Activities for dog in garden

sambuka41

Hi guys I'm back looking for more advice!! I met with a behaviourist for my Ruby and one of the things she recommended was to make the back garden as fun as possible. We moved from a house to a flat recently, she still has the back area exclusively but its not as nice as the garden in the house was, its all concrete.

So this is what we have thought of so far, to tie a raw hide bone to the fence. She is very food orientated, we've done it in the house before and she spent hours trying to chew it and get it off the rope.

We are hoping to get a kids hula hoop and construct a little jump for her, she has never done agility but I'd say with some training she would be good at it. We are working on her basic obedience at the mo to strengthen it.

She is afraid of kennels so we are going to build an 3 sided box that she can use as shelter but can also climb up on.

We've been hiding food around the back, and the cat is out there too, its fully enclosed so neither can escape, they play together every once in a while .

So is there anything else that you guys do that you could recommend? We are also on a budget so we are trying to think of cheap activities.

Kash

A football? My two have a tendency to annihalate any football they encounter within 5 minutes - and they LOVE doing it. Of course, the games is made infinitely better by you being there to kick the ball.

They also have a giant rope that we picked up in TK Maxx of all places, and they love to play tug of war with it. The youngest will play with that alone, rolling around on the ground with it etc.

They also have a frisbee, and again the youngest will entertain herself with it, flipping it into the air and catching it. People frisbees tend to deteriorate, so I recommemd a doggy one - they're less rigid and stand up to chewing a lot better. They'll often come free with big bags of food on zoo plus etc.

The Kong is also a very popular toy with them - we stuff ours with a Bonio and some peanut butter, and have very contented dogs for hours if needs be.

Hope that helps!

sambuka41

Yeah she has a kong, thats where he meals are coming from now. She is working for all her food.

The area isn't that big, so we cant play with footballs. We throw little balls for her, we are working on the drop command as she will stand in front of you chewing on the ball for ages and only drop it when she is good and ready!! The ball is now getting flung at me with the excitement of the food in my hands!! Its a work in progress. :p

I might try the frisbee in the park, I'd say she'd love it.

DamagedTrax

dog frisbee is great. my girl goes nuts for it. trying to get it back when she catches it is a game in itself

RubyGirl

What about filling a kid's sand pit with water for her. You can buy them in smyth's.

Or freezing the raw hide aswell, will spend longer chewing it.

sambuka41

RubyGirl wrote: »

What about filling a kid's sand pit with water for her. You can buy them in smyth's.

Or freezing the raw hide aswell, will spend longer chewing it.

We thought about the sand pit because she loves digging if we could fill it with something she could bury things in.we got a small version and put stones in it, but the cat decided he was going to use it as a litter tray!!! So we drilled holes and put it near the drain, he's very happy with himself!!:D

Her doggy day care had one with water recently but she wouldn't go in she kept dipping her toe and running away, she is a big coward.

pampootie

I suggest spending an entire Sunday constructing a plastic greenhouse, planting lots of stuff to go in it, and carefully fencing it off with chicken wire. That kept my JRT amused trying to break into it for three whole days until he realised that he could get in by a few repetitions of jumping up, throwing his paws over the top of the chicken wire, and squashing it down. He then got in, knocked everything over, ate some compost and was sleeping angelically in the rubble when we found him.

but seriously when he's out in the garden he has two footballs, three tennis balls, a frisbee, a kong and a tennis ball on a rope type toy. between that and chasing birds that fly over he's kept happy enough.

DamagedTrax

pampootie wrote: »

I suggest spending an entire Sunday constructing a plastic greenhouse, planting lots of stuff to go in it, and carefully fencing it off with chicken wire. That kept my JRT amused trying to break into it for three whole days until he realised that he could get in by a few repetitions of jumping up, throwing his paws over the top of the chicken wire, and squashing it down. He then got in, knocked everything over, ate some compost and was sleeping angelically in the rubble when we found him.

what a good lad, he was doing some landscaping for you!

pampootie

Oh he's most helpful in the garden, we had to get a load of old tyres off a friend of ours to raise up pots so that he cant hop in and help with the weeding. He also enjoys helping with the loading and unloading of the washing machine, in particular socks! And one morning I came down to the kitchen to find he had pulled everything out of the recycling bin, presumably to check I wasn't sneaking in non-recyclables. Where would I be without him!