Dark nights, what are your dogs doing?

Loui has some toys like kongs and boredom spiral but I just sort of think I dont want to give them all the time, our walks at night have been 'cut' and apart from that a little trick training. Even the parks are fairly dark and the one that is lit, we get there, go round and play for a bit, then home in 30 mins, it's boring and not enough

What else can we do (plus its cold!)

Just fun bits of training in the house? Or go back to basics and really firm up some of the basic commands?

My lot tend to get just as much exercise in the winter (until we get a huge dump of snow that is!) as they do the rest of the year and so are quite happy to just chill in the evening.

Same as always when it comes to exercise. I walk them in the pitch black exactly the same as I would during daylight.

Apart from that they sleep and mooch around the house, as normal.

thanks Moobli, he will just lie there but I just sort of feel it isnt enough, if you know what I mean? He is good and just settles but I cant help but feel he looks bored, maybe its just me but I think he does miss his longer evening walk as when I let him out the back he wants me to go out too. Usually he just goes, pees and comes in tbh this time last year we had snow so he had even more (exercise) then in the snow than now as I could see him (and other people etc) easier against the white.

I suppose it just depends what your used to then. Our usual night time walk is gone as the woods and paths are far too dark and the streets are just so boring in comparison (and sometimes slippy just now) and there isnt really anywhere to walk to, I walked all around the village in less than 30 mins last time and that was including de-tours to parks.

When we were able to go to the woods etc, he would be running back and forth for an easy hour after his toy and sometimes covering a good couple of miles (me that is) then him in and out the pond, just in our evening walk alone, then a 10 min road walk last thing.

Now it just seems so little exercise and so boring!

Neither of mine gets taken out after dark which since the clocks have changed means after 4.30pm. No way is Mum going to stumble down cart tracks in the pitch black!

My Tibbie uses a litter box and my Pei has a bladder the size of a swimming pool and can easily last till 11 the next morning.

From next month onwards we'll have 3 feet of snow and apart from messing around in the garden during the day they're happy to hibernate.

My house is all on one level and I leave all the interior doors open so they can have races whenever they like around the house to use up surplus energy.

I go down in the valley, but stay away from the river and play frisbee (glow in the dark) sometimes I play with hose pipe in the back garden dogs love it - must admit no street lights at all in the valley not to bad if cloudy as they give reflection from the moon

I sometimes have to still walk in the dark, I have no choice as it's pitch black by the time I get home from work.

However on days when the dog walker has been in, we do various activities. We still do a bit of garden agility, but the wet weather and slippy mud has put pay to that.

We usually do around 30 mins of training, after which he is happy to just sleep. Current tricks include retrieving a bottle of coke from a cupboard (including opening and closing the door), next I'm going to teach him to put the empty bottle in the bin I got a Heelwork to Music book at Discover Dogs and we've been busy learning steps out if that just for fun.

I got some new food toys, Kong Genius, which are pretty good. You can put treats in a plastic bottle. You can stuff a cardboard box with newspaper, toilet rolls, smaller boxes and treats, and let Loui destroy!

Inside games, does he play fetch and tuggy?
Nina Ottoson dog puzzles
Cain loves to play Find It around the house for treats and his favourite ball. I put him in a Stay, hide the ball really well then tell him to Find It, repeat!

Best way to occupy him is a really big raw marrowbone.

To be fair, he's super lazy in the cold weather and seems more than happy to sleep A LOT

The dark has never impinged on my exercising the dogs.

I lay tracks in the dark, do sendaway training in the dark (dog and sendaway point have lights on), search squares, retrieves, heelwork, speaks, and we walk in the dark, no problem; the dogs can see better than I can and I can see and hear them (bells).

Fortunately, i'm able to walk my dogs the same amount and get back to the car as it's starting to get dark. I have to stay more local than i'd like because I cant afford driving time to eat into exercise time!

I do feel bad for them because if we get home at 4pm, they are just lying on their beds for the rest of the night. Last night I did throw some kibble out onto the back garden to give them something to break their evening up but because the dogs are only allowed in the kitchen, which is small, I dont have many options.