Mental stimulation for dogs

[Eucalyptus22]

I keep hearing things about mental stimulation for dogs but what does this actually mean? I give him slow sniffy walks and he has some of those board games where he sniffs out the treats, but they only last 5 minutes.

What do you do to mentally stimulate your dog and keep his brain active? Would love lots of ideas I can incorporate into my spaniel's life! Thank you.

I really need to try this more with ours (WCS, just over 2yo). She can be an absolute angel, she’s brilliant on runs and walks, always comes straight back to my side when there’s a bike, for example, and mostly when there are other dogs 🤨 She loves to go and say hi and charge around.

But she’s never been good at settling. She’s getting better at settling herself at home if we properly tire out her spaniel brain, but taking her to the pub or a cafe is quite stressful for all of us, so I’m avoiding it for now. She’s got quite reactive to other dogs who come into ‘her’ indoor spaces, and I think it’s through frustration because if we’re moving or out and about, she’s great.

I think sitting on a bench with her and watching the world go by (at a distance and with lots of treats!) would be good for her.

It’s strange because we’ve had so many comments like ‘you’ve got a well-trained one’, ‘so lovely to see a well-behaved dog’ etc, and then we try taking her to the pub, she sees another dog in her ‘territory’ and it’s like she’s possessed. So I try to keep the positive comments in mind while we persevere with the training. 🤦🏻‍♀️😄

I’ve also found that she loves doing what I call ‘stick manners’ and ‘ball manners’, e.g. a good ‘leave it’, ‘sit’, ‘wait’. She goes nuts for a stick, so if we make her sit and wait for us to throw it, and don’t throw it until she’s definitely waiting nicely, that really gets the tail wagging and the tippy-taps going. And it seems to tire out her brain too 🤪

Karen Overall's Calm Protocol really works if you put the time in and start young.

www.karenoverall.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Protocol-for-relaxation_Overall.pdf

I hear you. Mine takes a massive leap backwards every so often. I had to start at a bench a distance away from the main activity and work my way closer.

With sit / stay or down / stay, I try to mix up the way I do things as he is really good at anticipating. So, I'll tell him to sit, walk away, come back and treat. Next time, I'll come back and walk away again, then come back and treat. Keep varying the order you do it, the distance and the time and the stay will become stronger. Same with down. I can go to the pub now, sit him next to my table and go to the bar for a drink and he will not move. I haven't spent enough time doing this same thing at home though as he won't do it there so easily. Dogs don't generalise, so you have to train in a variety of locations otherwise they don't translate behaving in one place to behaving everywhere.

I use a release word too as he was anticipating the treat and releasing himself. Now he will keep sitting even after he's had a treat, while waiting for the release word, or the next instruction.

Keep at it, it's great once you start to get results.

To intro a ‘find it’ for a ball/toy/dummy.

Have the dog on lead. distract them with a treat on their nose while you walk with them in heel - when they aren’t looking drop the ball behind you. Go just a few more steps to begin with - the ball should be in plain view. Send the dog back to get it, introducing your new command as you do. Once the dog has got the idea, you can go a bit further and/or genuinely hide the ball

I’m not sure really just lots of praise and maybe quick play with the toy. Dog seemed to like showing me that she’d found it and ready for another go. We’d hide it in harder places depending on how she was doing and if necessary follow and keep encouraging her.

We rotate things with our lab, so usually

One 'fun' trip to the park with a ball each day (she LOVES chasing her ball but we limit to park or garden then put it away for indoors or sniffy walks as she gets a bit fixated)

One longer sniff walk, usually 3 or 4 local places during week then somewhere different to explore most weekends

Playing tug with one of her rope toys

A bit of training e.g. recall (either in garden or during a walk)

Frozen Kong with peanut butter / banana / whatever

Giant Kong (the one with the hole in that's weighted so wobbles) filled with frozen peas or sweetcorn

Selected recycling safe objects in a big tub with a few treats in too, so she has to dog through to get them (things like empty loo/kitchen roll tubes, empty plastic containers)

An old bath towel rolled up with different treats in each layer - probs our cheap equivalent of a snuffle mat but our girls LOVES it

Things like the giant Kong towel and recycling treasure hunt we only do every week or so, to keep the excitement.

She also gets plenty of playtime with other dogs as we generally see someone she knows at the park and let them have a zoom round / chase the ball together (sometimes a light wrestle depending on the dogs haha!)

Some great ideas on this thread, thanks - will definitely be adding some more to our routine!

First of all it helps to make the ball a fun thing inside and just play little games, rolling it around and letting him chase it and then bring it to you. Then transfer it outside. Just throw it a little way and urge the dog to 'fetch it', indicating it while being all excited. If necessary jog the few step with the dog and as soon as he picks it up, jog backwards a bit and urge him to come to you - he should have a natural retrieving drive and will probably bring it to you. Loads of praise when he gives it to you.

You can then build up the distance and the complexity. You can make the dog wait, or walk it away from a dropped or thrown item and then send him back. Some dogs work it out really fast. One of mine would much rather work hard to hunt for a retrieve than just pick up one in plain sight.

Following

Thanks for all the ideas so far, so many great ones on here already. I'm going to note them all down so I don't forget any. You know how seriously we take our dogs happiness! And enrichment.. that's the word I've been looking for.