Episode #220 Stop Your Dog's Boredom FAST!

Is your dog bored, restless, or getting into trouble? 😬 A bored dog is a mischievous dog, but don’t worry—I’ve got the BEST boredom-busting tips to keep your pup happy and entertained! 🎉

In this episode, I’ll teach you:
✅ 3 fun & easy games to play with your dog:
1️⃣ Find Your Food/Toy – Engage their nose for a fun sniffing challenge! 👃🍖
2️⃣ Hide and Seek – A great way to build recall and confidence! 🏃‍♂️🐾
3️⃣ Round Robin Recall – Strengthen recall while having a blast! 🎾

✅ Brain-boosting puzzle toys that keep dogs entertained when you’re busy:
🐾 Outward Hound Puzzles – Keep their brain working with interactive games!
🐾 Kong Wobbler - Simple to fill, easy to use!
🐾 The Puppod - An Electronic Food Puzzle Toy

✅ The BEST chews for stress relief & entertainment (because chewing is exercise too!):
🦴 Farm Hounds Beef Rolls – Long-lasting & digestible!
🦴 Freezbone Products – Fill and freeze for long-lasting enjoyment!
🦴 West Paw Toppls – Fill them with treats for long-lasting fun!
🦴 Woof Pupsicles & Refills - Perfect for teething pups or hot summer days!

For links to my dog's favorites, visit our Product page. https://www.baxterandbella.com/puppy-products

✅ How to teach your dog to entertain themselves! 🏡
Using crates, pens, and the right toys, you can train your pup to choose their own fun instead of chewing up your furniture! 🛋️🚫

🔥 Say goodbye to boredom & hello to a happy, tired pup! 🔥
🐶 What’s your dog’s favorite boredom buster? Drop a comment below! ⬇️
💙 If you found this episode helpful, don’t forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for more dog-friendly tips and fun training hacks! 🐾✨

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today I'm teaching you how to stop your dog's
boredom fast.
When your dog gets bored, dothey get a little mischievous?
Maybe you're finding toiletpaper all around the house.
Today, we're going to teach youhow to stop that.
Welcome to the Puppy TrainingPodcast.
I'm Amy Jensen, founder ofBaxter and Bella, the online
puppy school.
Here we are all about helpingyou create the best possible

(00:22):
experience raising a puppy, fromtraining tips to practical
tricks, all aimed at fostering ahappy, well-behaved dog who
truly feels like part of thefamily.
So if you are ready to enjoythe journey and strengthen the
bond with your dog, let's getstarted.
Hey everybody, thanks forlistening to the Puppy Training

(00:44):
Podcast.
Today.
I have a clip from my recentYouTube video for you, so you
will hear me describing games,and if you want to see how those
games are played, or you wantto see the food puzzle toys that
I'm talking about, head on overto YouTube at Baxter and Bella
for more details.
All right, enjoy.
To curb your dog's boredom,they're going to need both
mental and physical exercise ona daily basis.

(01:05):
Today, I'm going to teach youand your dog how to play three
fun games.
I'm going to also talk about myfavorite food puzzle toys for
your dogs and show you somechews that my dogs absolutely
adore.
These things keep them happy,safe and entertained so that
they're not getting into yourtoilet paper.
Game number one is find yourfood.
You can use treats, you can usetheir kibble or you can use a

(01:27):
favorite toy.
These little squeaky toys workgreat.
So I'm going to use thesetreats from Pawtree.
They are lamb, salmon andpotato meaty bites.
My dogs love them.
Here's how you play.
Let your dog sniff the food orthe toy you're going to be using
.
So I've put a few treats inthis bowl.
I'm going to hide it in thiscorner.
I like to do this in a coupledifferent locations, so we'll

(01:49):
put another one right there.
And for the last spot, I'mgoing to be a little tricky.
I'm going to put it up on thesofa.
I don't mind if they jump uphere.
Once you have all your treatshidden, then you release your
dog and say, okay, go find yourfood, and then let them find it.
Now I start simply putting themall in this one room area to

(02:10):
begin with, as your dogs getbetter at this game and they
understand what's happening, youcan make this as hard as you
want.
I even take this outside in myyard.
I hide their toys instead oftheir food.
You can mix it up in a lot ofdifferent ways.
Your dogs are going to lovethis one.
This game is great for burningenergy without running around
like a maniac.
They have a focus, they have agoal and they're trying to find

(02:34):
it.
Perfect for rainy days, perfectfor any other day that your dog
just has a little extra energy.
Next up a classic Hide and goseek.
Only this time you're the onehiding.
Here's how to play.
Step one have your dog do a sit, stay If they don't know how,
have a friend hold them, take alittle food reward with you or a
toy that you can reward themwith once they find you.
And then step three is to hide.
Make this easy.
Hide behind the sofa, hidebehind a chair, somewhere in the

(02:56):
same room that your dog iscurrently.
We can make it harder as theyget better at this game.
And fourth, have your friendrelease the dog and then they
get to find you Again.
That search is all the fun foryour dog.
So let them look and last, whenthey get to you, throw a big
party.
Good dog, give them the foodreward, toss the toy for them,
play a little game of tug,whatever they love.

