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Things to try in the home and garden

• Buy an interactive toy such as a Kong, Havaball or Buster cube. These are all toys that can be filled with food and treats so that your dog has to work to get them out. They either have to lick at the contents which can be packed in tight, or they have to roll the toys with their nose or feet so that the treats fall out of small holes.

• If you are not able to get one of these toys, try a clear plastic soft drink bottle; wash it out thoroughly and cut a few holes in the sides. Half fill the bottle with small treats or dry food and encourage your dog to roll it around the floor, so that the treats fall out. Remember not to put the cap back on as it could come off and your dog could swallow or choke on it.

• Scatter dry food and treats around your house and garden (make sure any poo is picked up from the garden first). Hide food under cushions or behind easily accessible furniture. This encourages scavenging behaviour. It may take your dog hours to find his food.

• Place his food under an upturned bowl, plate or box. Watch him work out how to get to it.

• Use a fairly large cardboard box (depending on your dog’s size) and fill it with treats and layers of scrunched up newspaper and blankets. He’ll have a lot of fun digging and pulling out the stuffing to get to the treats. 

A dog’s sense of smell is one of his strongest senses and using his nose can be quite tiring as well as a lot of fun for him – so scent tracking games are very good to prevent boredom.

• Teach him to follow a scent trail. Get a clean old sock or pair of tights and fill the toe with some particularly smelly food that your dog will love.  Shut your dog away so that he cannot see. Drag the sock or tights along the floor to a hiding place, such as behind a cushion on the sofa – but don’t make the trail too long, until he gets the hang of it. Take a few pieces of the food and place at the beginning of the trail and partway along, to help him on his first few tries. Bring him back into the room to the start of the trail. Encourage him to follow it and he should find the hidden sock. When he finds it, praise him and give him the treats hidden inside.
As he gets better at following the trail, stop putting treats along the way to help him and make the trail longer and more complicated. For more of a challenge, try it in the garden.

• If your dog likes to dig in your garden and you’re fed up with the holes in your lawn, then why not build your dog his own sand-pit or earth-pit? You can either sink it into the ground or have one that is raised up – just as long as it is big enough for your dog to get in and have a really good dig. Bury toys and treats inside so that your dog will enjoy hours of digging fun, without destroying your flower beds.

• Provide your dog with plenty of chew toys, which you should encourage him to use if you catch him chewing something that he shouldn’t. Try him with synthetic bones, dental chews that massage the gums, pigs’ ears, roasted knuckle bones or large rawhide chews. Keep anything that you don’t want him to chew out of reach so that he can’t be naughty in the first place. Rotate the chew toys that you give him everyday, so that he doesn’t get bored with them. 

• Consider trying clicker training, a form of training that really encourages your dog to think about what he is doing and can enable you to teach him all sorts of tricks. Obtain a book on this, or visit a local training class using clicker techniques to learn the principles. Once you and your dog get the idea, the sky’s the limit!