As my circumstances have changed I now have to leave the boys on their own for longer during the day, they get an hours lead walk in the morning (its too dark to let them off :( ) and when I get home they get about an hour and a half free running.  The thing is because they generally sleep all day they are full of beans in the evening and now its dark out and the weathers not great they arent going outside so they are tearing round the house fighting over toys and bones and generally making pains of themselves :rolleyes: I was just wondering if anyone had some ideas of "brain" games I could play with them to give them something to focus on ?

Hmmmm,

Let me think - it's gone way past 2-00 am and I'm on CD!  Try teaching them computer skills :rolleyes:

All I can get my own brain to come up with (as my manic mutts are currently running mad into the garden round the dining room table and back into the garden :D ) is either do what I'm or rather they're doing right now or feed them their evening meals from a kong or cube buster thingymyjiggamy ......

Hopefully much more sensible and practical advice will be available from someone else at a more suitable hour :P

Teri ;)

If you can teach them any trick it will help to excercise their brains. Personally I like the useful ones like fetching slippers etc where I can sit down and they can do all of the thinking and working, but anything from dance moves to long stays can do the trick. Oh and you can teach almost any dog to retrieve if you have enough patience. The other thing is to hide toys around the house and you cna eventually get to the point where you tell them to find a named toy - this is not so popular in our house as one of ours is always sure that a cat has stolen the toy and is probably sleeping on it :rolleyes:   

our dog loves his treat ball and hes not fussed what you put in it so if their dog food is small enough you can put that in it - keeps him going for hours. Kongs are also good for a little bit of peace and quiet

Although when hes being a real pain i have him learn new things like long stays - "up" - the odd dance move if he will listen.

This isnt great for the winter months i guess - but depends how big your house is lol Ive seen a starter agility kit for sale for about £50 which has the tunnel, the weave poles a jump and maybe something else (although you could probably make one cheaper) so i was thinking of maybe trying that with Leo just as a bit of fun

I also have a big soft sponge ball as he loves balls that he plays with in the house because its so soft its hard to break anything with it

LOL we used to play ball in the house, that is untill they found the ball upstairs and both came down at full speed fighting over it, they didnt make the corner at the bottom and pushed the radiator clean through the wall (it was only plaster board) :o Needless to say we now have one practice wait while the other plays, not as much fun but loads cheaper!

ooh where did you see that!

I think im going to start teaching them some tricks I think, my house is too small for agility and they end up fighting if we play ball :rolleyes: they have a kong each during the day so unfortunately arent interested in stuff like that of an evening.

What tricks could I teach them ? Fagan already gives paw so this is one I could teach Alf.  Actually I have got a dog dancing video I havent watched yet, maybe that will have some ideads.  The problem I have is teaching one something without the other joining in - looks like it will be some serious stay practice for the one not "learning"