Usually when Harry comes in after a free run he is still in a state of high excitement, the adrenalin is pumping and he cannot stay still, not even for a millisecond. For the sake of our sanity we have learned (the hard way) to distract him and give him something else to focus on. Our tried and tested method is to give him a treat pushed inside a bouncy rubber Kong® toy.
Harry has to work hard to get the treat out and it usually takes him five to ten minutes during which time he calms down to the point where his eyes start to close. He then takes himself off to bed and falls straight asleep.
Recently he discovered that if he threw the toy in the air, when it landed and bounced, the treat would fall out and he would get his reward much quicker. It all became to easy for him. So we increased size of the treat making it even more difficult, but we hadn’t bargained with Harry’s sense of ingenuity.
Today when we gave him his treat filled Kong® he ran straight out the kitchen, then we heard a loud THUD, THUD, THUD. Running into the hall we found Harry halfway up the stairs watching the toy bounce down the stairs, promptly spilling out his treat when it hit the bottom.
Now, it seems, we need to go back to the drawing board and think of something else to calm him down after a run. That, and vacuum the muddy footprints off the stairs.
Harry halfway up the stairs