Are you looking for ways to help tire out your dog and keep them busy? Try giving them some mental stimulation, instead of just adding more physical exercise to your dog’s day, add in a mental stimulation that will enrich your dogs’ lives by giving them something fun and challenging to do. And because these activities ease boredom, they decrease our dogs’ likelihood of developing behavioral issues such as excessive chewing or barking. Here are surefire ways to challenge your pup, fire up their mind, and offer enriching mental stimulation.
Just like people, dogs also get bored. When dogs get bored, they find creative ways to amuse themselves, like barking excessively, chewing anything they can find, and digging holes in the garden. By providing mental stimulation for our dogs, we’re helping to put an end to unwanted behaviors that are triggered by boredom while lowering their stress levels and improving their mood. Burning off all that pent up energy helps tire our dogs out and keeps their mind sharp.
There are various ways you can fire up your dog’s mind:
Enrichment Walks
Going out for a walk is one of the most exciting parts of our dog’s day. By letting them stop and sniff around, we can give them some more mental stimulation. Walking is indeed great physical exercise, but for dogs, it’s also about exploration. If you prefer letting your dog roam freely, take them to a dog park or specific areas that are designated for dogs. You’d be surprised at how much more spent dogs are after a walk that includes exploration & sensory enrichment rather than just walking down a road.
Interactive Toys and Puzzles Game
If we open up the game closet in our house, we’ll find a pile of our favorite board games, but what if we also had a stack of puzzles for our dogs? There are various puzzles for our pets to keep them stimulated. They all require slightly different problem-solving skills and offer multiple challenge levels. Make Your Dog Work a Little for His Food Along with games that make your pup work for treats, you can also turn your dog’s mealtime into a mental exercise. If you feed hard food, then drop their kibble into a treat-dispensing ball toy. If you provide fresh food, get a slow feeding bowl that features maze-like patterns and various prongs.
New Tricks
Why not work on various trick training? Just spending a few minutes every day with your dog to work on basic commands and tricks is an excellent way to fire up their focus … all while strengthening your communication and bond! This is a beautiful way to both physically and mentally enrich your dog.
Socialize
Whenever your dog meets someone new, whether it’s a person or pet, they are exposed to new sensations, from seeing new faces, hearing new sounds, to smelling new smells!