Best Ways to Keep Your Pets Occupied

You leave your house for the day, and when you arrive back home, your couch is in many more pieces than you left it and your dog comes scampering out of the other room, happy as can be. You are filled with frustration, but could this have been preventable?This was likely because your dog had nothing else to occupy him/herself with while you were gone.

So, how can you occupy your dog’s time while you’re away from the house?

The simple answer is to distract them. Give them something to do. Don’t just lock them up in a barren kennel and just expect them to do nothing for several hours at a time. Dogs are active creatures, and to stay healthy, need to remain occupied at pretty much all times of day.

Windows

Not the operating system, just straight up, let your dog look out the window. They’ll likely occupy their time making sure their territory is secured and free from intruders. Even if you live on a quiet cul-de-sac, the occasional delivery man driving by will be enough to capture their interest for hours at a time.

Chew Toys

Giving your dog something to work on in their kennel or in their bed is very important. A desolate kennel can be immensely harmful to an active dog over a period of time.

Television

We’re not the only ones who can watch TV. Turn the channel to some animal related program (or Planet) so that your dog’ll have something to relate to.

Exercise

One of the easiest ways to keep your dog from destroying things is to have them sleep through your absence. Getting a run in before work with your dog, or just any other method of exercising them before you leave means they’ll sleep for a good portion of the time you’re gone.

An active dog is a healthy dog.

Food

Putting food around the house in nooks and crannies for your dog to find is a good time consumer. Even if they find all of the treats you’ve put out, they can continue to look.

You can also throw some peanut butter or cream cheese into a Kong, giving it to your dog whenever you leave. This’ll create an association of a treat when you leave, making your departure easier on both you and your dog.

Another thing you can do with a Kong is just fill it with water and freeze it. While you shouldn’t give your dog a large volume of ice water, or just a large volume of water in general, licking ice is just fine for them.

What are your best tricks for keeping your pet occupied while you’re done? Put any other suggestions you have in the comments below!