Treat them

Overall, we’re not impressed with the treat options. Sash, our pooch, loves them, but they don’t last long enough. She’s soon at my feet asking for more. Plus, she’s slightly overweight and so I’m not sure that continuously feeding her outside of her meals is a good idea. Sash was not impressed when we started portioning her meals to accommodate the treats!

Kongs

Kongs have to be the most popular suggestion that we’ve seen. Even our vet suggested them. Our pooch loves a Kong filled with dog meat, treats, rice and chicken, anything! But it lasts about 5 minutes and then she’s done.

Scavenger hunts

I love this idea. If we had a bigger property I think that this would really work and keep our pooch entertained for hours. Unfortunately, our one bedroom apartment (even with the garden) doesn’t have enough hiding spaces.

Treat puzzles

There are a wide variety of puzzles to keep your pooch entertained. Sash enjoyed it until the treats ran out. Plus she seemed to enjoy it more when we were teaching her than when she was playing with it by herself.

Iced treats

Sash got bored. Plus, I couldn’t find any treats worth ‘icing’. My pooch isn’t interested in anything vegetable (my friend’s dog loves a frozen carrot) and her treats disintegrated in water.

Snuffle matts

Snuffle matts were new to me. I liked the idea, but again Sash quickly found the treats and got bored. Would be very interested to hear of other, no treat, ways to use these matts.

Distract them

Toys

Sash has a number of toys including rubber chews, tuggies and Dino the soft toy Dinosaur (who she loves). But she doesn’t want to play with these toys on her own. She only enjoys them when playing with us.

Busy buckets

I don’t really get busy buckets. It felt like we were just tidying away her toys and chews into a bucket, and adding a few treats. Which she proceeded to unpack, eat the treats and go back to her long lasting chews.

Long lasting chews

Bones, rawhide bones, antlers and other animal parts worked really well with Sash. She chewed and chewed until her gums bled. For us, these were the most successful items.

Outsource them

Hire a dog walker

This keeps dog walkers busy and employed, entertains your dog in the day and gives you time and space to concentrate. We do have a dog walker on hand and this really helps break up Sash’s day.

Send your dog to daycare

While this lockdown doesn’t require ‘non-essential’ businesses to close, many dog daycare providers aren’t taking on new dogs in an effort to reduce interaction with people and risk COVID 19 exposure.

Organise playdates

Playdates are a great idea. I just need to find friends with dogs who aren’t working and so have the time to spare.

Tire them

Training sessions

We both loved this. It’s a really nice way to spend time with your pooch and an opportunity to really focus on them and give them praise. I found that training sessions throughout the day added some structure. Morning breaks, lunch and afternoon breaks. I didn’t teach her anything new, but reinforced good behaviours.

Walks throughout the day

If you follow us on Instagram, you will know that we love a big walk before work. It tires Sash out and sets me up for the day. Long walks in the morning give me peace till about midday. I rarely get time to eat let alone eat and do another dog walk, so by the afternoon our pooch can be bored and looking for attention.

Doga

I’m a yoga buff and so doing yoga while stroking your dog was fun. Sash thought that I was playing – my face was licked a lot! We found a good video. Sash didn’t do the moves, but enjoyed me trying to make her do them. She spent a lot of time with her head to one side trying to work out what I was saying.