A post on another thread got me to thinking...
What games do you all play with your dogs in the house on cold, nasty, wintry days to keep them amused and busy?
It's been a long winter and I am running out of ideas...

I'm lucky in that our crew seems to keep themselves & each other occupied but we do hide & seek at our house with toys, kibble bits, etc. When it's nicer, we do it outside but keeping it up inside is good practice too.

Sit on the kitchen floor with a small bowl of kibble or treats. Put the dogs all in downs spread around the kitchen floor. Scoot a piece of kibble to the middle of the room and call somebody's name. They get up and gobble the kibble, then have to return to their place. Not much of a game, but we have fun doing it. Everybody gets several turns and it kind of reinforces the honoring concept. At the end, everyone gets a treat at the same time.

It's too cold outside.

Well , we have allot of bad weather, I've become creative in the things I do with my dogs.

I like those balls that have 1 hole where you can put dog food in . The dogs have to roll them around for the treats to be dispensed. I sometime fill a kong with pureed food, freeze it and it last a long time.
We rarely miss out on walks but on those days we do use the treadmil, we do training, grooming or I load them in the van and we do a couple of short stop errands.
On one occasion, I envited the kids neighbors to come over to play with the dogs....that tired everyone out.
We head to obedience or handling class...just for fun.

Poppy...I would love to see this on video! Sounds like a fun way to train

raw meaty bones from the butcher

Only having one Lab, it's a little easier for me, I think. We play hide-n-seek and tag. But the most productive energy buster is the laser pointer, especially with a dog who jumps over any exposed hardwood flooring. Besides the hide-n-seek, other ways I mentaly excercise Caleb is to work on little obedience excercises and tricks.

Take them to the barn while I'm cleaning stalls. Keeps 'em running around, eating horse poop, and wears them out.

Ripping up cardboard boxes, clicker training new tricks, obedience work, marrow bones, bully sticks...And when all else fails I put on my snow pants and head out for some leg stretching (mine and canines).

Make sure that balll has 2 holes in it! There has been instances of dogs' tongues getting stuck in the balls with only one hole with very poor outcomes.

Local Equestrian center has a horse pool- salt water, heated- pay by the 1/2 hour. They love it!

Thank you for the ideas! The horse pool is intriguing...

I do lots of obedience games. I do all my basic obedience training off leash in the house for short periods of time. (I call it kitchen training.) I just started working with one boy and he's got the automatic sit at heel down pat! He's having a mental block about down, but he's doing it once or twice successfully each time we play. He understands stay when sitting but isn't all that good at that yet either, but I find the stay is easier to reinforce when they are in a down stay. It's really fun to do obedience this way because the dog has lots of attention and it's all positive.

Thanks, Nancy! How do you teach heel off leash? With food?
I hadn't thought of doing that in the house!