How to keep your pets happy when you are at work

So how do you keep your pets from chewing up the garden or destroying the furniture out of boredom while you are away? Okay so it is mainly dogs that do the most damage in the home and garden, there is nothing worse than coming home to 100 little bits of polystyrene in the backyard from a box that the dog found in the house and dragged out to destroy in the yard. Hmmn, sound familiar. Well I suppose that is why dog walkers like me stay in business.

If only they could amuse themselves playing pool all day or better still, cleaning the house. Well the first thing to do is give your dog a breed suitable walk a day. So a Kelpie or working dog is obviously going to need a lot more mental stimulation and exersize than a more sedentary breed. Want to get fit yourself, give them two walks. I always think of their walks as their time though, I never hurry a dog from sniffing or marking as I figure this is the dog expressing their natural behaviour. After all they spend so much time alone when all they want is to be near us. A safe off-lead park is perfect for them to investigate their surroundings and get all their scenting satisfaction, after all their sense of smell is much much much more highly attuned and important to them than it is to us. The other thing dogs enjoy is training with us or learning something new like flyball. If you have the time on the weekend something like this can be social for you as well as rewarding for your dog. Check out this flyball blog, it has a link to the Australian flyball Association: http://www.flyballblog.com/flyball-training-manual/

The key to keeping your dog or cat happy is letting them enjoy their natural behaviours, so for a dog who in the wild would spend up to 80% of their time foraging and hunting for food this can mean that food puzzles are perfect for keeping them entertained. 

It makes them work for their food and gives them a mental challenge while they are doing it. Treats frozen in cubes can be fantastic in summer as well as Kongs ( I am not advocating any particular brand it is just that most people know what a Kong is) stuffed with food instead of freely given in a bowl (food an be frozen in a Kong too to increase the difficulty) can help bust the boredom. I would never leave food out for a dog during the day unless it was a very tiny amount and the dog only grazes a little at a time. Some dogs really do have self control. I know...its rare but true. I recently bought my dog some spinny food toys at the Dog Lovers Show in Melbourne. It was not just fun for her it was great fun for me to watch her figure it out. I often do a mini treat scatter at clients backyards before I leave so the dogs can forage for the treats. It keeps them amused for a little while and is great for separation anxiety. If a dog knows it is getting something good when you leave you leaving is not so bad that you leave after all.

Cats need enrichment toys too, especially if they are exclusively indoor cats. Not the least of these is a really good scratchy pole, equiped with a few levels, a tunnel and a top perch to watch the world on. Put the pole by a window and they can watch the birds without the birds needing to be at risk. Chasing, hunting toys are great for cats as they cater to their natural instincts, so mini mice or feathery objects are great for throwing and chasing in the house. A great thing for either cats and dogs is a table tennis ball, they can swat them around and they bounce of walls and objects so they can chase them again. Awesome fun and it only costs the price of a table tennis ball. Cats also have ball spinny toys too, I have seen a popular one where  they can spin a little ball around in a circle on a plastic mount until it whirs around like a dervish. A little imagination and you can make your own toys for dogs or cats. Do you have a great idea for one you would like to share?