Dogs love to play outside, but what do you do when that is not an option? Perhaps the weather has been particularly bad, or the backyard is being re-landscaped, forcing the fun to stay inside.\u00a0 The good news is, as long as you have a decently spacious room to romp around in, there should be no trouble getting enough activity brewing for your pet. Here are a couple of easy exercise tips on the days you and your pup have to play indoors.<\/p>\n
Tug-o-War<\/strong>.\u00a0 With this exercise, you need to proceed cautiously, as many pet trainers feel it actually teaches dogs to be obstinate and stubborn. However, it is good practice for strengthening your dog\u2019s jaw and leg muscles, and can be a great way to \u201cwarm up\u201d exercises indoors by helping your dog see that things are about to get fun!<\/p>\n Mini-fetch:<\/strong>\u00a0 One of the best ways to get your dog moving is to take his favorite game to play at the park, and move it inside. Get the best ball, chew toy or rubber stick, and play a little game of fetch. Toss the object somewhere safe, where no windows, glass displays, or plants could be knocked over. Hide-and-seek:<\/strong> Anticipation is a great ingredient for indoor playtime!\u00a0 Get your dog\u2019s favorite object, a new chew toy, or a treat-hiding ball.\u00a0 Let him sniff it, and then tell the dog to sit and stay.\u00a0 Wander to a different area in the home and hide the toy some place where he will be able to access it, without the object being visible upon entering the room. Walk back to your dog and say \u201cgo get it!\u201d and watch him put that nose to good use.\u00a0 Always hide the toy in a different place, such as between pillows, on a low shelf, behind a desk, etc.\u00a0 The goal here is to keep the pup\u2019s mind engaged and body active!<\/p>\n Indoor walking:<\/strong> Not up for a hugely involving exercise session?\u00a0 Get the leash out and take your pup for a stroll around the house.\u00a0 If you have stairs, 5-8 trips up and down the stairs are great for dogs who aren\u2019t plagued with spinal or joint weakness. This is a great time to hone some of those more basic commands like \u201csit\u201d \u201cstay\u201d and \u201cheel\u201d while you go around the rooms. \u00a0Mixing training into the walk will work not only the dog\u2019s body, but his mind as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dogs love to play outside, but what do you do when that is not an option? Perhaps the weather has been particularly bad, or the backyard is being re-landscaped, forcing the fun to stay inside.\u00a0 The good news is, as long as you have a decently spacious room to romp around in, there should be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-3461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training-and-behavior","tag-dogs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dogs-tug-of-war.jpg?fit=800%2C473&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xKys-TP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf you really want to get your pup\u2019s blood pumping, try riling him up by playing \u201cspeed-fetch\u201d where you throw the object as fast as you can, cheering the dog to \u201cgo get it\u201d as quick as he can. As soon as he drops the toy, fling it right back so that the dog will go racing off again.\u00a0 If you keep this up for 15-20 minutes the dog will work up quite a sweat!<\/p>\n