Top 5 Rainy Day Activities for Reactive Dogs

As winter arrives and the rain continues, it can be harder to spend time outside. This reduced exercise can be challenging for reactive dogs who are used to burning off energy outdoors. However, there are plenty of ways to keep your Nervy Dog entertained and fulfilled at home.

In this post, we’ll share five simple activities to help reactive dogs feel engaged and secure indoors. These activities provide fun mental stimulation tailored for anxious dogs, helping them build confidence and stay happy even on rainy days.

Whether your dog is reactive to other dogs or you're just looking for indoor entertainment, these activities are perfect for a stress-free, rainy day for both you and your dog.

Fun Scent Detection 

Scent work is a fantastic way to engage your reactive dog's mind and harness their natural instincts.

Did you know that dogs have more than 100 million scent receptors in their nasal cavity compared to only 6 million receptors is us mere humans, this means dogs can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than we can (Rescuedogs.co.uk). Notably scent work is suitable for all dogs, big, small, old, young, nervous or confident, so let’s dive in!

There are several different activities you can do with fun scent detection, from find it, hide and seek, and more technical examples to get you prepared for scent detection classes. We’re going to with a simple find it, because you don’t need anything but yourselves, and some tasty treats!

This activity is mentally stimulating and allows dogs to focus on the fun task of finding scents, which can be a calming experience for an anxious dog.

What You’ll Need:

• Choose any treat your dog loves. We recommend something dry, like kibble or a small biscuit, to avoid mess on furniture and floors.

Instructions:

1. Pick the Right Space: Choose a room with enough space to hide treats. Make sure there’s a mix of surfaces, like rugs, furniture, or shelves, to add variety.
2. Show and Smell: Let your dog see and sniff the treat to get them excited and ready to play.
3. Hide the Treats: Start with simple hiding spots, like behind a pillow or under a chair. Place the treats at different heights, textures, and depths to make things interesting.
4. Encourage the Search: Use a cue like “find it!” to signal your dog to start searching. Guide them if they need help initially and give plenty of praise when they discover the treat.
5. Increase the Challenge: As your dog gains confidence, try more difficult hiding spots or add more treats around the room to keep them engaged.

Tip: Incorporate your obedience and impulse control but using their place or down stay command whilst you hide the treats, and then release them when you’re ready.

 

Rear End Awareness with a Pivot Box

Rear-end awareness can be tricky for many dogs, especially larger breeds or those who tend to be a bit… spatially unaware! (Those of you that own a staffy will know exactly what we mean…) If you’re tired of having things knocked off your coffee table by a happy but clumsy dog, this activity might be just what you need. The pivot box exercise helps dogs become more aware of their back end, and it also doubles as a low impact strengthening activity often used by sports dogs to prevent and recover from injuries. So, let’s get started!

What You’ll Need:

• A sturdy bowl, box, or platform (metal or strong plastic works well) that can comfortably fit your dog’s front paws when flipped upside down.
• Plenty of treats to reward them for their progress.

Instructions:

1. Introduce the Platform: Start by flipping the bowl or box upside down, making sure it’s stable and won’t slide. Encourage your dog to investigate by placing a treat on top.
2. Get Those Front Paws Up: Help your dog place their front paws on the platform. If they’re hesitant, reward any small movement toward the platform to build confidence and positive association.
3. Build Duration: For eager dogs, practice putting paws on and off the platform multiple times to build familiarity and comfort. Gradually encourage them to keep their paws on the platform a little longer.
4. Add the Pivot: Once your dog is comfortable, guide them to move their back end around the platform by luring them in small circles with treats, using your body to guide them from the heel position. Keep their front paws steady on the platform while they pivot around with their back legs.
5. Repeat and Reward: Keep practicing with lots of praise and treats for each successful pivot. As they get the hang of it, you’ll notice your dog becomes more mindful of their movements—and you’ll have fewer coffee table casualties!

This pivot box activity is a great way to engage your dog both mentally and physically. For reactive or nervous dogs, focusing on this controlled exercise can also be calming and confidence-boosting.

