Stimulation for under-2 dogs.

[LitCrit]

I was wondering how much play/training/stimulation people give their under-2 dogs. Not cuddling or grooming - tug of war, treat hunts, find the toy etc plus shop-bought puzzles etc.
In terms of outside stimulation/exercise, mine has one walk of one and a half hours a day, much of which is chasing two balls but some of which is sniffing. I'd say we only do 2 x 10 minutes reliably per day at home and I'm worried that this isn't enough.
She's a bit anxious/tense around other people - noise outside the house/deliveries etc - but I think this is because we got her in the height of lockdown and as hard as we tried her socialisation period was pretty human-free.

My pooch is mad for a tennis ball but even better, a squeaky ball. She will play by herself with them.

Mine is 9 months. She gets a 45 min walk in the morning and a 20-30 min walk later in the day - sometimes the timings vary and if she's had a busy day there might only be a quick 10 min around the block second walk. She won't eat from a bowl (so fussy!) so her meals are all in kong/lickimat/snuffle mat/puzzle feeders or even in things like empty egg box/cereal box etc so those things tire her out and she does them by herself.

As for me playing... the odd 5 mins tug of war, 5 mins of "find teddy", 5 mins of teaching her to catch teddy/ball. 5 mins of training new tricks or playing wait while I roll a ball and then she fetches it and brings it back etc. I don't do all these things every day though and not for long at a time. She will usually initiate play by bringing me her toys. If I can't play at a time when she wants me too she gets a long lasting chew or some recycling to shred!

When mine was that age, we did one walk in the morning of around an hour, and then during the day we did a mixture of:

Sniffing out treats (around the house or in the garden)
Letting him settle with a natural chew or stuffed Kong etc.
Tug (once or twice a week)
Trick training - things like spin, roll over, weave.

Those things maybe took up 60-90 minutes a day but over half of that was chewing his treat.

If I were you I would cut down the amount of ball play your dog has - balls are fun but zooming around after balls everyday isn't great for their joints. If she loves balls, have you tried hiding them (in long grass, in bushes, behind trees) and getting her to 'find it' instead?

He's nearly four now and he doesn't play much indoors anymore - he had a game of tug with DH yesterday but that was the first time in weeks and it only lasted 10 minutes before he got bored, lol. He gets 60-90 minutes of exercise a day and a chew still, though :)

Mine is 14 months, her routine is pretty standard.

2 weekdays a week she goes to daycare. On those days she gets walked the 5 mins to daycare, spends 8-10 hours there. She comes home, sleeps on the sofa, has some dinner, sleeps on the sofa. Whilst there she goes on walks, has training and enrichment activities, and has play (free play and also play with the people who run it).

The remaining weekdays she gets a 1-1.5 hour walk in the morning. Her recall is dreadful so this is on a lead and/or long line. We mix it up so some days it is a street walk, some days in woods or fields. We do sessions of training (practising recall, sit/stay etc, walking to heel) and we also do sections where we encourage lots of sniffing. We might also play tuggy etc. She's not a ball chaser! She'll then come home and sleep until lunch, where we might have 10-20 minutes of play and trick training. She'll have a Kong mid afternoon, but will pretty much sleep until 6/7pm. Then it's more play or some training, dinner via Absolute Dogs games or another type of interactive feeder, then calm time from approx 8pm. In summer she might get another walk. She gets a long lasting chew when we eat dinner, and if she's awake and in particular need of entertaining but we are busy she'll get another one or a lickimat. Chews are our lifesaver if we need her to entertain herself. We don't allow her free access to her toys as she gets overstimulated very quickly.

Weekends she gets a longer walk (2-4 hours but with a cafe or pub stop). This usually involves car/train/bus journies too. She'll then pretty much sleep for the rest of the day.

We are also doing separation training in this as she suffers from SA, so half an hour ish a day is spent on that (we usually aim for a period of calm to do that in).

This is all so interesting, thanks very much. It sounds as though we're not doing too badly in terms of the amount of time/attention especially since the walk is very much focused on her and does involve a bit of training, high catches etc and several swims!
I think you're right @icedcoffees that I should cut down the ball activity when out. Maybe less exercise, more sniffling things out in the woods = more stimulation.

I hadn't thought of meals in a dispenser thing - it;s a great idea but does anyone do it with wet food?! She loves a kong but can't get seem to get anything wet like peanut butter out of it.
Finally - what kind of chews do you all use? Mine doesn't seem to like the 'hide' type ones - love Aventuros sticks (the thick ones) but they definitely only last five mins!

I wouldn't do any ball throwing to be honest. Really bad for joints and just makes the obsessive about it.
Slow the walks down and let the dogs stop and sniff. The more sniffing the better. Sniffing gives them loads of sensory input and helps encourage calmness. Seeking out treats or toys all fab too.
I'd also do lots of scatter feeding and brain games.
I have an 8 year old lab and an 18 month old mixed breed. Our routine is roughly

Scatter feed / hide and seek first thing in the morning.
Go to work with me (they stay in car) 2-3hrs with a kong and treat ball each.
1hr walk - lots of sniffing about / hide and seek / agility / parkour mixed in. No ball throwing
Home for sleepy afternoon
Dinner
Back out for being work

They are exhausted everyday by this. People frequently underestimate just how much sleep a dog needs. The most important thing to teach them is how to be calm.

For wet food, have you tried a lick-mat? It's easier for them to "use" than Kongs as it's just licking motion rather than having to get food out of a small space. Another option is feeding from slow-feeder bowls.

For treats, I use anything that's 100% natural - pigs ears, cows ears, buffalo skins, pizzle sticks etc. If by hide you mean rawhide, please don't use it anymore - it is really dangerous and shouldn't be given to dogs at all imo. I wish it wasn't legal.

No not real hide @icedcoffees, I meant ears, pizzles etc. I will try her again, she's older now and may like them.
Interesting @Dobbysgotthesocksbby - no balls at all? She absolutely loves chasing and retrieving and I think would really miss it.. :-(

@LitCrit personally I wouldn't do any ball throwing on a daily basis no. I know it's tricky I have a lab who is obsessed with playing ball if she sees one.
As an occasional treat I might do a few throws for her but usually into water or make her leave it and wait till I let release her to fetch it. That way it reduces the stress on their joints and makes them engage their brains a bit. But I would never do repeated throws for her no.

We make him wait and hide the ball in long grass or a toy - helps with the need to retrieve and carry but not so much running and stopping.
That being said I don't mind him being a bit ball obsessed.. helps with the recall when a deer jumps out..

Our puppy is nearly 8 months and he gets a 40 min to an hour walk at lunch time, mainly off lead running and sniffing with about 15-20 mins of loose lead walking practice. I work in the mornings so he sleeps in his crate from 9-12:30 and then I WFH in the afternoons and he sleeps or chews a long lasting chew (or tries to sneak onto the sofas in the living room while I’m on video calls that I can’t escape from!). We do a couple of 5 min training sessions a day and if he wants to play tug, he’ll let you know! He also needs to dedicate some time to patrolling the garden, standing half on and half out of the patio doors watching the birds and letting all the hear out, unstuffing teddies and watching animal programmes on TV. He also enjoys a lickimat while we eat our tea and sometimes a frozen kong.

On Fridays, I’m out all day and he comes to work with me, which is both of our favourite day of the week 🥰.

Awww! That sounds like a lovely timetable @LadyCatStark.

Hmm. i will try and reduce the ball. Bit worried now because we have done a LOT of ball.

Just did dinner in a Nina Otteson puzzle and it worked really well - at least 10 mins of exciting snuffling.