I know a lot of folks have already written about indoor games to play with your pups when the weather is bad. So if you want to skip this post, go right ahead. Except you’ll probably miss some pretty funny shit, well at least you might giggle. I’m not sure about shooting coffee out your nose funny, but you should definitely giggle.
Definitely.
We are currently in the midst of record cold. I’d venture to include snow in there, but I know we’ve had winters where we’ve had more accumulation than this year, the difference being the frequency with which we’ve been getting snow. Up until this week, it seemed we got at least 6 to 8 inches every few days. (Honestly I do know some women who would be happy to get 6 to 8 inches on a regular basis, but this is a post about snow and bored dogs so let’s move along.)
But it does remind me of the story where the female news anchor, disappointed with the non-existent snow promised by the weather man, asked on the air, “So Dave, where is the eight inches you promised me last night?”
Bah dump dum! I hear the newsroom dissolved in laughter and the female anchor turned fifty shades of red. 😉
Where was I before I distracted myself?
Oh yeah.
There have been a couple of sub-zero days when either the dogs or myself are unwilling to go outside to walk. I’m good with that, but I still want to give them a bit of mind stimulation at the very least. If not I could come home to a terrible mess because of a bored dog. (Not saying who.)
Oh you’re NOT saying WHO, but my picture goes up! Thanks Mama, thanks a lot.
I have a few boxes set aside to play scent work with when the weather is cold, so this week I broke out the boxes and we played some scent games in the house.
I use a small bowl to place the treat in, and then place the bowl inside the box. This keeps 1) someone (see above) from eating the box and 2) also helps to keep the scent from attaching to the box and giving off a false positive.
I have sneaky little shits for dogs, and I had to keep being inventive of box placement because they kept peeking! So the boxes moved from one place to another and another. Eventually we wound up in the hallway.
At first I was using regular treats, but when we moved into the hallway I added (cover your eyes Emma) rabbit!
Coincidentally, there are four doors in the hallway and I had four receptacles for scent work. I started out placing a box in each doorway and adding the treat to one of the boxes at the furthest end of the hall.
One of my dogs will sit patiently when you tell him to wait, the other one (not saying who) has to be held back.
Again? So this is where the saying, ” rolled under a bus” comes from? What the woof Mama?
So there we are in the hall using the treats and I think to myself, hmmm I wonder what would happen if I set a piece of this rabbit jerky on the floor in the first doorway and another treat in the box at the end of the hall?
Two different dogs, two different results.
So what do you think happened? Let me know in the comments, I’ll share the rest of this tomorrow.
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Now we realise how lucky we are with our weather this Winter. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Hi Y’all!
You didn’t really expect Delilah to pass up that enticing piece of jerky, did you? That’s an evil trick even my Human hasn’t played on me!
Y’all come on back,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Oh heavens! Wabbit jerky at this early hour, now I’m all worked up! We are always kenneled when mom puts out the hides, but even if she does it in front of us, we always have to sniff through everything when we search. I would guess they ate the jerky on the floor and then found the box? Just be careful doing the treat on the floor thing as it teaches them treats can be anywhere, not just in boxes. Why not create a source box that you only use for treats rather than using the bowl. Try hanging some boxes with string from a doorway or something, it adds challenge, or put the boxes on a circle of several chairs and have them walk around. You can also do the searches on least to control them.
I’d say one good doggie searched and succeeded, and another one (whose name shall not be mentioned) scarfed down the errant treat and left.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
We’ve been stuck in this horrible cold pattern, too. No fun! Can’t wait to hear what happened! BOL! We know what we would’ve done, scarfed them down and run! BOL!
I am pretty sure both dogs got some jerky. 🙂
With life in the desert, we don’t worry about snow, cold, and 6 to 8 inches. LOL Totally off topic…do you have a hard time spelling definitely? I don’t know why, but my brain WILL not retain that word and I always have to use spell check. I bet the dogs were thrilled to play scent games, and get jerky treats too.
I’m trying to think what my dogs would probably do in the situation. I think they would scarf up the first treat, and then go get the second. But that seems to obvious, so I wonder what really happened?
You definitely put a different spin on this popular topic, but I knew you could.
Delilah gobbled both treats down in record time while Sampson enjoyed every little, deliberate bite?
I won’t embarrass any dog by guessing what happened, but I am guessing that the predictable scenario took place. Am I close?
Well however it turned out, I’m sure both dogs had fun!
Um, gee…I can’t begin to imagine who went the shortcut route! Love it. That dog who shall remain nameless isn’t dumb, nope, not one little bit.
What fun! (I already read what happened as I am behind again)
I love the scent work idea. I really love your sense of humor!!