My pet is bored, how can we entertain them….
This is something that many pet owners are asking themselves in these tricky times. Routines have changed and it might mean that your pets are seeming a bit out of sorts. So, the team from Bath Vets thought it might be nice to give you a few ideas for ways to entertain your pets at home and may be entertain the children for a bit too.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks – well, we don’t believe this and it doesn’t matter if you have a dog or a cat of any age. All pets like to have their minds stimulated by different experiences. So why not teach your pet some new tricks. One trick might be how to spin, below find a step by guide of how…
1. Take one of your pet’s favourite treats and hold it above their nose.
2. Make sure they’re in a standing position.
3. Move the treat around in a circle motion – your pet will follow.
4. Once they’ve followed the treat around and completed the circle, reward them with the treat.
5. Repeat. As your pet spins, label their behaviour with the word ‘Spin’.
6. As you give them each treat, tell them they’re a ‘Good boy/girl’ too!
7. You can also use hand gestures.
8. Keep practicing, until your pet can ‘Spin’ on demand.
This principle of breaking the trick down into little steps could be applied to any other new trick that you might like to teach them as well.
Another idea might be do some scent training. Have three plastic cups upended on the floor; under one you hide one of their favourite treats, mix the cups around on the floor, then let them sniff out the right cup, but they can only have the prize of the treat once they have worked out how to knock the cup.
These are just a few ideas, but please visit the Bath Vet Facebook pages for more ideas for entertaining your pet and do share pictures or videos of your pets’ achievements on our pages.