Cold & dark days: what to do with your dog during the winter?

Now that the days are short and cold, sometimes it's an easier option to get your dog tired and satisfied indoors in a fun way. But what can you trade with a walk? With our 4 tips, you'll get your dog tapped out in no time.

Indoor activities with your dog, where to start?

During bad and cold weather, you can still easily set your dog physical and mental challenges. Dogs with little exercise or mentally challenged can exhibit dejected behavior to even scrapping behavior.

An outdoor walk is of course one of the important ways to let your dog loose his energy. But for variety you can certainly also give your dog an extra challenge indoors.

Did you know that: Playing together with your dog benefits your mutual bond enormously! It enriches the life of your dog.

TIP 1: Learn new tricks

A training session with your dog allows your dog to relax completely. Indoors, you can dedicate all your time to learning new tricks such as sit, lie, touch, turn, paw, ...

Provide here certainly a number of crucial elements such as a solid surface so that your dog does not slip during practice. Be sure to keep some treats handy, a reward after performing a new exercise correctly always helps. And keep your training always fun and simple, practice so certainly not too long! A few minutes at a time a number of times throughout the day is more than enough. Does your dog enjoy it? Then you can increase the training minutes a bit.

TIP 2: 'Feeding enrichment'.

Feeding your dog in an original way helps activate your dog's instincts. On top of that, it also makes your dog eat less, which is good for digestion.

There are several ways to feed your dog in a creative way, such as putting his food in a KONG, you can put the pellets on a towel, roll it up and tie it, sprinkle the dog food on a sniffing mat or use a slowfeeder. These ways of feeding will put your dog's brain to work!

TIP 3: Play games with your dog

Indoors, there is also plenty of opportunity to play fun games with your dog. You can for example hide candies throughout the house, this way you bring out the hunting instincts of your dog. You can go a step further and hide yourself in your house while someone else distracts your dog. Your dog will love tracking you down with his nose.

Rope pulling also remains one of every dog's favorite games. Be sure to balance and provide enough resistance to keep the game interesting and fun but stop in time if your dog becomes hyperactive.

TIP 4: Puzzles

"Puzzles for dogs?", I can already hear you thinking! There is now a whole series of puzzles made especially for dogs. A dog puzzle requires your dog to concentrate and put his nose and head to work. Thinking sports are often underestimated but they make your dog tired and satisfied in a fun way. Definitely not to be underestimated!

& remember: always keep a tasty dog treat or chew at hand to reward dog for good behavior. The more you reward good behavior in time, the faster your dog learns it!