{"id":699,"date":"2022-12-27T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T14:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zimmvet.com\/blog\/?p=699"},"modified":"2022-09-13T14:44:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T19:44:04","slug":"beating-the-winter-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zimmvet.com\/blog\/beating-the-winter-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating the Winter Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Written by: Valerie Ferguson Customer Service Lead at ZimmVet <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zimmvet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Dakota.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-701\" width=\"210\" height=\"237\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We all tend to go a little stir crazy when the weather is so cold that you can\u2019t walk outside without your nose freezing, dogs are no exception. Long, cold winter days with minimal activity can cause your dog to be bored and may become destructive causing damage to your home or injury to themselves. Mental exercise has been proven to minimize behavioral issues. The goal of mental exercise is to engage your pet and exercise their brain. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wagspgh.com\">www.wagspgh.com<\/a> &#8211; studies show that 15 minutes of mental exercise is equivalent to 60 minutes of physical exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some ideas for mental exercise include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Puzzle toys<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Setting up an obstacle course for your dog<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hide-and-seek \u2013 searching for treats<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stuffing a Kong with tasty treats (frozen)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Playing tug<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indoor fetch with a soft ball<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zimmvet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Tucker.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-702\" width=\"299\" height=\"368\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Shown above are a couple of photos of my dogs, Dakota and tucker, working for their dinner with a couple of their favorite puzzle toys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by: Valerie Ferguson Customer Service Lead at ZimmVet We all tend to go a little stir crazy when the weather is so cold that you can\u2019t walk outside without your nose freezing, dogs are no exception. Long, cold winter days with minimal activity can cause your dog to be bored and may become destructive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zimmvet-news-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beating the Winter Blues | ZimmVet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is the winter weather getting your dog down because its too cold to go out? 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