When it is bitterly cold out, it can be dangerous for both dogs and humans to remain outdoors for very long. This means many dogs aren’t getting enough exercise. While you might be content to sit curled up under a blanket binge watching a favorite TV series on Netflix, your dog may decide that tearing up your couch is a great option for entertainment.

Here are some ideas for keeping your dog entertained indoors.

Take away your dog’s food bowl
Instead of feeding your dog once or twice a day, take away his food bowl and invest in food dispensing toys such as Kongs® or Kibble Nibbles®. Let’s say you have four large Kongs®. Measure out your dog’s kibble for the day and put it in a bowl. Add a little water; just enough to slightly moisten the food. Consider throwing in some peanut butter or cheese whiz. Stir it up and divide it evenly between the Kongs. Next top it off with a little more peanut butter or cheese and then put the Kongs in the freezer. Once frozen, you can then give your dog one every few hours and instead of gobbling up his food, he will spend time figuring out how to get it all out.

By the way, this is also a great tip for those of you who have puppies or adolescent dogs that drive you crazy. Whenever you need to give the dog something to chew on so he isn’t chewing on you, you can bring out a frozen ball of food. You have to feed him anyway, so make the food count. Just make sure you give the dog the food dispensing toy before he chews on you so he doesn’t think that nipping at you makes a fun toy appear.

In a Kibble Nibble, you put the dog’s food inside an egg-shaped device that has small holes on each end. The dog then has to figure out how to move the egg so it wobbles and as it wobbles one or two pieces of kibble fall out. The dog then spends his time moving the egg around the floor trying to get the food out.
There are many other types of food dispensing toys. Stop by IndyHumane’s Retail Store to see these and other food dispensing toys or stroll the aisles of your nearest pet store.

Let your dog help with the recycling
Dogs love to chew stuff up. Instead of trying to make the dog stop chewing, channel his energy into something that he can chew up.

First, stock up on cardboard boxes. You want boxes that contained a food product (think cereal boxes or something similar). You don’t want a box that has staples or that contained any type of cleaning product. Start saving the cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls and toilet paper as well.

Step number one is to make it easy. Take a paper towel tube and put some tasty treats inside (small bits of hot dog work great). Twist the ends of the tube and give it to your dog. He then has to tear up the cardboard tube to get out the treats. If he likes this game, take a paper towel tube filled with treats, twist the ends, put the paper towel tube inside a cereal box, put some more treats in the cereal box then close the flaps. Give the dog the box. He now has to tear up the cereal box to get to the paper towel tube inside. You can make this as complicated as your dog allows by adding more boxes.

Is it messy? You bet it is. But, most dogs stay in a small area and destroy the cardboard making it easy to sweep up in the end. This is a game that you want to play only when you can supervise the dog for the entire time. If you see your dog swallowing large pieces of cardboard, you would want to trade your dog some treats and take the cardboard away. Most dogs just rip up the cardboard and perhaps swallow tiny pieces of cardboard in the process, but you definitely want to avoid the dog swallowing large chunks of boxes.

Does it teach your dog to be more destructive? No. He is going to chew stuff up anyway right? Why not channel that chewing into something you don’t care about and which can be easily swept up at the end of 20 minutes or so.

The shelter dogs at IndyHumane rate this game #1 in things to do when you are bored.

Doggy play dates
If your dog is super dog social and loves playing with other dogs, consider a few days at doggy daycare each month. There are many, many doggy daycares in most large metropolitan areas. Ask your friends for recommendations. Look for reviews online. Use the same screening process to pick a doggy daycare as you would if you were finding a daycare for a child.

Visit the daycare first and observe play time. Is there enough staff to adequately monitor the dogs and to intervene if play gets too rough? How often does the staff rotate out dogs and let them rest? You don’t want to pick a daycare that just lets dogs loose for hours at a time. Dogs need to play awhile, and then take a break from each other. See if you can find a daycare that is large enough to offer different play areas based on size of dog or play style of dog. Not all dogs play the same. Some dogs love to stand up on their hind legs and box with their forepaws. Other dogs love to play run and chase.

If you aren’t sure how your dog feels about doggy daycare, find out when the place you are checking out is the least busy and take your dog then for its first day so it isn’t overwhelmed.

This is only a good option if your dog really does love playing with all kinds of dogs. Many dogs actually don’t enjoy playing with lots of other dogs. They may have one or two doggy friends, but don’t enjoy larger groups of dogs. People often force their dogs into dog parks or doggy daycares because humans think the dog must need friends of his own kind, but many dogs would prefer to stick just with their human friends.

Still if your dog is a social butterfly then a doggy daycare may be a great way to get some energy out.