FUN THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR DOG OUTSIDE

Go for a walk, a hike, or a jog with your dog.

One of the simplest outdoor dog activities is taking your dog for a walk, but not just any walk, put your friend on a leash and plan a route that will allow your dog to sniff, smell and explore their surroundings, it could be a walk around your neighborhood or an interesting hike along a nature trail. If that’s not enough then take a nice long jog with your dog which will deplete their energy and tire them out.

Spend a day swimming.

On a hot day, there is nothing better than to cool off while swimming, especially if your dog loves the water and can swim. Take your dog to a good clean lake or a dog-friendly beach where you both can enjoy the water, play, get exercise, and bond.

Go on a bike ride together.

If you have mastered riding a bike while your dog is on a leash, then it is a great way for the two of you to have some fun, exploring bike trails while getting some exercise.

Go to a dog park.

Find a great and fun dog park in your area that you can take your dog to where they can run around freely and play with other dogs. In a dog park, you can also play some fetch with a Frisbee or ball but this could cause a problem if some of the other dogs also want to play with you.

Take your dog on a boat ride. 

A boat ride with your dog can be a lot of fun but just remember safety comes first for both of you. Make sure that before you set off that you both have life jackets on and if you are not sure how your dog will react to the water, keep a very close eye on them because they could surprise you and just jump off wanting to catch a fish or another object that grabs their attention.

Fun Games to play outside

If you have a big back yard, then the following games will be perfect backyard activities for dogs but if you do not, you can still play these games in a dog park.

Fetch with a Frisbee

Some dogs prefer and find it easier to play fetch with a Frisbee. If you are worried that a hard plastic Frisbee will discourage your dog from playing if they get hit on the nose, then get them a soft Frisbee to play with.

Chase and catch with a Flirt Pole

Playing chase and catch with a flirt pole is a really easy but fun way to tire out your dog and all it really is is a pole with a rope attached on one end that has one of your dog’s favorite toys tied to it. Flirt poles provide a great playtime experience for dogs. It is an amazing training tool that can be used to stimulate your dog mentally as well as practice some basic impulse control.

Tug of War with your Dog

Most dogs love the game of tug of war as long as you let them win every now and again. But with a game of tug of war, you need to make sure that you stick to some ground rules like stopping the game if they bite your hand. Your dog will learn very quickly that biting your hand is not allowed.

Play Hide and Seek with Your Dog

This game can be played in two different ways, you can either go hide yourself and your dog must find you or you can hide some treats for your dog to find. Either way, hide and seek games are mentally stimulating for your dog and are a fun way for them to use their natural sniffing abilities to find you or the treats.

Play Some Water Games with Your Dog

If your dog loves playing with and in water and you don’t have a swimming pool, then you can use an ordinary hose, but if the water is a little too strong for them then use a sprinkler instead.  It is so much fun watching them run in and out of the water and try their very best to bite the water.

It will also be a lot of fun for you and your dog if you invest in a kiddies pool, fill it with water, and play fetch with toys that float.

DIY Toys and Puzzles to use outside

There are plenty of toys on the market that are designed to mentally stimulate your dog, but the problem is that they can become quite expensive for you to keep having to replace the puzzle and treat dispensing toys that your dog destroys.

If you are thinking of how to have fun with your dog without breaking the bank, you can turn your trash like empty cereal boxes, empty toilet rolls, and old tennis balls into fun toys for your dog. You will have fun making them and will get a lot of satisfaction when you get to watch them play with them.

Just be careful with the puzzles solving toys that are filled with treats, you do not want to overfeed your dog, so a good idea on how to prevent this is to make puzzle time at dinner time.

• Toilet Paper Roll

You can take an empty toilet paper roll, fold one side, put treats inside, and then close the open side. To make it a little more interesting and fun, make a couple of these and go hide them in the garden for your dog to find.

• Empty Cereal boxes

If the empty toilet paper rolls are too small, then you can do the same with empty cereal boxes.

• Tennis Ball Treats

If you find that your four-legged friend is the master of destroyers and seems to get through the cardboard too quickly, then you can use a tennis ball. Make a hole in the middle, slide some treats in and then try closing the hole with something like peanut butter so they don’t fall out.

