Have fun together this holiday season

Inspired by the advent calendar our founder uses to spend quality time with her own dogs each holiday season, this calendar suggests an activity for you and your dog to do together each day.

Most of the activities take just 5-10 minutes and require no special supplies. A few are more involved, but not too much. Feel free to skip days, change the activity, or customize the calendar however works best for you and your dog!

Download the calendar now or sign up for our daiily email reminders. Then, scroll down for more tips, ideas, and step-by-step tutorials for each activity.

Make a Food Puzzle Gift

Take advantage of all of the boxes, packing materials, and wrapping paper to make homemade food puzzles. Here are a few ideas:

  1. Loosely wrap a food puzzle in wrapping paper.
  2. Sprinkle a few treats in the bottom of a box then layer packing paper and more treats.
  3. Smooth out a piece of packing paper and sprinkle treats on top. Roll it up long and thin then twist it into a knot.

For more creative games to play with boxes, check out our free guide called "8 Fun Games to Play with Your Dog Using Boxes."

Play a Training Game with Holiday Treats

Trying a new training game is a great way to tire your dog out indoors while having fun together and strengthening your bond.

The key is to remember that having fun is the goal:

  1. Give your dog lots of praise and treats for trying.
  2. Remember that this is a new skill for you, too, and laugh it off when you inevitable flub.

A few of our favorite easy training games are indoor agility, basic trick training, and scent-based games. Check out the Mental Energy Burners section of this blog post for more ideas and instructions.

Dance to Holiday Music

Most dogs love it when we get a little silly!

Put on your favorite holiday song or two and let loose. Clap your hands, jump up and down, spin, or sing to your dog.

Encourage your dog to join with a playful voice, kneeling down, opening your arms wide, or grabbing a toy, but don't force them by grabbing their paws, picking them up, or otherwise getting handsy with them.

See the Lights

While dogs don't really care about holiday lights, they are great encouragement for us humans to get outside when it's cold and dark.

Bundle up yourself and your dog to make sure everyone stays warm. Watch your dog for a stiff body, high tail, quick movements, and clingy or vigilant behavior, all of which can signal a fear of the dark.

Play with Holiday Toys

We love to get a few special, holiday toys at the start of the season and save them for interactive play sessions only for their first few uses. This makes them more fun and exciting and helps them last longer.

Check out this blog post on getting the most out of stuffed animals for more tips on maximizing the value of toys.

Bake a Holiday Treat

Homemade treats don't have to be fancy. Here's a no-bake recipe that uses ingredients you probably already have:

  • 1/2 cup of oats
  • 1/4 cup of peanut butter
  • 1 tbsp of honey
  • 3 tbsp of peanuts

Stir all the ingredients together in a large bowl, then chill for half an hour. Once chilled, Using wax paper, if you have it, flatten until 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and dice into bite-sized pieces. Store these treats in your freezer or fridge!

Don't forget to let your dog taste test!

To make this a shared activity, invite your dog to join in on the fun. They can get taste tests for free. But, if you've been working on a polite kitchen behavior (like sitting calmly on a mat), this can be a great practice session.

Food Puzzle & Holiday Movie

This day is about giving you and your dog the type of quiet evening in that you both like. So for yourself, feel free to substitute the holiday movie with a book, tv, music, knitting, etc. And hopefully, after a fun, 30+ minutes with a food puzzle, your dog will be ready to snuggle up next to you for a little while.