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FREE DELIVERY | 100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
June 27, 2026 6 min read
TL;DR: When it's too hot to walk, a bored dog finds its own entertainment, usually your couch or your shoes. The fix is mental enrichment indoors: frozen treats and lick mats that take 20-plus minutes to finish, snuffle mats and puzzle feeders that make a dog use their nose, DIY games (the muffin tin game, towel rolls, find-it), short training sessions, and rotating toys to keep them novel. Most of these cost little or nothing and tire a dog out faster than a walk. Keep treats inside the 10 percent daily calorie budget and use low-calorie frozen options for the ones that last longest.
A tired dog is a good dog, and in summer the hard part is tiring them out when it is too hot to do it the usual way. A long walk or a session of fetch in the yard is off the table on a 95 degree afternoon, but the energy does not go anywhere. It comes out as chewing, digging, barking, counter-surfing, and that specific brand of pacing that makes you feel guilty for not doing more.
The answer is enrichment, activities that engage a dog's brain rather than just their legs. Mental work is genuinely tiring, often more so than physical exercise, and almost all of it can happen in a cool room. Here are fifteen summer boredom busters, from the dead simple to the slightly more involved.
Dogs experience the world through their nose and their brain, not just their muscles. A ten-minute session of sniffing out hidden food or solving a puzzle can leave a dog more satisfied and more tired than a brisk walk. That is great news in summer, because it means you can fully meet a dog's needs without anyone going outside into dangerous heat. Sniffing in particular has a calming, almost meditative effect on dogs, which is exactly what an overstimulated, stuck-inside dog needs.
If you only do one thing on this list, do this one. A frozen treat or a frozen lick mat is the single most reliable way to occupy a dog on a hot day, because it combines food motivation, slow consumption, and cooling all at once.
Smear a thin layer of plain Greek yogurt, mashed banana, pumpkin, or a Pupsicle mix across a textured mat and freeze it for an hour or two. The grooves force your dog to work for every lick, turning a 90-second snack into a 20-to-30-minute calming session. Licking is naturally self-soothing for dogs, so this does double duty as a chill-out tool during thunderstorms and fireworks too. Our lick mat has deep grooves and real suction cups so it stays put while your dog works it over.
Pour a dog-safe mix into silicone molds and freeze. Shaped treats are more fun to make and easier to portion than ice cubes. Our paw and bone silicone molds pop out cleanly and are sized right for most dogs. Freeze plain yogurt with a blueberry in each cavity, low-sodium bone broth with bits of cooked chicken, or a just-add-water mix for a real-meat version.
For the longest-lasting cold treat, freeze a thicker treat solid. Our Pupsicle Starter Kit makes real-meat frozen treats from a just-add-water mix, about 20 calories each, no sugar or dairy. A frozen Pupsicle keeps a dog happily occupied and cools them from the inside, which is exactly what you want on a sweltering afternoon.
A snuffle mat is a fabric mat with dozens of fabric strips you can hide kibble or small treats in. Your dog snuffles through it to find every piece, which engages their nose and slows down fast eaters. You can buy one or make one from fleece strips tied to a rubber sink mat.
The lowest-effort nose game there is: instead of feeding from a bowl, scatter your dog's kibble across the floor, a towel, or the grass in a shaded spot. Foraging for each piece turns a 30-second meal into a 10-minute hunt. Free, no equipment.
Have your dog sit and stay (or have someone hold them), hide a few treats around the room, then release them with "find it." Start easy with treats in plain sight, then make it harder. This is a great rainy-day and hot-day staple that scales with your dog's skill.
Drop a treat into a few cups of a muffin tin, then cover every cup with a tennis ball. Your dog has to nose the balls out of the way to get the treats. Cheap, reusable, and surprisingly absorbing.
Commercial puzzle toys (sliding panels, flip lids, spinning compartments) make a dog problem-solve for their food. Start with an easy level so your dog does not get frustrated and quit, then work up. Rotate between a few so they stay novel.
A hollow ball that drops kibble as it rolls turns a meal into a chase-and-solve game. Great for high-energy dogs who need to move a little even indoors.
Toss a few treats into a cardboard box filled with crumpled paper or empty toilet paper rolls. Let your dog dig and shred to find them. Messy but free, and it satisfies the urge to destroy something in a way that does not cost you a couch cushion. Supervise so nobody eats the cardboard.
Lay treats along a hand towel, roll it up, and let your dog unroll it to find them. For more of a challenge, tie the rolled towel in a loose knot. Reusable and zero cost.
Hide treats in the cups of a cardboard egg carton and close the lid. Your dog has to open it and dig the treats out. A one-use puzzle that costs nothing.
Freeze a few favorite toys and some treats in a container of water or low-sodium broth (no onion or garlic). Pop out the giant "treat iceberg" and let your dog lick and work it down in a shaded spot outside or on an easy-clean floor. Hours of cool entertainment.
Ten minutes of working on cues (sit, down, stay, place, or a fun trick like spin or shake) is mentally exhausting in the best way. Teaching a brand-new trick is even better, because the learning itself burns energy. Keep sessions short and upbeat, and pay with small, low-calorie treats so you do not blow the calorie budget. Our guide to homemade dog treat recipes has easy options you can bake or freeze in training-size portions.
Not really a game, but it makes everything else work better. Keep half your dog's toys put away and swap them out every week or two. A toy your dog ignored a month ago becomes brand new and exciting again. Novelty is most of what makes a toy interesting.
Two quick rules for all of this enrichment:
Most of our customers find us during exactly this stretch of summer, looking for a way to keep a dog happy when it is too hot to do the usual things. That is the gap our products fill. A just-add-water, real-meat frozen treat is one of the most reliable boredom busters there is: cooling, slow to finish, low in calories, and something dogs genuinely look forward to. Spread a Pupsicle mix on a lick mat, freeze a batch in the silicone molds, or make a thick treat with the Pupsicle Starter Kit. If you want to bake instead of freeze, our beef and cheddar mix makes great training-size rewards for indoor skill games. For more cold-treat ideas, see our guide to frozen dog treats as the perfect summer snack.
Rotate your enrichment so it stays fresh, supervise anything destructible, and keep an eye on the calorie math. A few minutes of nose work or a frozen treat can turn a restless, overheated dog into a calm, satisfied one.
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