DIY indoor activity course for dogs

Make this DIY indoor activity course for your pooch and never let your dog lack in exercise.

No matter what our situation is, our dogs need their exercise. If they do not get their exercise on time and on a regular basis, they may develop aggression towards other dogs and other family members. Thus, proper mental and physical stimulation of your dog is of the utmost importance for his/her well being. What is a better way to do it than to set up an indoor activity course? This way your dog can get all the exercise he/she needs right at home without you spending a single dime.

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Why do you need an indoor activity area?

There are times when it’s difficult to go out to take our dogs for a walk

For example:

• You are stuck in quarantine due to a viral pandemic outbreak and you cannot leave the house and take your dog for his two 40 minutes walk (morning and evening).
• You have super busy with the upcoming assignment, You have only 20 minutes to spare but your dog needs a 40 minutes walk otherwise he will bring the house down.
• You have some work to do and your dog is seeking attention and not letting you work.
• You are sick and just don’t have the energy to take your dog out for his long walk.
• The environmental conditions are not favorable for a walk outside e.g. rain, blizzard etc. If it rains, Delta refuses to go out, even if he wears a raincoat. He would just prefer to stay indoors and not step out of the house for more than 5 minutes.
• You have a highly energetic pup or a dog with aggression issues.

Casper is all ready for any pandemic situation. But what about his walkies? You can follow Casper’s daily adventures @casper_the_cream_retriever

Thus, this activity can help you with all the above-mentioned situations.

If you check the internet, you will find multiple ideas for dog indoor activities, most of which involve staircases and you like a tug of war, kong toy, interactive feeder, dental chews etc. These methods are great for mental stimulation and building focus in your dog.

However, those techniques don’t really teach you how to actually get your dog to physically release all of that pent-up energy while being indoors at the same time.

Thus, in this post, I bring you an indoor dog activity setup, which you can make with things already present in your house.

Why did I come up with this?

If you guys have been following my YouTube channel (Shruti and Delta), you would know k=by now that Delta is a super high energy pup. He goes for a 40 min walk once in the morning and once in the evening, however, that much is never enough for him. He will come back, sleep for 2 hours, wake up and demand my undivided attention.

If I do not pay attention to him, he will become very vocal and whine about it. If that doesn’t work, he will lay his head down on my lap and look at me with those absolutely adorable eyes. I melt, give up my work and play with him. Yes, he has me wrapped around his fingers, toes, tail everything!

He prefers to sleep when I sleep with him. Now I don’t have the option of sleeping all day now, do I? I need to work. So I had to come up with something to keep him engaged. I tried filling Kong with treats. It only worked to keep him busy for 15 minutes. Within 15 minutes, all treats were eaten and he was back to whining. I gave him the homemade dog toys. Those work, but I need to play otherwise he loses interest. So I desperately needed something which would completely tire him out.

Delta is always high on energy and recuperates very soon. You can follow his daily shenanigans @deltabunny_therisingpupstar

Thus came in, THE INDOOR DOG ACTIVITY SET UP.

Let’s find out how to make this activity area. 

For this, you will need

• A couple of chairs
• Your bed or sofa, whichever you prefer
• The more number of items you can involve, the better is it..
• And finally, you will need an extremely enticing treat to which your dog cannot refuse.

I prefer to use Indian flat wheat bread. Since wheat is safe for dogs, it makes the flatbread a great treat. Also, a bonus point is that Delta loves wheat flatbread over Chicken, egg, cheese as well as mutton (primary proteins available in India). Thus, it makes for an amazing treat. I would normally make a 6 inch diameter flatbread and place it in the fridge to harden up before use. This way the treat is not wobbly when I use it to navigate Delta around the chairs and the bed.

The setup:

The way I set up the activity area is to put the chairs with their backs touching the bed and the front side towards me. I would make sure to keep some space between the two chairs as well as on the outer side of the chairs so that Delta can be navigated easily.

That’s it…!!
You have your activity area all set up and the treat in place.
Its time to begin.

Use the treat to navigate you. Lure your dog in and make him go in the figure of 8 around the chairs and bed. So this is how it goes:

Roscoe understands the impawtance of regular exercise. It keeps him super fit and healthy. You can follow Roscoe’s everyday activities @theroscoechronicles

• Up, on the bed from the outer side of chair 1
• Down from the inner side of chair two
• Again up, on the bed from the outer side of chair two
• Down from the bed from the inner side of chair 1/2.
• Repeat the process until your pup tires out.

Make sure to interchange the activity with some sit-down, stand, lay down (and any other tricks) sessions so that your dog does not get bored with running in the same manner again and again.
Furthermore, after 4 to 5 complete loops, give your pup a small piece of the treat. This makes sure that his/her interest stays in the game.

If your dog stops chasing the treat, bring the treat really close to his/her nose so that he/she can smell it. When your dog lunges to make a grab for the treat, make him/her go around in loops again.

Continue this activity for a half-hour in case of a high energy dog or 15 mins in case if a low energy dog. You can also stop when you feel that your dog is getting tuckered out from exhaustion.
This is also an amazing exercise to build strength in their hind leg muscles.

PS: If you like this post do share it with your friends and leave a comment. If you are not a dog guardian, share it with your friends who are, so that everyone’s life can become just a little bit easier :).