Indoor Activities With Your Dog

January and February are the dog days of winter.  When the cold and snow set it, our dogs don’t want to go outside.  We normally take our dogs for a long (3 mile) walk almost every day.  Ollie, our pug, doesn’t like to go out when its wet and Cooper, our lab mix, is still traumatized from the New Year’s Eve fireworks and is skittish on the walks.  But there are still plenty of ways to give them the exercise they need indoors.  I don’t know about you, if our dogs don’t get enough exercise, they start getting into trouble.  Here are some ways we keep them from being mischievous:

5 Ideas to Exercise Your Dog This Winter

• Training Session.  When the dogs get a little rambunctious and neglect to listen to me, I bring out the treats and engage them in a training session. They actually really love the structure, pleasing me. I go through all of the basic commands like sit, stay, come, and lay down.  After even 5-10 minutes, they usually calm down for a little snuggle. 
• Play Fetch. We have a pretty big great room in our house and it’s the perfect place for a little game of fetch.  Our dogs love when we through a ball or toy across the room.  This is great exercise for your dog and you may even be able to sit back while they do all the work.
• Hide and seek. Our two dogs get very jealous of each other especially when we first come come home.  To distract them from competing with each other, I will tell them go to get one of their toys. They don’t always know which toy I am referring to, but they know they have to go look for something.  They usually end up playing together with the toy so this is a nice way to encourage them to get along.  If your dog is smart enough, you can start hiding a toy and encouraging them to find it. 
• Chase or Keep Away.  Our dogs love to play chase. You can enlist your kids, if you have some, because it can get tiring.  Grab a favorite toy and start running around the room, I guarantee you will be chased.  Or if you have a partner, you can throw a ball back and forth, your dog will be sure to get involved.
• Chew Toys. My dogs love it when we give them one of those chew toys with some unflavored Greek yogurt in it. It keeps them busy for a while.

Your dog is just waiting to play with you, indoors or outside.  Make it fun for your dog and for you too!  Let me know what indoor activities you do with your dogs in the winter in the comments below.  And for those cold days, Lap Dog Luxury has 20% off select sweaters for a limited time.