Winter Warmers

Although you might revel in the idea of sitting in front of the fire while watching whole seasons of your favorite series this winter, this might not be your dog’s idea of fun (unless you have one of those very relaxed and sleepy dogs like Salvador’s friend, Jameson)

I’ve decided to round up some fun things to do with your dog during the winter months and here they are!

Rainy day walks

Now, I know while your sitting all comfy-cozy, in front of the fire, every fiber of your being is kicking against this, but taking your dog for a walk in the rain might just be the best thing that happened in his or her day! It’s really not that bad. Pull on that coat and open up that umbrella – no doubt you’ll be the only one under it. Salvador loves nothing more than getting wet and mucky!

Treasure Hunt

Instead of feeding Salvador the usual way, I sometimes hide his food all around the house. He loves this game so much, because sniffing around is his favorite past-time (all dogs love it!).

Obstacle course

Gather all your brooms, mops, chairs, step ladders and build an obstacle course. You can guide your dog around it with treats and lots of encouraging words.

Stair climber

Are you lucky enough to have a set of stairs in your house? Use these to up the normal fetch game by dropping the ball down them. Exercise for the day done!

Teacher-teacher

Find yourself wishing your dog was more responsive to those basic commands (sit, heel, stay etc.)? Why not use this time and the confines of your home to practice these?

Play date

If you have children this is probably your worst nightmare – as if organizing your human child’s social life is not enough…but seriously though, if you have a friend with a dog that lives nearby and your dogs get along, you could use this time to catch-up and let your dogs have a play date.

These are but a few fun ideas to keep you and your dog busy this rainy season. Have fun with it!

Licks & kisses!

xxx   

Balls...

The verdict on our ball dilemma is finally in! After many different kinds of balls and an extensive testing period, the judges (Salvador, myself and my manfriend) has made our choice based on:

-Durability
-Bounce
-Weight
-Size
-Range

These were the balls we tested

The Tennis ball

Now for many the tennis ball is the easiest and most affordable way to play a game of fetch with your dog. I personally have nothing against it (although you should make sure to get the pet friendly balls, any other tennis balls could make your dog ill if they were to devour them like Salvador (remember a certain post on cheap imitations ?!)
If you have a strong jawed pooch like mine, these won't last you more than one or two sessions. Salvador usually bites them in half, due to the 'fun' sound they make at this stage of breakage and he will then proceed to just pull the whole thing apart.

 Enter the next ball...

The solid rubber ball

In the durability contest, these come out on top of the list - a solid rubber ball that any dog would find hard to destruct, but I had two issues with them.
Firstly, they come in awkward sizes. This issue obviously does not apply to all of you as some of you might have larger or smaller dogs than Salvador.
Secondly, These balls seem to weigh a ton! There was no way that Salvador could lift this ball for the whole duration of a game of fetch. Again, this might just be because of the awkward sizing and I'm sure this ball would work great for a larger dog.

Last but certainly not least, in fact, this is our unanimous winner of the ball battle (?!)

The hollow rubber treat ball

Salvador's best friend, Jameson has a ball like this that we tried out and after one game of fetch we all decided that this was the ball for us! This hollow rubber ball has a hole in it where you can insert a treat of some sort so as to get your dog more excited about the whole fetching thing - the one I got from the store today has a bell in it which Salvador loves! They are extremely durable and they weigh a little bit more than a tennis ball. The size fits Salvador's mouth perfectly, but I recon it will work just as well for larger breeds AND they don't break the bank, taking into consideration the hefty price tag on one of the denser rubber balls previously mentioned and how much you will spend over the years on tennis balls...This is certainly the best ball for a game of fetch!

So there you have it! I hope this solves the problem of what ball to get for your dog for Christmas!

Licks & Kisses!!

xxx