Entertaining Canines: keep ’em busy and out of trouble
Entertainment and enrichment for pets is kind of our thing. If you want a FULL program of enrichment, training, fun and entertainment, check out our #100daysofenrichment project.
Festive Entertainment
In general, during social gatherings, parties and meals, you likely need your dog to be pretty low key and out of the way.
The easiest way to manage their behaviour is to provide them with appropriate behaviours to keep them busy and entertained. Instead of thinking how to stop them doing things you don’t like, think what you would prefer them to do instead!
Get your dog hooked on entertainment!
Start practicing now with simple activities that your dog can work on themselves, without too much input required from you.
Pacifying Activities:
This category is great for confinement, for calming and when you want your dog to take themselves away and stay busy.
Introduce these now:
Day 37 Lickables and Lappables
Get practicing now so you can find the best approach for your pet – it’s too late to discover they don’t like a certain thing or can’t work a toy on the day, when you really need it.
Activating Entertainment:
Before it all kicks off, provide your dog with plenty of appropriate mental and physical exercise so that they are relaxed and satisfied before the celebrations begin.
Always think in Rollercoasters: if you bring your dog up, they need help coming down again. This is why, it’s not necessarily a great idea to provide exerting exercise right before your guests arrive; your dog will still be wound up and now, with the extra excitement, will find it even harder to come down again.
Introduce some of these activities, and always follow with some down time and something from the pacifying category above.
Day 2 Play: Release the toy, release the joy
Day 6: Sniffing Saturday – Sniffathon!
Day 13: Sniffing Saturday – Scatter Feeding & Snuffling
Day 27 Sniffing Saturday: Adventure Time
Day 55 Sniffing Saturday – Sniffing Courses
Day 62 Sniffing Saturday: Searches & Scavenger Hunts
Day 69 Sniffing Saturday: Drag Hunts
Day 76 Sniffing Saturday – SNIFFARI
Put these in place on the morning of your party, and even in the days leading up to celebration.
Puzzles!
Puzzles can be a great way of providing vital mental exercise and putting them together can be a great to get kids involved. When creating puzzles, think safety first!
Day 25 Dissection & Destruction
Day 67 Suspended Puzzles Pt. 2
Puzzles are a great way to use up all that Christmas wrapping and packing!
AniEd Ireland 