It is dark at 4pm, it has rained for 9 days, and your 11 month old dog is standing in the hallway with a shoe. The walk is the thing you normally lean on, and the weather has taken it away.
The ledger you are actually balancing
Adolescent dogs need something to do with the day, and distance walked is only 1 way of paying that. Sniffing, chewing and short thinking sessions settle a dog in a way that speed does not, and all 3 fit indoors. Relaxation is trained as a behaviour in its own right, in short repeatable sets below the point where your dog gets restless. A wet week is a good week to build it.
What fills the day instead
Scatter half of 1 meal across a towel, a mat or a cardboard box, and let your dog work through it slowly.
Hide 10 pieces of food around a room while your dog waits next door, then send them in to find them.
1 long chew a day, on a safe and appropriately sized item, in the same spot each time.
3 training sessions of 3 minutes each, on something your dog already half knows, rather than 1 session of 20.
Go out between the worst of it, even if that means 3 short trips instead of 1 long one.
Let your dog choose the lampposts and stand still while they read them. 10 wet minutes of that beats 0 minutes.
Settle practice on a mat, 2 minutes at a time, paid for lying still rather than for getting up and coming back.
When cabin fever shows up as damage
Chewed skirting boards and a shredded cushion are what an under-occupied adolescent does with a long evening. Read that as a gap in the day rather than as spite. Shut the door on the bedroom, hand over a chew before your dog goes looking, and pay them for settling. Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement together.
Do not punish what you find when you get home. Punishment-based approaches are associated with fear, avoidance and defensive aggression, and your dog cannot connect it to something they did an hour ago.
Safety note
Book a veterinary examination if the destruction is new and severe. The same goes if your dog pants, drools, paces or damages doors and windows while alone. That pattern is distress rather than boredom, and sudden behaviour change warrants an examination. Get help now if your dog is injuring themselves trying to get out.
Today's version, in one line: scatter half of tonight's dinner across a towel, then 2 minutes of settle practice on a mat.