You know the old adage, “A tired Weim is a good Weim.” Well that’s all well and good when it’s not cold, snowy or raining out! Maybe your Weim is a weather wimp, or maybe not… but what if YOU are? What do you do to keep your Weim properly exercised and stimulated when you are both cramped inside the house?
- Obedience – Mental challenges will tire your Weim out almost as good as physical exercise. Ramp up the old skills; even the top obedience dogs need repetition to keep in tip top form, so go through the paces, and then introduce some more complex elements to your routine.
- Tricks and Games – They may not have a true practical purpose other than to amuse you (and maybe some drunk guests) but if it saves your house from being chewed to pieces from boredom, I say go for it! I recommend Kyra Sundance’s book, 101 Dog Tricks
featuring her Weimaraners. Laid out step by step, you can follow the book to teach your Weim to jump rope, wave, bow, etc. 101 is a lot of tricks and should keep you and your Weim busy for a long time!
- Interactive and Treat Dispensing Toys – Puzzles for your dog, I love it! I have to give a nod to Kong again, one of my favorite dog toy brands. They came out with a toy called the Kong Wobbler that makes the traditional Kong more interactive by dispensing food out of a hole when it’s pushed or pawed. (Quick hint: If your Weim masters this one too quickly you can add a small toy inside to keep the treats from dispensing too fast or you can make the hole smaller by using some tape inside.)
- Fetch – Hallways work great for this, and if you have stairs, use them! Running up and down stairs is great exercise!
- Find it – Have your Weim find you or find a toy. If your Weim already has a solid stay, you can hide yourself, release your dog and have them find you. They catch on to this one really quickly. If your Weim doesn’t have a solid stay, then use this time indoors to teach it and reward their stay (and self control) with a release to find a favorite toy. When I first teach this, I use this particular duck “squeaker” toy which continues to make noise for a few seconds after you squeeze it. This helps the dog when you are first introducing this game to find the toy more quickly.
What do you do to keep your Weims occupied when you can’t take them out?
Photo courtesy of NorthLink Weimaraners.
Lauri
Great suggestions – and oh so timely when we are expecting 9 degrees tonight with gusts up to 35mph, and the backyard is a solid sheet of ice! Webster has one more suggestion for how to keep your Weim busy when the weather is bad – we call Webster’s primary activity “Moe” – just get yourself a small demon (also known as a 9 month old Whippet puppy) and hours of Weimaraner entertainment can be yours 🙂
Carrie
This was a great article for us! It`s been a crazy winter here. And Ruger, our 14 month old puppy is used to alot more activity than he`s been getting. Although I do take advantage of the nice days (you know, the ones in the 30`s with no snow or ice?) to get him out for rigorous excercise. Last weekend, we played a version of fetch, that I now call “mud frisbee”. The melting snow and sunshine caused extreme mud conditions in my steep backyard.
The combination of mud/hill/weimaraner wasn`t pretty! But the worn out, showered dog afterwards was!!
I agree about mental challenges. We have a game called “PIG”. It involves Ruger`s green rubber pig, that we keep up in the closet until we play the game. I put him in a down stay, and hide the pig in random locations all over the two story house. He will scent it out and return to his down stay spot when he joyfully finds it! I don`t help him, no matter how hard it is (usually he nails it in about 3 seconds!) and I reward him with praise only and no treats. He LOVES this game. Almost as much as the bird field. I think he just likes the challenge of “finding” something. But no matter what it is……it really does keep him happy and busy!
Leslie Nicole
My dog’s favorite is “Go Find”. Ellie is toy driven, so a ball was sufficient for her, but with Bella, it’s got to be treats. It’s quite amazing how good their noses are! I hide treats under pillows, behind curtains, on top of desks, in boxes. They usually find a handful of treats in under 5 minutes.
Ann
We (Porter and I) like to play a game I refer to as “laser tag”. I use a laser pointer and move it up and down our hallway, around the room, to the walls, and back to the hallway. He just runs and chases it all around. I set a timer for 10min…that’s all it takes before he is huffing and puffing. The best part is when you put the laser pointer away he lookes for it for the next five minutes…really funny. Porter also likes the “find it” game.
joy
Ann, the after effect of your pet still searching for the laser light could be due to eye damage caused by the lasers bright dot. Dog (or cats) keep frantically darting their heads to and fro, searching for the dot because it is burned into the retina and he/she continues to see it everywhere the gaze is cast. Drives them bonkers and it’s got to be bad for the eyes long term. We don’t use lasers for pets anymore because of their obvious issues even after the laser is turned off.