(03:16):
We want them to be rewarded forfinding you.
You can also make this hide andseek game a recall game.
So when you release your dog,to find you, call them to come
to you.
They can hear your voice, letthem sniff you out and it makes
a really good recall practice.
Round Robin Recall is anotherexcellent recall game.
This gives your dog lots ofphysical exercise plus some

(03:36):
mental exercise in the meantime.
Here's how you play.
Have people stand in a circle.
This game is great for multiplepeople.
So if you have guests comingover, have them stand in a
circle.
This game is great for multiplepeople.
So if you have guests comingover, have them stand in a
circle.
Everybody gets two to threefood rewards and then we take
turns calling the dog back andforth across the circle.
When the dog gets to me, Iexpect a nice sit to say please.
If they don't know how, I justhelp them by luring them into a

(03:58):
sit.
And then I feed them a foodreward and the next person goes
and they call the dog to themacross the circle and then we
repeat that pattern of run sitto say please run to the person
sit to say please run to theperson sit to say please.
It's great physical exerciseAgain, great mental exercise as
well.
And that recall training is inthere too.
My dogs love round robin recallwhy.
It gives them attention andsnacks, win-win.

(04:21):
And over time you can increasethe difficulty of this game
simply by increasing the size ofyour circle.
Maybe you're busy and you don'thave time to play games with
your dog and you need them toentertain themselves.
No problem, that's where foodpuzzle toys come in.
Let me show you.
First up is this outward houndpuzzle.
It's really simple to use.
You take this top off I put mydog's kibble in here you replace

(04:42):
the lid and then you set thison the floor and let them try to
knock out the food.
So as they wobble this around,you can see that food's going to
move around and come out.
And then they get to find thison the floor.
Another fun alternative that'selectronic is called the pup pod
.
You put the food in the top ofit and we just simply cover it,

(05:04):
and then our dog gets to hitthis little pod around and that
pod is what signals the food tocome out of there.
Having your dog work for theirfood rather than just feeding
them in a bowl, is going to workthem out mentally.
It's great mental exercise forthem, and both physical and
mental exercise are important ona daily basis.
So use food puzzle toys,because it takes way longer for

(05:27):
your dog to finish their mealthan just gobbling it out of a
bowl.
Did you know chewing isactually a workout for your dog?
It alleviates stress, itstrengthens jaw muscles and it
keeps your dog entertained.
My dogs have a few favoritesthat I'm sharing with you today.
So first, farmhounds is afamily-owned company.
They do natural beef hide rollsand these last a long time for

(05:48):
my dogs.
This is a 10-inch beef roll.
My dogs love this.
This is kind of their go-toitem when they're bored that.
They'll go to their pen, pickthis out and then bring it over
to the carpeted area to chew it.
It's great because they leavemy table legs alone and my sofa
and chairs alone.
They go for this instead.
Next, my dogs love chews that Ican stuff.
So this is a Westpaw topple.

(06:08):
This is a freeze bone bowl andI can fill this with kibble,
some Greek yogurt, maybeapplesauce, a little pumpkin
puree, stir it all around andthen stick this in the freezer
for a few minutes and then feedit to my dog.
It's great entertainment forabout 20 minutes.
Another favorite of my dogs isthe Woof Pupsicle.
So they come in differentcolors.
They're pretty simple.

(06:29):
You just open them up, put thelittle Pupsicle inside.
It screws shut and then you canbuy the refills or you can make
them and you just again put itinside, hand it to your dog and
it takes them a while to workthat out of the middle.
This toy is called a snoop.
You open it up like this, pullout that middle.
You can fill it with biscuits,kibble, whatever your dog loves.
Then you close it, put this onthe ground and they move this

(06:51):
around and get things to fallout of it.
Make sure you always monitoryour dog when giving them
something new to chew.
We want to figure out what kindof chewer are they.
Are they a heavy chewer?
Are they a light chewer?
How long does it take them towork through something and are
they going to be able to breakthis toy apart or not?
There's different kinds ofrubber out there.
There's stronger rubber andless strong rubber.
Make sure you do your homeworkwhen you're shopping and get

(07:12):
appropriate chews for your dogand their style of chewing.
Providing your dog with goodchews from the get-go teaches
them what to chew.
You can prevent a lot ofunwanted chewing around your
home by giving them somethinggood to do.
You might be wondering how do Iget my dog to chew these and
not my furniture?
It's pretty simple.
When we start with a new dog inour home, they're in a crate or

(07:32):
an exercise pen.
When we can't watch them,that's where you're giving them
these delicious chews and goodthings to work on.
So then, as they grow older andwe give them more free reign
around our house, they'regravitating towards those toys
to chew on.
Little Bella will go into herpen, grab her farmhound beef
roll, take it out to the livingroom and that's what she works
on.
Why?
Because she spent a lot of timewhen she was younger in a one

(07:55):
room area with appropriate shoesor in her exercise pen with
appropriate shoes.
She was raised on appropriateshoes and so she chooses those
things.
She likes them and she'slearned to love them.
She finds them, she seeks themout and she leaves the rest of
my house alone.
Truly, one of the best thingsyou can teach your dog how to do
is to entertain themselves.

(08:16):
So there you have it Fast andeasy ways to stop your dog's
boredom.
Your dog will be happier, morecalm and less destructive
Win-win.
Thanks for tuning in to thePuppy Training Podcast.
I hope today's tips help youfeel more confident and excited
about raising your dog.
Remember, with a littlepatience and consistency you can

(08:38):
create a loving bond and awell-behaved pup who's a joy to
have in your family.
If you found this episodehelpful, be sure to subscribe,
leave a review and share it withfellow puppy parents.
For more resources, visitBaxter and Bella online.
Until next time, happy training.