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is the puppy training podcast episode number 23. Boredom Busters. This podcast is for those looking to train their own dog, whether as a family, companions, service or therapy dog. And I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcasts, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Hello, because you're having a wonderful day. Today's podcast. I thought I would share a little bit of something that I taught as part of our life can and coaching to all of my clients this past week. Sometimes I get questions on social media of how to handle this or that with the dog, and I often times cover those topics for my members in our life classes. And this week that was one of them. We talked about jumping. We talked about boredom, busters. We talked about socialization, and I thought, You know what? I'm gonna share with everyone Some boredom busters because we all have a puppy that occasionally just needs something to do right. And managing their day on a daily basis can get a little overwhelming, and we're always looking for new ideas. At least I know I am. So I thought today it would be kind of fun to share with you a little piece of our life can and coaching class that we did this week. Before we start talking about specific activities we can do as boredom busters. Let's just talk about our daily routine. What kind of schedule is important for our papito have? What kinds of things are we doing with him on a daily basis? And then I'll give you some specific ideas of games and things that you can play or that you can give to your puppy to keep him entertained. So what do you do all day, Right? You have a brand new puppy. You have a life outside of the puppy, but you also have this cute little bundle of joy who's got a lot of energy. My first tip would be that we want to manage your puppies day, so we want to make sure that that puppy has a schedule and has a routine and then realize that puppies do sleep a lot. So a lot of that day, your puppy will be spent sleeping. But when they're awake, it's all hands on deck. So we want to make sure that we're watching them 100% while he's out and about. We don't want to give him free rein of our home too soon. We need to make sure that he's House trained first, and he's not going to two on inappropriate things. So that leads into giving him appropriate things to Dio. We want to make sure that we've given our puppy plenty of options. Soft things, hard things I'm talking about Bennett Bones, you know, in place of table legs or a safe to toy. That's maybe squeaky that he could do up instead of like, a soft pillow or something like that. Another big thing to consider about your puppies days to make sure that he's getting plenty of daily exercise. Now until your puppies about a year and 1/2 his joints aren't fully developed. And so I'm very careful about taking him on long walks, where a long excursions where he's going to get tired and then have to walk on sore joints. So when I say exercise your puppy, I'm talking about things like you could do short little walks, maybe in front of your home or down your street down your driveway and back, but I also encourage play in the backyard. Just go out and let your puppy play. Fetch or play Chase, play Tug. Let him just explore the yard. Maybe you're walking around your home and then that way, if he gets tired, he can just simply lie down and take a rest. And then when he's ready to go again, he can get up and start running again. So he's able to dictate his daily exercise. Just give him plenty of opportunities to do so. You'll find that when he's able to get out his physical needs and he's able to get that exercise out of this system. Ah, lot of that puppy jumping, biting, nipping from those naughty behaviors that they tend to do when they are bored. If the exercises enough during the day than they settle down more quickly and are more calm now you can get a puppy. That exercise is too much, and then it's almost like they are overly exercised and they're overly amped up and they can't control themselves. So it's much like a little kid. Sometimes you know who he is really tired, and he hasn't had his nap yet, but he just keeps running around until he crashes. Some puppies air like that. So if your puppies more like that and I would yeah, give him some daily exercise, make sure that he's getting plenty of it. But if you notice that he starts to get more and more crazy after the exercise instead of settling down, then he probably just needs some quiet time in his Cree and he'll fall asleep pretty quickly. So there are all types of personalities with our puppies. Just make sure that they are getting that daily exercise because it does really help with their routine and preventing boredom. In addition to that, I like to incorporate training throughout the day. So as often as I can, I have my puppy with me, and I am trying to think and be creative about how can I incorporate training into this activity? For example, when I'm folding my laundry, I'll ask my puppy to go to place and he'll lay on his mat and I'll give them things to chew on, and I'll fold some socks. Maybe I'll get through all of the socks and then when I'm done with the socks, I release him and we go play a little bit and then we come back to the laundry room. Maybe this time I've asked him to go in his kennel and I leave the door open. But I have asked him to go in there and I'm going to fold all of the shorts. And when all of the shorts are done, then I release him and we go play a little bit and then we come back, and this time I'm going to try to hang up some of the shirts. And maybe I've asked my puppy to do a sit stay while I hang the shirts up so different things like that where I'm just incorporating the behaviors that my puppy already knows. But we're trying to lengthen them and