Life: Doggy Enrichment
Jan. 2nd, 2018 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
escritoireazulOne of the things I'm working on this year is to add more doggy enrichment into Cuddle Monster's life. Today, I started with the thing where you put treats in an old muffin pan and cover them with tennis balls. It took a few times showing her how to do it, but by the end, she found her treats just fine. I'm thrilled by this and will try it again tomorrow night.
Other things I am considering is a bit of indoor grass so she can forage for her food and some sort of toy where she has to work at it to get her food or treats out of it, but I'm not sure about that one. If she liked other dogs at all, I'd enroll her in classes (especially agility classes -- she's a cattle dog and she loves to run and jump and climb things), but I've hit a point where I can't go any farther with her socialization and yet I don't trust anyone to take her and do it, either.
(She never attacks my dad's little dog, and she tolerates my brother's dog so long as he doesn't try to mount her, and since those are two of the three dogs she encounters in our homes, that's enough. She hates J's family dog, but they live close enough now they don't bring the dog when they come visit, and we don't take Cuddle Monster with us when we go up to them.
I was doing really well with her socialization until we moved someplace without any off-leash dog parks. She was to the point where she liked playing with the other dogs in the off-leash parks in the city, but then we moved to a small town to be closer to family, and alas, all that socialization went out the window.)
She's now collapsed on the couch next to me, napping, so I think the treat game was a success.
I know a bunch of you have dogs. Any suggestions for games/tricks/etc.? (She knows a handful of tricks, and I'd like to add more to that list this year.) She's 50 pounds and probably 8 years old. (She's a rescue, so when I got her, the listed age was only an estimate.)
Other things I am considering is a bit of indoor grass so she can forage for her food and some sort of toy where she has to work at it to get her food or treats out of it, but I'm not sure about that one. If she liked other dogs at all, I'd enroll her in classes (especially agility classes -- she's a cattle dog and she loves to run and jump and climb things), but I've hit a point where I can't go any farther with her socialization and yet I don't trust anyone to take her and do it, either.
(She never attacks my dad's little dog, and she tolerates my brother's dog so long as he doesn't try to mount her, and since those are two of the three dogs she encounters in our homes, that's enough. She hates J's family dog, but they live close enough now they don't bring the dog when they come visit, and we don't take Cuddle Monster with us when we go up to them.
I was doing really well with her socialization until we moved someplace without any off-leash dog parks. She was to the point where she liked playing with the other dogs in the off-leash parks in the city, but then we moved to a small town to be closer to family, and alas, all that socialization went out the window.)
She's now collapsed on the couch next to me, napping, so I think the treat game was a success.
I know a bunch of you have dogs. Any suggestions for games/tricks/etc.? (She knows a handful of tricks, and I'd like to add more to that list this year.) She's 50 pounds and probably 8 years old. (She's a rescue, so when I got her, the listed age was only an estimate.)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-11 01:01 am (UTC)Another fun game is to get some small boxes/paper bags/what have you and put a toy in one of them (or treat) for your dog to find. Scentwork is a lot of fun for your dog and you can teach her to find other things, too!