I recently adopted an adult dog. She’s sweet, affectionate, and well behaved. But it seems like the only thing she cares about is scritches! She’s either sleeping or shoving her head into your hands for attention. She doesn’t care about toys, or food, or anything else I give her. I can’t teach her games since the only thing she wants is to please me. Any time I can’t pet her, she sleeps just until I’m available again - she’s great with a crate so I don’t think it’s separation anxiety.
So is there any way I can teach her to entertain herself? I worry that encouraging this codependency will lead to her feeling unfulfilled.
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Those are great, get some thick sausage-like treats to put down the middle. Keeps our dogs occupied for a long time. They’ve gotten pretty good at figuring them out, but initially this would keep them busy for like an hour trying to get every last bit out.
Great idea! Or fill it with soaked kibbles or wetfood and throw in the freezer. Nice to pull out from the freezer whenever you want/need, bonus that it also cools her down during summer. It is very relaxing for dogs to lick something!
OP, this is another toy. https://a.co/d/iePfyvL It’s a very easy “puzzle”, there are harder ones you can try later.
Is there any possibility to get another animal? My parents dog and my dog are very much little attention whores, but get them in a room together and they’ll play with each other all day long.
You can also try making sure she has a good 30-60 minutes of good ‘bonding’ time each day. Play with her favorite toys until she is completely tired out. Fetch is a great game for this, give her plenty of praise when she returns with the toy and she will keep at it as long as you can. You can also try mental stimulation through teaching her tricks or games, always keep her learning new stuff. I find that my dog is much more comfortable being by herself if she is both physically and mentally tired. Use her drive to please, training is all about using their natural motivation to your advantage.
Even though you think separation anxiety isn’t at play yet, it may be a good idea to look into some of that type of training too, since she could be much more susceptible.
