Playing tic tac toe with your pets

Lockdown period is a time which strangely can have some benefits to it - the one clearly topping the list is that you are able to spend more time with your lovely pets! During this time when your pets are seeing more of their favourite humans than ever, there is no doubt that they will be having a great time. But to keep things especially exciting and interesting for them (and for you!) you might want to try out some fun little games.

One game you can play is tic tac toe, or noughts and crosses. It seems that a lot of time at home has sparked a huge amount of creativity, as this has been a fun activity that has arisen out of this lockdown and quarantine ingenuity. We are very thankful that such creative people exist, as this is something that will be well worth giving a go whether in isolation or not!

With dogs and cats

If you have a dog or a cat, then what you need to do is draw up a board on a large piece of paper and then place a small treat on each square. When your pet goes for one of the treats, you draw a nought or a cross, and the game has begun! You then will take your turn by taking on of the treats away and marking down your nought or cross - and this will continue until one of you is the winner. (Now, before you get too confident, a little bit of research will show plenty of videos where owners have been outsmarted - so stay on your A-game!)

Cats playing noughts and crosses

The YouTube video below by Katie and Frankie shows a British Shorthair cat and a long haired standard cat playing noughts and crosses with their owner.

With turtles

But the fun does not end there, as you can even play this fun game with your turtle too! All you need is a non-permanent marker that you can draw the board onto the outside of the glass tank with. You then will be able to make your move. Then, when your turtle touches one of the squares, you fill in their square. This is the stuff that dreams are made of - quite bizarre but oddly entertaining dreams at that. Well, now is the time to make these a reality and give this game a go!

Good quality time with pets

It may take a good few goes until your pet has learned that the game is not simply to eat all the treats at once. But this is all part of the training process. You may have trained your pets very well already, but this does not mean that teaching them a new game cannot still be a rewarding thing to do with your pet. It gives them something to engage their brains with (as well as doing the same for you!) whilst also creating some special time to connect with your pets and make the indoor times as fun as those times when you might be out on your walk.

Each day you may see an improvement until you have yourself a fierce tic tac toe competitor! That is if they haven't already beaten you in the first go... If you have, say, two dogs and they seem to be taking to the game, you can even act as referee and have them play against each other! These kinds of games will be sure to provide those special moments which will give you a warm feeling when you look back on this period, as well as keeping spirits high at the moment!