don’t change much. A lot of dogs are bored in the winter as their humans don’t go out much with them. What can you do to spice up your dog’s life in the winter months?
9 Winter Boredom Busters For A Happy Dog
1. Take Your Dog Shopping
Many stores allow pets these days. Some of the ones in our areas are Lowe’s, Michaels, Bed Bath & Beyond, and of course, pet stores. Always check with your own store before bringing your dog. Taking your job shopping provides a little exercise, but a lot of mental stimulation. She will take in so many new sights and smells, it will really provide a wonderful mental workout. Best of all, you are both together.
2. Indoor Walking Opportunities
Some shopping malls will allow dogs for indoor walking at certain times of the week. If there are none in your area, look for pet friendly events where your dog can walk around with you and get both mental and physical stimulation.
3. Sign Up For A Class With Your Dog
Many dog schools offer enrichment classes, or take an obedience refresher course, or maybe try a dog sport just for fun. A lot of dogs in our area use indoor pools to swim and some practice dock diving. We go to one training center to practice our barn hunt skills.
4. Practice Sniffing Games At Home
We practice our nose work in the house when the weather is too nasty outside. If your dog isn’t trained in nose work, no worries. Play some hide the food games. Remember when curing boredom with food or treats, watch the calories! Simply hide your dog’s kibble around the house and watch her seek and find. Hunting is a natural behavior and provides a lot of mental stimulation.
5. Teach Your Dog New Tricks
We are not much for tricks at our house, but I did learn “bow” at Halloween time. Tricks are easy to train and indoors is an ideal place to do it on a cold winter day!
6. Work On Obedience Training
How about obedience training? Obedience training never ends at our house. Winter is the perfect time to work on weak areas with your dog. Sit, stay, down, even heal can be worked on indoors.
7. Give Your Dog Frozen Kongs
What healthy foods does your dog love? Mix up some tasty things like bananas, peanut butter, low fat plain yogurt, add in some crumbs from a treat bag that is almost empty. Freeze it and serve it up. Your dog will love it and it will keep her busy and entertained for a while.
8. Use Interactive Treat Toys
Interactive toys are also a lot of fun. Use kibble or low calorie treats to fill the toy. Watch your pup work in figuring out how to get all the goodies out of the toy.
9. Feed Meals With A Slow Feeder
Just as it is not healthy for humans to gulp down food, it is not good for your dog either. Slow feeders are a great way to slow down your dogs meals, and give them a mental challenge all at the same time. Many of the slow feeders are also dishwasher safe to make clean up easy. We can put our raw food in these feeders too which is great!
So there you have it. 9 winter boredom busters for your pup. Most of the ideas are simple, free, or low cost. You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a happy dog!
My GBGV Life is happy, so we’re joining Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday!
Those are all great ideas! Thank you!
Lots of dogs get pretty bored in the winter because their people don’t go out much.
sadly our stores are totally oldschool and dated at this front… boy ow would we love to go shopping alone LOL
There are lots of stores around here where we can go shopping, but we have to have our mom with us.
All excellent recommendations no matter what the weather!
Very true, but most people have bored dogs in the winter around here 🙂
Those are all wonderful ideas; we haven’t had a frozen kong, but we have had stuffed ones.
Mom always freezes ours because it makes it more work and takes more time for us to eat them.
Mom does a great job keeping your minds and bodies stimulated. She rocks.
Thank you for joining the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Happy Tuesday. Scritches all around and a hug to mom. ♥
We are pretty busy and rarely suffer from boredom.
All great reminders! We are doing obedience and tricks at this house these days. One of us has gotten
lazy and the other one is just learning.
That sounds like a good plan. Doing it together is more fun too.
Great ideas. Clover does go out no matter what the weather for a walk-in Central Park.
She is a good girl and a lucky girl too 🙂
OMDs what fun events to keep everyone from winter woes.
I could go for the yoga and mall walking.
Hugs Cecilia
Mall walking is a big thing with humans around here. We prefer to walk outside, but for many it is a great option.
You always share such wonderful ideas. Coda and Bart have to have slow feeder bowls, they “wolf” food down unless they do.
Some of us do wolf down our food too at times but normally we do pretty well.
Y’all are always such happy pups and those all look like really fun ideas, even the slow feeder!
Cat bro Bert has been eating from a cat slow feeder for years now. It really helped stop him from gulping down his food and then getting sick.
you all are so good about being involved in activities! My little brother Chester loves to go with mom on errands. He is great in the car so he hops in and off they go! I like to sleep a lot these days so I don’t go on many adventures, except for my morning walk which I still love even though I am a slow walker these days — I am 14 years old!! Keep enjoying your activities!! your friend Lilly
What! We are shocked that you are 14. We thought you might be 10. The main thing is that you still get out and do things sometimes and walking is a great activity for all ages. All of us except for Bailie love to go in the car, but Mom still takes Bailie on her own adventures on shorter rides.
I love all the photos! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those slow feeders. Pretty cool! My daughter gives her dog peanut butter in one of those kongs, too.
They also have lick mats you can spread peanut butter on and they keep us busy too.
These are wonderful ideas! I’ll share your post in Saturday’s CB roundup!
Thank you. It’s important to stay busy during all seasons but many humans hibernate in the winter and their dogs get bored.
wow! I can see why you sweet dogs are so smart ~ you have a great Mom ~ wonderful photos too ~ Xo
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days ~
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
We do our best to stay physically and mentally fit when we can.
Those are great boredom busters! I think some are great for us cats too! Mom does not let us have all our toys all the time and when she picks them up to do the vacuuming, she always puts different ones out for us. It is like getting all new toys! Cinnamon gets a different inside ball each week and she thinks that’s pretty cool too. Keep being awesome! Purrs Marv
We have our toy room upstairs. Some toys like our Furballz are always in play and we never get enough of them. Mom puts other toys upstairs every week when she cleans and we go up there now and then and sort through the toys and chose some others to bring down.