Dog activities

Hi,

We've had our Jack Russell for nearly a year now, and we are still learning about our dog. At the moment our biggest concern is keeping her active enough so that she won't have time to chew, bark, etc. (all the bad behavior this website keeps talking about). In particular, we want to ask if there is a way to get our dog to play by herself? She has a day-long routine where every hour she'll come find one of us to play with her, letting us know by scratching or barking. We're not sure if letting her out in the yard by herself solves the problem at all. We love our dog dearly, and I think she is pretty fond of us too, but we didn't realize that she would have to take up so much of our time!