Home alone?
Do you feel bad that your best friend is left home alone for many hours while you are at work? Take a look at some things you can do to reduce your guilt and your pup’s boredom.
(1) EXERCISE
Exercise Your dog before you go to work! Whether a long walk or playing ball in the yard, every little bit helps.
(2) TOYS and GAMES
Keep your dog stimulated with toys and games. One of my favorites is the classic stuffed KONG. Kong's come in all shapes and sizes with hard and soft insertable treats. Much like Kong, with a sleek design, is WEST PAW DESIGN. Check them out!
During my research I came upon NINA OTTOSON's puzzle toys from Sweden. You can purchase through Amazon. The reviews look great.
A couple of do-it-yourself tricks include: Box Taped Shut: Take a cereal box or some other type of cardboard box and throw treats inside (thanks www.tullystraining.com) . Tape up the ends. Note: the point of this is to let your dog destroy the box! Hide and seek: take treats and hide them in your house. Your dog might spend a good part of their day sniffing and searching.
The coolest activity toy that I've come across is iFetch, an automatic ball-throwing machine, which was produced with funding from a tremendously successful Kickstarter campaign.
(3) HIRE A HELPING HAND
Dog walkers and pet sitters, like CHOMP & NIBBLE, offer a variety of services including your standard dog walk, in addition to wellness visits, extended walk & play visits (up to an hour!), doggie park outings, and even doggie daycare in a pet sitter's home.
For highly social young to mid aged doggies who have energy to burn, think about a doggie daycare facility where dogs run around playing all day. Keep in mind that the human to canine ratio is huge, so getting 1:1 time with a human will be limited.
The dog lover in me has to finish with a recommendation and plea. Please don't leave your pup alone for longer than 6 hours (ever) without some contact in-between by a human or another canine, whichever your doggie prefers.
