Entertaining a house-bound high energy dog

Question

I have a one year old border collie who has kennel cough. He is vaccinated, I'm not sure how he got it, but here we are.

He is confined to the house/yard, and he is losing his mind. He normally goes to doggy daycare twice a week that sort of relaxes him, but he hasn't been able to do that since he got sick.

He plays fetch poorly, maybe for about 5 minutes max, so it hasn't helped in exercising him. I've been using a laser pointer to take the edge off, but he gets bored of that too.

We do about an hour of clicker shaping/training in the evening, which I think mellows him out a little. But not enough.

Other things I've tried:

• Frozen Kongs - he will eat the easy stuff off the top and leave the Kong until it defrosts.
• Bully sticks - actually pretty good, buys me about 20 minutes of free time
• Bones - also about 20 minutes worth of entertainment at a time
• Snuffle mat - we do this for about 30 minutes, but I don't know if it does too much.
• "Find it" game - he doesn't seem to get the idea. He gets the easy ones and lays down.
• Flirt pole - gets bored after about 5 minutes.
• RC car - works great, but he barks and herds and it gets kinda loud. Plus I don't want to encourage the barking.

I am looking for ideas for entertaining a high energy dog that doesn't require me to spend all of my free time after work doing it. Games? Fun toys? I want to avoid high-calorie activities because he also isn't exercising too much.

Answer 1

There is not going to be a one size fits all answer to this, as each dog is unique.

Both the question and existing answer have some good ideas, here are a few more.

Television: Animal and educational channels often have sound and pictures that some dogs find interesting

Mirror: That strange new dog that does not have a scent, can be a distraction. Be sure it is securely fastened so there are no accidents

Wildlife soundtracks: I have seen this work for short times, if you have one I would try it, but would not go out and buy one.

Stuffed animal: These can make good friends. Stay away from eyes or buttons that might get swallowed. Consider the risk (to your dog) if the stuffed animal gets eaten.

Answer 2

I have had something similar with my 2 year old GSD, she had a toe infection and had to be rested for around 3-4 weeks, which for a working line GSD is incredibly difficult, she was climbing the walls!

In all honesty he needs more, he is a working dog (he has more energy and drive than other dog breeds), he will go crazy and hyper until he can go out, he needs more than chasing a laser pointer and indoor fetch. Working dogs need a lot of mental and physical stimulation. You have a dog that was essentially bred to have a job and to work.

Do some more interesting and mentally demanding tasks, get him to use his brain. Hide and seek with treats (or you), puzzle games that dish out treats when he gets them right - things like this will mentally (and physically) wear him out. Given you say an hour only wears him out a little, this indicates he needs more. Do it for longer and a couple of times a day.

More physical things like Tug where they use their entire body to tug on something works, general obedience works too, 'speak' works too, getting your dog to bark on command is also physically demanding and will wear them out quicker.

"Find it" game - he doesn't seem to get the idea. He gets the easy ones and lays down

Things like these are probably the best you can do, make them incrementally harder and tell him to "find it", walk around the house with him, re-enforce that command as he's looking for. Do more things like this. Persevere with it.

RC car - works great, but he barks and herds and it gets kinda loud. Plus I don't want to encourage the barking.

This is because its what he is bred to do, herding. Perhaps look into local working dog clubs or trainers too that could help.

I am looking for ideas for entertaining a high energy dog that doesn't require me to spend all of my free time after work in doing so.

Working dogs command a lot of time and effort to keep them entertained, they are bred to work so they have high prey drive and energy, more so than other breeds.