Looking for some ways to help tire out your dog and keep them busy? If so try adding more mental stimulation into their day.
Instead of just adding more physical exercise to your dog’s routine add in a few brain games, tricks and games to really tire them out. Mental stimulation enriches our dogs lives by giving them something meaningful to do. And because these activities alleviate boredom they decrease the likelihood of our dogs developing behavioral issues such as excessive chewing or barking.
The Benefits of Keeping Your Dog Busy
Bored dogs get into trouble. We’re their main source of entertainment, so if we don’t give them stuff to do they’ll come up with activities of their own — and that’s when we end up with damaged belongings around the house.
By playing with your dog a few times a day you can decrease the likelihood of them developing destructive habits such as excessive barking or chewing.
Teach your a dog some Scent Games
Scent work games are one of the easiest ways to tire out your dog. When you teach your dog some basic scent work games such as ‘find the treats’ you’re mentally tiring them out and helping them to use some of their natural skills.
If your Dog is on dry food you can use this to hide which means your dog is working for their dinner. Let your dog watch as you place them around the room. Give your dog the cue to “find it” and encourage your dog to pick them up, remembering to praise them every time they find one. After your confident that your dog understands what “find it” means you can make it a bit more challenging. Have them stay in another room as you hide the treats, and start hiding them in spots they have to sniff out such as under a rug.
Play hide and seek under cups!
The hide and seek game is a simple problem solving game for dogs. To play the this game with your dog. Let your dog watch as you place a treat under one of three cups. You then shuffle the cups around and encourage them to ‘find the treat.’ The hide and seek game gives your dog plenty of mental stimulation and helps them work on their problem solving skills.
Teach Your Dog to Clean Up His Toys
If your dog’s toys are kept in a container you can teach them to Put their toys away. I know it sounds weird to teach your dog to clean up after themselves, but it’s actually a lot of fun. Teaching your dog new skills boosts their confidence, and it’s a great way to give them more mental stimulation.
If your dog already knows “drop it” have them pick up a toy and give them their drop it command once they’re standing over the container. Praise them like crazy, then rinse and repeat. Eventually with consistency you’ll have a dog that will be
able to clean up after himself.
Make Your Dog Work for His Food
We give our dogs a nice comfy life — they get a warm bed, lots of attention, and all their meals for free. But our dogs need more then that daily walk. I always found 15 minutes of clicker training worked a treat and I would have an exhausted happy dog. A lot of our dogs are missing out on some mentally stimulating activities. They’re natural scavengers, so having to work for food isn’t mean or unusual — it’s normal and mentally stimulating for them.
One of the easiest ways to challenge your dog’s mind is by making them work for their meals. You can make your dog perform some tricks before he gets his dinner, or you can have them eat from a food dispensing toy such as a KONG.
Another great way is too hide food around the house or garden and send them off to search for it or use a prey dummy and get them doing retrieves for their food. If you become the main source for your dogs food then you end up with a dog focussed on you.
have fun and watch how tired and relaxed your Dog will be. They will want to work and make their owners happy.
Teach your dog a trick!! Send a video to trainntreat1@gmail.com and your Dog could become one of our fb stars ⭐️
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