Hi
My little Yorkie is nearly eleven years old now and is wanting to eat simply out of boredom. She is putting on weight as a result. If I refuse to give her food she cries, whines and eventually starts barking. I cannot leave her to bark as the people in the flat upstairs get disturbed. I need to find something to entertain her during the day and stop her thinking of food. I wondered if anyone could help.
I am disabled and my husband has severe arthritis, so we are limited in what we can do, in order to play with her. I throw a ball for her, but she soon tires of this (after about 4 throws.) What she really likes is someone to chase her, when she has the ball in her mouth,
and pretend to try and get it from her. She loves this, but we cannot do it. She also likes someone to run with her on the beach. I sit on the bed and play 'tug' with her and she enjoys this for a while. The vet says she should be having three walks a day!! We can only manage one. Also, she does not enjoy walking much and tends to sit down after a short while (15 min.) She does have stage one luxating patella and it sometimes flares up, so I am reluctant to try and encourage her to walk in case it is painful.
I have bought the Kong toy with treats in it for her to find, but she wasn't interested. I also got the toy where you put balls in the square soft box and retrieve them from this box, but she is not interested in doing this either!! She loves to go out in the car and she is taken whenever possible. I bought a clockwork mouse for her to chase, but, once again, she wasn't that interested in it. She looks at me and whines and I know she is 'saying' "I want to DO something, please." It upsets me, but I just cannot think of what to do to entertain her and stop her wanting to eat out of boredom. I wish I could run along the beach with her everyday and/or chase her with her ball, but someone else has to do this for us. We are very careful about who we allow to take her out, as Yorkies are frequently attacked in our area, so we have to be sure that they will take good care of her.
Any ideas would be most gratefully received.