strengthen them, and at the same time I'm getting things done. You'll also notice that that helps structure your puppies day, and it also prevents boredom from cropping up because you're involving him in your daily activities. So another idea would be to mix things up. Now, when you do a little training sessions, sometimes we think Okay, I need to do 56 and 10 downs and ah stay, and then we're gonna practice a couple weeks. Well, if we do that same thing every day or every time we get into our training session mode, then it gets a little bit boring for our puppies. So to keep our puppy engaged and interested in the training, I like to mix it up and again. I do this in all sorts of different ways, but the training session might be once it one down high, five a shake, a rollover, maybe throw in another city if that's what I'm focusing on for the day. Or maybe I go back to doing some recalls, and then I throw in a bunch of other random behaviors and then they go back to it may be the one that I'm focusing on for the day, so I'm not just doing like Sit, sit, sit, sit all in a row And my puppy is getting really bored of it. I tried to mix up the behaviors, keep him guessing what's coming next, just because that makes it more fun. Think of yourself. If you were in a class and the teacher was asking you to do something, and it was just the same thing over and over again. You just get kind of bored of it. So in dog training, that's a lot the same way. We want to keep our puppy interested, and we want him to see that it's fun and engaging. Keep him guessing. The more you keep him guessing, the more he's going to stay engaged with you. Finally, if you can use the crate to create a space where he can to only appropriate things. So I do recommend using the crate during the day. I know some people are like I'm just going to use it at night when my puppy sleeping. I know some people are like I don't like crates Me personally, I prefer crate training. I feel like it helps house train my puppy in the quickest way possible. I also feel like it teaches my puppy other good things, such as being alone. It helps prevent things like separation anxiety. My puppy knows how to be alone in a space and be calm, and I feel like that's a valuable skill toe havin a puppy's life If he's going to go to the groomer. If he's going to go to the vet if you travel and you wanted to sleep in a hotel room with you, there's a lot of different scenarios where a crate is just really useful. So I try to get my puppy create time throughout the day at least a few times, and I'm not talking. Leave him in his career all day. It's literally okay. I'm gone for an hour in the morning. How about we do some great time where I need to get something done in the afternoon? How about we do an hour of creek time? So just little sessions throughout the day that helps him relax and take that quiet time that sometimes it's necessary, like we mentioned without exercise. Sometimes you have a puppy that if he just gets crazier and crazier, and he's not gonna lay down and take a nap on his own, putting him in a crate might help him to realize, Oh, I can't do anything else. So I might as well take a nap, and then you'll find that you have a happier puppy on your hands later. Okay, so let's get into some specific ideas about boredom busters? What kinds of things can you give him to do. Number one on my list is a Kong I use. Kong's a lot there, a rubber toy that you can stuff with food treats. You can freeze them. I like to get the kibble wet and then stuff it in the Kong and then top it off with a little bit of peanut butter and then freeze it for about 15 20 minutes and give it to my puppy. And then he gets to work out his breakfast and the peanut butter that's on top. Another idea is to use a wash rag or any other kind of rag, fairly small one that's not going to necessarily phrase super easily. But I also watched this one as well. So if my puppy starts toe tear a little pieces of it away, I take it away. But initially it works great. So you take a rag, you get it wet. I like to roll up a piece of hot dog or freeze dried liver or something that my puppy really loves in the middle. I roll it up and then I tie a knot in it, and then I either freeze it again. If he's teething, that's a really nice thing to hand to your puppies and nice, cold frozen wash rag that he can just non and puppies love to try to work that, not out and get to that food in the middle. So that one's a very cheap idea. I go to the dollar store and buy several wash rags, and then I just use them as my puppy rags when they do start to fray. As I mentioned, I throw them away and we we go to a new one. So you do want to watch that, but in general, the first couple times you give it to your puppy, it's totally fine. And they love it especially like I said, when you get it wet and you freeze it the third, it would be a sniffle, Matt. Now they're these air on the market. Now. People make these and they sell them. But you're also welcome to make your own. Or you can just do things like buy a shag rug or use the grass out in your front yard. The concept is the same. The ideas that you take some dog food, you Sprinkle it in the mat or in something that's long and shaggy, and then your puppy gets to sniff through the different layers to try to find the food. It keeps them interested. They love to go search for their food. So that's another thing about puppies that we kind of take away from them. A lot of times we just put their food in a bowl and we say, Here you go and they're like, Well, that's great. Now what I'm gonna do the rest of the day Puppies, air wired toe work for their food. So if we just hand it to them in a bold and pretty much have the rest the day on their hands to be like, Well, what am I going to do all day? So we almost create boredom for our dogs by doing that, But