Boredom creates mischief for little (and large) paws and teeth! Trainer and behaviourist Jackie Drakeford shares her tips on how to avoid it.
Your schedule may be extremely busy and demanding, but preventing your dog from becoming bored shouldn’t be seen as an unwanted extra chore.
Have a look at these useful boredom-busters for your pet; they don’t take long to introduce and they aren’t particularly costly either, and one thing is certain — your dog will really appreciate them!
1 All dogs love to eat, but some are on a special diet for health reasons, while others are naturally finicky feeders. While you can’t do much about the former, you can enhance mealtimes for the others with hardly any extra input. A dog who isn’t keen on his food isn’t being awkward or manipulative. Stress can make some dogs eat ravenously (just like humans) or go off their rations completely. Even the trouble-free dog who happily clears his bowl every mealtime can become bored with the same rations day in, day out, yet it doesn’t take much to enhance his enjoyment. You can add small amounts of something delectable, such as a chopped up sardine in tomato sauce (not brine), or a teaspoonful of fresh mince. Mix it well with the normal meal so that even if your dog tries to pick bits out, it will take him time to do so, and therefore make the meal more interesting.
How long does it take your dog to eat? For those who ‘inhale’ their food making mealtimes last longer fulfils their basic hunting instinct in a safe way, and adds considerably to the pleasure of each meal.
You can use snuffle mats, hide the food between layers of towels, scatter some of it in the garden for your dog to seek it out, or fill toys such as Kongs.
2 Ideally, walks should be as varied as you can make them, because the same old route becomes tedious very easily. Sometimes a different route makes up for a shorter distance, or adding an extra loop to a regular walk can present a welcome change.
Dogs live in a world of scent, and it’s easy for us to forget that brain work from a ‘sniffathon’ is as important as leg exercise. Even if you are restricted to pavement walks some of the time, you can put ‘sniff’ on cue and invite your dog to check out the wee mails left by previous dogs, and other scents of interest that he can detect. As long as it’s safe, from time to time you can hide a tiny treat, or a retrieve dummy for your dog to find.
3 Some dogs are happy to lie in the garden all day and watch the world go by, but m
