Ultimate 2017 Gift Guide to Keep Your Dog Calm & Happy

Sometimes you just can’t deal with your bored dog. You need your dog to settle down. Maybe you’re sick or really stressed out or juggling multiple other tasks but your dog is pacing and whining and throwing a fit. Or insisting that it is walk time right now despite the flood/thunderstorm/wildfire/hurricane outside. How do you deal with your bored dog? Due to a recent rash of of illnesses and injuries in our house, we’re very experienced with coping with a dog who need more to do. This gift guide for your bored dog and you (trust me, you’ll both benefit) offers a variety of suggestions for things to do with your dog.

2017 Gift Guide for Your Bored Dog and You

With Light Supervision:

Snuffle Mat:

I’m not quite sure who first came up with the idea of snuffle mats but thank you, Mr. N loves his. I didn’t think he would like it as he usually goes through puzzle toys pretty quickly and it doesn’t take very long to “solve” but he’s obsessed. He he’s always interested in sniffing out food from it and will accept lower value treats. You basically scatter some food across a fleece mat and the dogs sniff them out. It’s a good way to make them “hunt” for their food especially if you feed kibble.

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Chews:

Dogs were made to chew. Chews give them something to work on and can be soothing. Mr. N will run and get his chews to deal with the excitement of guests in the house. If you get the right chew (interest and difficulty-wise), peace and quiet will reign. Except for the sound of dogs chomping but just think of it as like being at the zoo.

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Puzzle Toys:

Puzzle toys are basically the screen time of the dog world. When you need a quiet block of time to yourself, you scoop some treats into the toys and let them enjoy. There’s a wide array of toys available to accommodate your dog’s skill level and eagerness. Some toys play more nicely with hard floors than others.

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BUSTER Activity Mat

If your dogs enjoy solving puzzles, here is multiple puzzles in one with adjustable difficulty levels. The activity mat comes with three different puzzles to start off with and you can buy more to add on as they solve the other ones.

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With You:

Clicker and Trick Book

With a clicker, you can train almost anything. I’ve taught Mr. N how to put his toys in the toy box, do nosework, and jump through a hoop using a clicker and treats. Clicker training and shaping gives their brain a good workout. And you can just sit the entire time you’re doing it unless you’re training something particularly active. And if you need more ideas, this book offers 101 tricks to train.

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Conditioning Equipment

If your dog can’t go to the great outdoors gym, you bring the gym to them. Mr. N has the FitPaws bone and we work on rear and front paw targeting, body awareness and coordination. I’m pretty sure his core strength is way better than mine.

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Furbo Dog Camera and Treat Dispenser

The Furbo not only lets you spy on your dog, it can also toss treats to your dog. From a distance. You open up the app and swipe and tada! Treat comes flying. This makes it great for working on things that require distance. Like sending your dog to his bed from across the room. And that way you can reward your dog as soon as soon as they accomplish the behavior you want and you don’t have to keep walking back and forth across the room.

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Which products do you use with your dog when they’re bored?