Exercising with your pet at home
With all of us trying our best to social distance and give each other space, exercising with your pet at home can be a challenge. However, we’ve got some great ideas for you for both cats and dogs to keep your pets happy and healthy even when you don’t want to risk taking them to the dog park. We doubt you’d take your cats to the dog park but you know what we mean! Keep reading. There’s a great video at the end!
If you live in an apartment, exercising with your pet can be difficult for sure. Some ideas to consider with your dog are:
- Training activities that will exercise their brains. Use treats, even tiny bits of bones or freeze dried food, to entice them, and work on a new skill. Consider “lie down” “bed” or even “roll over” as ways to keep them occupied and using their brains. Other alternatives might be getting them to recognize a particular toy by name, or understanding how to put away toys too.
- Consider great tug of war games! If you have limited or no outdoor space, you can play tug of war with your pup inside. This works best with sturdy toys, so don’t go playing with their favorite doll!
If you have at least some outdoor space, either of the above activities can be done there. You can also play fetch or soccer with your pup, even if they don’t have as much space to run around as usual. In fact, if they’re still learning to play fetch, a smaller area might even work better. Remember to reward your pups with lots of love too!
If you live out in the country and have a little more room to roam, now is a great time to just get outside, throw sticks, and let your pups run! *This should only be done if you are in an off-leash area or on your own land.
Your cats are probably wondering why you’ve been home so much. Their routine may feel off and you may notice that they seem bored or out of sorts. Some fun activities to consider with your cats are:
- Foil ball chase/fetch. We seriously have a cat who chases balls of foil (about the size of a large gumball) and will return them. Even if your cat doesn’t return them, he or she may spend hours chasing these!
- Kitty play time. We sit on the floor in the evenings with our cats and get out their favorite toys to play with with them. We dangle strings, give them a good brushing with their favorite brush, and just spend some quality time playing.
- Build a fort or find some boxes. Cats love boxes. Any box will do. If it’s a new box for them, even better! They also will get interested in a fort for a while and may even find a new place to hide and take a nap!
We hope you’re finding fun ways of exercising with your pet at home right now! There are so many great videos out there to help with training your dogs, too. Here’s a great video to get you started:
J&M Aquatics and Pet Center is considered “essential” and so we are still open to provide for all of your pets’ needs. If you’d like to call-in your order and pick it up curbside, contact us here.
