Indestructible mental stimulation activities

[Briocheandbrie]

My labrador is a beautiful girl, but very hard on her toys and manages to chew through everything in either seconds or minutes. The only ones that survive are wood chews or the really hard rubber rings but she gets bored of them quickly. I'd love to have some more options for mental stimulation games. I've tried so many lick mats, snuffle rugs, treat balls, puzzle games but she can destroy them like an absolute pro.

Any ideas of new things to try?

She gets loads of physical exercise, we live rurally beside a quiet forest so everyday she has 1 or 2 off lead walks on a variety of routes so plenty of opportunities for new smells and practice for recall. We do walks on lead a few times a week when I meet my friends. I keep hearing how thinking games tires them out more quickly though!

Not so much a toy but what about things like pigs trotters, , antlers , pizels etc the should keep her occupied for a while.
Othere than that kongs were always my go to toy

Oww shamelessly following for ideas. We laugh heartily at anything described as indestructible and place bets on how long it lasts when faced with the land shark!

Alas no great ideas here unfortunately.

Have you tried a dummy? One like this (sorry the link is huge, so it’s st the end)

Theyre not at all indestructible 😂 but you hide it and then you get the food out when they’ve found it, so it doesn’t need to be.

You start of doing it in front of them and then get harder and harder, till you’re hiding it out of sight and they literally have to search it out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/big-buddy-Canvas-Dummy-Training/dp/B091TT923W/ref=dp_prsubs_sccl_2/260-4017836-6313942?pd_rd_w=lxITG&content-id=amzn1.sym.86742e99-6aff-4ba0-91ee-a1679f41ed55&pf_rd_p=86742e99-6aff-4ba0-91ee-a1679f41ed55&pf_rd_r=XQB3XW894HQ83XZX7Y2K&pd_rd_wg=MEAlL&pd_rd_r=da6c6897-f3e9-4870-9580-d21726874933&pd_rd_i=B091TT923W&psc=1

Hide tiny bits of treats all around the house and let her find them. Start off with one room and let her sniff the treats before shutting her out briefly and then hiding them. The cheap stick treats work well for this. Just remember where you put
then and don’t put them too close to the TV! My Irish Setter loved this game.

I have a heavy chewer. For us the biggest things to tire her out and stop the chewing is mental stimulation. So 3 times a week she has a secure field off lead run for an hour with other dogs. She's exhausted afterwards. I do regular training at home as it makes her think and stops the need to chew.

For actual chew things. I give her things she can shred regularly as it satisfies an urge. She happily shreds old cardboard boxes stuffed with paper and treats. She had 2 heavy duty kongs with frozen treats and natural yogurt or dog peanut butter in them. She has a Nylabone which has lasted very well! And toys by Ruffer and Tuffer have been real favourites here. She has the monkey, the rope part goes quickly but monkey itself stays for chews for ages!!

My dog is the same, the only things I've found that last are cow hooves (they stink but last a few days and are cheap!) and the Kong Ogee stick (the large one, he chewed through the medium one) the ogee stick is good to play with him with too

My dog also loves a football, even when it's burst he still like playing with them. Ask on your local facebook page if anyone has old footballs that no longer get played with that you could have, loads of people with kids gave old balls they're happy to give away as they no longer get played with

Also trick training is great. Paw. High five. Sit. Sit up (lift paws with your arm) Lie down. Jump up onto a chair. Jump over. Touch (a coaster/bell) bang you’re dead (lie down first and then lie down bang). Wait for a treat on the floor (and then don’t give it to them give them something else). Wait for a treat and then give them the treat. Build up to a minute. Walk to heel. Come and find me. I know it is a bit labour intensive but 10 mins of this really tires them out brain wise in a way a 10 mile walk never could and comes in handy later on.

My Aussie loves his bobalot

These are all brilliant ideas thank you so much!
Completely makes sense that tiring them out lessens the chewing, I hadn't thought about more training in those terms either.
She has brilliant recall and can wait well beside distractions and those are the ones we have worked most on. She can do sit, lie down, paw, high 5 but have fallen away from these recently. I will definitely be building the search/find/jump over and treat hiding in now. It's an added bonus that these are games the DC will love to do with her too, so hopefully they'll tire everyone out 🤣

Some great toy ideas too so my amazon basket is filling up!

Btw - the dummy is good because you can just put a tiny handful of their normal dry food in, so it’s not “extra” food.

I’ve not had a dog not enjoy it yet, though some breeds are better than others at it, current dog is a mongrel but whatever is in there definitely doesn’t include good sniffing, i sometimes walk him with a spaniel, the difference in what they do is quite amusing, mine only notices moving things where the spaniel will sniff out everything.

But mine enjoys the dummy still, just I can’t hide it anywhere too challenging or I’m there all night waiting on him finding it 😂

Hide her dry food in the grass and get her to sniff it out. Doesn't cost a penny and will exhaust her.

This is a great idea unless you have a f
dog like mine was , a digger .
Most of the time he was fine but if food had been dropped/ put on the grass he would snarf that bit then dig for more because there must be more under there ! 🤔

I live in Scotland - the days I can do that without it involving me standing in the rain are not often 😐😂

I also tried scattering food in the garden but found as she didn't eat it all in one go it encouraged the neighbours fat cat to come in the garden to steal it - or foxes. So unless you have a dog that will eat it all in one go it's not always the best lol.

To be fair, you can do a few bits at a time rather than a whole meal... I’m just not a big fan of hanging about in the wet, and there’s a lot of wet here.

Scatter feeding is fab in hot weather though when you cannot walk them but still need to keep them busy. Find a bit of shade and you can keep them quite happy for 20 mins. Along with freezing kibble in yoghurt in ice cube trays and leaving halfwit dog to puzzle out how to lick her way to her dinner. Note for Scottish people: hot weather is going to be the afternoon of 26th July this year.

Different approach - just go for destructible toys. Handful of kibble in a plastic milk bottle, treats hidden in egg boxes, old tennis balls cut open, buffalo horns are good like kongs for hiding something exciting in the tip and leaving them to lick and chew the goodies out.

Along with teaching find it, and hiding treats under plant pots or plastic cups.

Note for Scottish people: hot weather is going to be the afternoon of 26th July this year. between 1.15 and 2.48 😂🤣🤣🤣

I took that photo last summer because my social media was literally full of - if you walk your dog in the U.K. today you’re a terrible person, it’s too hot type posts.

And that was the look I got for suggesting he might like to go pee in the rain 😂

i have tried scatter feeding indoors, I end up having to sweep it up 😐 but put it in a dummy and he’s all for it 🤷‍♀️

Scent work is good and tires them out

sometimes it’s better to focus on getting them to switch off and settle rather than find more ways to engage with them however second some of the advice around super long lasting chews.

She sounds very bright so you could start introducing some gun dog games for some fun. Retrieve/ hunting for a ball
using whistle for emergency stop etc

thats easy to do 5/10min sessions

Lol whistling is great and the sound carries a long way .
That is untill you have a gum infection , pft - pffft - pffftttt - grrr pfffft. OI POOCH GET OVER HERE ! ! !

This sort of whistle https://www.innerwolf.co.uk/acme-210-5-gundog-whistle Whistles are good they remove the emotion from your voice, also when old dogs go a bit deaf the whistle still gets through for a while.

You can the train remote sits, running round in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction. Whether it is round a bin in the garden, the dining table or field the gist is the same. You can even do slalom .

Brain training exhausts them, remember to teach a release and settle command.

With an hour off for lunch.