Tip: It’s quite common, like us, for dogs to have a dominant side, so they might find pivoting one way easier than the other. Try and keep exercises even on both sides to strengthen muscles equally but start and finish with their easier side to build their confidence.

 

Indoor Obstacle Course

Creating an indoor obstacle course is a fantastic way to keep your reactive dog active and mentally engaged, even when the weather keeps you indoors. Not only does this exercise provide a fun challenge, but it also gives your Nervy Dog the chance to build confidence and focus in a safe, controlled environment. With a few simple items from around the house, you can set up an exciting course that brings out your dog’s inner agility star!

What You’ll Need:

• Household items like chairs, cushions, towels, and broomsticks for jumps or weaving.
• Treats or a favourite toy to encourage and reward their progress.

Instructions:

1. Create Your Obstacles: Set up a mix of obstacles, like cushions to jump over, towels to crawl under, and chairs for weaving. Be creative but keep the course safe and manageable.
2. Introduce the Course Slowly: Guide your dog through each obstacle one by one. For reactive or anxious dogs, start with just one or two obstacles until they feel comfortable.
3. Encourage with Rewards: Use treats or a favourite toy to lead them through the course. Reward each successful obstacle to keep them motivated and engaged.
4. Increase Difficulty Gradually: Once your dog feels confident, add more obstacles or create sequences. You can try using different rooms for a fun exploration element.
5. Keep it Positive and Fun: Remember to cheer them on and keep the experience light-hearted. For Nervy Dogs, focusing on completing each task builds confidence and a sense of accomplishment.

This indoor obstacle course is a perfect way to bring the excitement of outdoor play inside, giving your dog a safe way to burn energy and improve their skills.

 

Hide and Seek

Hide and seek is a classic game that encourages your dog’s natural instincts to hunt and follow, which is especially beneficial for giving a fulfilling job to anxious or reactive dogs, think of it as the very early stages of starting mantrailing.

What You’ll Need:
This one is super easy, because all you need is you and your dog, but if you want to add an extra reward, hide with some treats or their favourite toy!

Instructions:

1. Pick a Hiding Spot: Ask your dog to sit and stay, then go hide in another room or behind a piece of furniture.
2. Recall: Call your dog to come find you, and cheerfully praise them when they locate you.
3. Add Scent Work: For an added twist, have a family member help by guiding your dog to sniff out your hiding spot.
4. Reward: When they find you give them lots of praise, or if you opted to give them a treat or engage play with their favourite toy.

This activity is mentally engaging, and the sense of accomplishment and fulfilment which can help nervous dogs build confidence and positive associations in finding and coming to you which can help build the foundations for recall in a fun way.

 

Box Feeding

Box feeding helps Nervy Dogs develop resilience and oblivion around distractions by encouraging them to block out their surroundings and concentrate on maintaining their position for consistent rewards.  This is a great way to add some calmness to anxious dogs that doesn’t require much space and could be done anywhere!

What You’ll Need:

• A box, or bucket, ensuring your dog can comfortably reach the bottom.
• Treats, we recommend small kibble or training treats

Instructions:

1. Introduce the Box: Begin by tossing a treat in the box as soon as your dog looks at the box or if they’re a little braver they might pop their head straight in.
2. Build Duration: As your dog becomes more accustom to the box the aim is to increase the time they hold their head in the box. Let them finish their last treat, and before they lift their head from the box, mark and reward again, gradually increasing the amount of time the position in held before the mark and reward.
3. Add Distraction: Once your dog is confident with box feeding and you’ve built the duration to a few minutes, you can begin to add distractions, like sound and movement

Not only does this encourage your dog to be more resilient to sound and distractions, it can be taken outside to help learn calmness is more stimulating environments when conditioned properly at home first.

Tip: Change the volume of the treats each time, so they might get one, then several, then a few, then several, then one. This will prevent you dog from expecting a certain amount and beginning to anticipate timing.

 

These rainy day activities are fantastic for any dog, especially for reactive or anxious dogs who may benefit from gentle mental and physical stimulation without the usual outdoor stressors. By keeping your Nervy Dog engaged, calm, and entertained indoors, you’re creating a safe environment where they can thrive despite the weather outside.