There are many other amazing puzzles solving toys that you can make yourself for your dog but they are a little more complicated and require a little more work. For instance, like a Plastic bottle spinning toy, where you will need to build a wooden stand, drill holes in the bottles to slide a stick through so that the bottles can move, and put the treats inside so that your dog will need to push the bottles upside down to get the treats out.

DIY Toys

Most dog owners love playing and bonding with their dogs and instead of wasting money on expensive toys that your dog destroys in minutes, why not make a few of your own?

All you need is some old t-shirts, socks, rope, towels, and plastic water bottles to make the perfect tugging or tossing toy that your dog can play with for hours outside. These toys can also be used if you’re looking for fun things to do with your dog at home.

• A DIY Tug of War Rope

Take some spare rope that is lying around in your garage, cut it in equal strips, tie them together with a knot on both sides and have fun to play tug of war with your dog outside in the garden.

• A DIY toss-able toy

Cut an old t-shirt up in strips, take two strips to make a cross, then place a tennis ball in the middle and tie the points together. Take the rest of the strips, braid them and tie them to the tennis ball strips which will make your toy look like an octopus.

• A DIY Sock toss-able toy

Take an old sock, if you have a long knee-high sock even better. Slip a tennis ball inside and tie it so that the ball cannot fall out every time you toss it to your dog.

• A DIY Dog rope for chewing

All you have to do to make the perfect toy for your dog to chew on is cut maybe two or three old t-shirts in strips, tie the top of them altogether, braid the strips, tie the bottoms and place a knot or two in the middle to make the toy more durable. These ropes are one of the things puppies love as they enjoy chewing into things when they are young.

Teach Your Dog a New Trick

Teaching your dog a new trick can be difficult but it is not impossible, all it requires is some patience, repetition, and consistency. Although dogs do not really understand what you are saying if you try to have a full-on conversation with them but they do pick up on certain words and the meaning of them. They also do understand different tones of speaking.

The way dogs tend to learn is by picking up certain words that are repeated constantly and the meaning of them to what you would like them to do and by watching your body language and tone of course. So it is important to be clear and consistent when you want to teach them a new trick.

Dogs in general, no matter their age like to learn new things, even more so if you are one to teach them because they always want to and love to impress you. You could teach them the usual tricks if they don’t already know them like sit, stay, and rollover. If you’re looking for more challenging, fun things to teach your dog, you can teach them something different like how to be quiet, bark on command or fetch a certain toy or item.

Bark on Command

Show your dog a treat while they are sitting in front of you and they will usually make some sort of sound for you to give them the treat. When they do give them the treat, then repeat until you eventually get a full-on bark out of them, they will learn quickly that when you say the word bark and they bark, you will give them a treat.

To Be Quiet

This is a great trick to teach your dog, especially if they love to bark. Firstly ask your dog to bark and when they stop for a moment give them the treat. Then repeat giving your dog the command to bark and then the command to be quiet, giving them the treat every time they are quiet.

To fetch a certain item

To teach your dog to fetch a certain item, you will need to teach them which words go with which items first. It is best to start with one item, maybe their favorite toy.  Place the toy in front of your dog and encourage them to pick it up by repeating the name, give the treat only when they do.

Once they have mastered that, keep moving the toy further away and ask them to fetch it, giving them a treat every time they do. You can eventually move onto other items such as the newspaper and the all-time favorite one, your slippers. These tricks are also great for if you are looking for fun things to do with your dog indoors.

With a little bit of research, you will be able to find many other exciting tricks that you can teach your dog like bowing, standing tall, praying, and even opening and closing doors.

DIY Agility Course

Another fun way of teaching your dog some new tricks and a great source of mental and physical exercise is to build your own agility course outside in your own backyard. Please make sure that before you do this that your dog is fit and healthy for such dog activities.

To build your own agility course, you can use items like:

• A hula hoop for your dog to jump through
• Cones made out of plastic bottles for them to weave through
• Cushions or blankets for them to jump over
• A table just the right size for your dog to crawl under

If that is not good enough for you and your dog, then you can head down to your local hardware store and purchase items like PVC pipes and wooden boards and build your own course.

Finding fun things to do with your dog outside is so rewarding for both, you and your dog. It gives you the much needed time to bond especially if you plan and prepare beforehand with some fun activities to do like, DIY toys, puzzles, and tricks that you would like to teach them.