that's nothing. That is a good way to put your dog's food in a place where he has to kind of work for it, which he loves to do, All right. Another idea with that one would be a Kong wobbler. I use the Kong wobbler a lot, as I do the regular Kong. It's a plastic kong. It's a little bit larger than the rubber variety has a hole in the side of it. You can twist it open. You can put their dog food in it and then twist it closed. Set it on the ground and your puppy gets to pot and, you know, push it around with their nose until it tips over and the food comes out and they're able to eat their food. So it's a puzzle, basically, that your puppy gets to try to work out his meal. And it's a way that he's able to work for his food, which is what dogs like to do. Is we just mentioned so again that Snuffle Matt or the Kong wobbler is what it's called? I find to be very helpful with puppies in helping them engage with their food mill and work for it and entertain them at the same time. If you have a puppy who loves to dig, there is something called and I dig and an I fetch machine for those puppies who like to fetch. So these are made by the same company. The idea gives a toy where the puppy can dig in it. It's layers of material, and they dig out the food reward it prevents them from digging in your carpet or digging on a chair. A lot of times you'll see a puppy climb up on a chair and want to just dig at the mat before he lies down those kinds of things. So if you have a puppy who loves to dig or that's kind of his tendency, they do make a toy called the idea that he can dig at and paw at until he gets to treat the other one. Associated with that is that I fetch machine. Oh, I have a little schnauzer Yorkie mix who loves to play fetch. So last year for Christmas, I bought him an I fetch machine, and he absolutely adores it. It took him about three days for us to free shape him into putting the ball in the machine on his own. But he did figure it out eventually, and now it's his favorite toy. He goes to that being regularly loves to play, fetch, return it on, for Ami, puts the ball in as much as he wants to play until he's tired, so I fetch machine is fabulous. Another idea would be to take an ice cream bucket especially if you live somewhere warm or if you live somewhere where that you have all the seasons, then this might be a summertime activity, but you taken ice cream bucket. You fill it with water, and then I chop up pot dogs or carrots or apples. Whatever my puppy loves, you could do a combination. Options are limitless. Ts you put them in the water and then you freeze the ice cream bucket to make a big ice cube. But the Ice Cube has fun treasures in it for your puppy. So then you take it outside, dump it out on the ground and let your puppy work through that ice and get to the good stuff. It's a great summertime activity. Finally, the last game I'm gonna share with you is a muffin tin with tennis balls, so you go to the dollar store, you get a muffin tin. It could be the six size of the 12 size, and then I buy tennis balls. The idea is that you take the muffin tin. You put some treats randomly in the pouches of the tin, and then you cover those with tennis balls and your puppy gets to figure out how to move the tennis balls to get to the treat. If you've never tried this with your puppy, I suggest it's fun to watch their little brains work and try to figure out how to get the treat. Some puppies try to tip the pan over some puppies, tryto pushing her out of there pause or their nose. Some puppies will figure out if they pick up the tennis ball with their mouth and move the tennis ball, then that's how they get to their treat. So curious what your puppy will do. It's a fun game to play. It's not very expensive, and it's a great boredom buster. All right, so that's about six ideas for you guys. If you have puppies that needs something to do again the Kong that you can stuff the wash rag that you can tie into a knot again, you can put anything in the middle of that. You don't even have to put something in the middle of that. If you tied it or not and freeze it. Most puppies will just try to work it. That not the snuffle Matt is good for letting them sniff around and try to work for their breakfast or their dinner. The I dig and the I fetch machines are good for digging puppies or puppies who love to play. Fetch the ice cream bucket if it's a warmer month and you puppy can go out in the yard and do this when I wouldn't recommend this one in the house, that's pretty messy. But outside it's fabulous. And then that muffin tin game. I'm really curious to see how your puppy handles it and what kind of puppy you have, as far as how he's going to solve that problem of moving those tennis balls. As always, make sure that you're supervising your puppy when you give him an activity to do just as a general precaution and to keep him safe. I hope you guys have a wonderful week training. If you have any questions, you're welcome to some of my way at info at Baxter and Bella dot com. If you are interested in becoming a member of my program, our website is www dot Baxter and Bella dot com. I offer an online puppy school where I take you through over 60 lesson plans with how to videos I also include life coaching on a weekly basis. You're welcome to sign up on my calendar for time that I'm in my office anyway, where I can answer your individual question. And then I also teach these weekly canine coaching classes. Right now, we're on Week five of our six week session, but they're all recorded. So even if you joined now, you can go back and watch those 1st 4 lessons. Then you can join us this next Wednesday on Week five. So anyway, happy training and I'll talk to you guys next week. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training questions, visit my sight Baxter and Bella dot com to contact me.