5 Indoor Dog Activities for Rainy Days (No Equipment Needed)

Rain rolls in, the walk gets cancelled, and suddenly you have a dog who has absolutely no idea what to do with themselves.

The good news: you don’t need new toys, special equipment, or anything you don’t already have lying around the house. Everything below uses a towel, a cardboard box, a muffin tin — things that are already there. That’s kind of the point.

Dogs need mental stimulation alongside physical activity. It’s not just about burning energy — it’s about giving their brain something to actually do. A dog that gets a good sniffing or problem-solving session will sleep better than one that only went for a walk. Research by animal cognition scientist Alexandra Horowitz supports this: dogs who engage in active sniffing show measurably lower cortisol levels than dogs on more directed, restricted activity. In plain terms — using their nose genuinely calms them down.

So here are five things you can set up in the next two minutes.

1. Rainy Day Snuffle Hunt

Hide a few treats around one room. Start easy — some in obvious spots where your dog can clearly smell them. Use whatever search cue you already use (“find it”, “search”, “go look”) and let them work.

Once they get it, make the next round slightly harder: behind a pillow, under a folded towel, near a chair leg.

Tip: The first round has to be easy. Your dog needs to understand the game before the difficulty feels like a challenge rather than a dead end.

2. Towel Treat Roll

Lay a towel flat, sprinkle a few treats across it, roll it loosely and hand it over. Your dog will use their nose and paws to unroll it and find what’s inside.

This one looks too simple to work — and then you watch your dog spend five focused minutes on a kitchen towel and wonder why you ever bought puzzle toys.

Tip: For dogs new to this, roll it very loosely. For dogs who’ve done it before, fold the towel in half before rolling to add a layer of difficulty.

3. Cardboard Box Surprise

Take an empty cardboard box. Add crumpled paper, a couple of toilet paper rolls, maybe a small towel. Hide treats between the layers and let your dog dig in.

It gives them a safe outlet for the foraging and exploring behavior that’s hardwired into them. Dogs who don’t get appropriate outlets for this tend to find their own — and their choices are rarely ones you’d approve of.

Tip: Remove anything small enough to swallow before you start, and keep an eye on them while they’re in it.

4. Muffin Tin Puzzle

Put treats or kibble in a few holes of a muffin tin. Cover some holes with tennis balls or small toys. Let your dog figure out how to move the objects to get to the food — and as they get better at it, cover more holes, including empty ones, so they have to actually sniff out which ones are worth investigating.

This is probably the most cognitively demanding activity on this list. It requires your dog to use scent, sight, and problem-solving at the same time, and to adjust their approach based on what they find. Ten minutes of this and most dogs are genuinely done.

Tip: Use part of their regular meal instead of extra treats. Makes feeding more interesting without adding calories.

5. Indoor Adventure Trail

Put a few pillows, blankets, boxes, or chairs in a loose path around the room. Guide your dog over, around, and through them with a treat in hand, and reward them at each point along the way.

Keep it low, slow, and calm. This isn’t agility training — it’s novelty and movement and a small sense of accomplishment. The variety of surfaces and directions is genuinely new input for your dog’s brain, and new input is one of the most underrated forms of enrichment there is.

Tip: End with something calm — a chew, a treat, a moment of just sitting together. It helps signal that the activity is over and makes it easier for them to settle.

None of these will replace a proper walk when the weather clears. But on days when that’s not possible, they do a better job of meeting your dog’s actual needs than most people expect — and they take about two minutes to set up.

Want more activities like these? Download Woofin: Dog Activities on the App Store or Google Play — a free app built around daily enrichment, bonding games, and light training for you and your dog.