# Mental exercise/stimulation-suggestions?



## Jen&Bear (Jan 14, 2012)

Just looking for many different ways to mentally exercise my 6-month old pupperssssss
Simple and more elaborate-all kinds please 
Obstacle courses? Make my own? Hide things? But how to get him to find it? What about....? No idea? Any ideas?
Thank you


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## OriginalWacky (Dec 21, 2011)

Oh goodness, the only limit is your imagination. You can do a google search for mentally stimulating toys for dogs, learn to to train by shaping, make a flirt pole for your dog, feed meals in Kongs, take your dog to new places with all sorts of new scents and activity, try agility or rally or obedience, all sorts of things.


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## cta (May 24, 2011)

"find it" is a fun game, one that my dog happens to enjoy very much. we started when he was a puppy. we would hide a high value toy in the house and ask him to go find it. obviously at first you can put it in a very obvious place so the dog can find it easily. when your dog finds it, shower him/her with praise. as time goes on and you play more you can find more elaborate/more difficult hiding spots. we also play this in the yard with small treats. he genuinely just enjoys these types of activities. we also play hide and seek with him, although now he knows all of our hiding spots. one of us will keep him in a spot so the other can hide. while we are hiding, he is working on waiting patiently...which tires him out A LOT! hmmm what else. recently i bought a lunge whip and tied a toy on the end...instant flirt pole, which he also likes. he also loves to play ball inside the house...outside he could care less, but inside he will play for hours. so we tell him "go long" and he trots to his spot across the room. then he doesn't get the ball until he sits. it makes him think, so again, it tires him out. i mean really, you can do anything!


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## GSD2 (Jan 27, 2012)

Oh! I love agility and so does my dog. We have been in training for search and rescue for almost 2 years, that has really been great for both mental and physical exercise. She loves a game of 'hide and seek', as well. I put her in a sit/stay, show her a toy, walk away and hide the toy, return to her and release, she runs full speed to find the toy, she loves this game. Have fun!!


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

My dog LOVES agility, but she's only 6 months also, so she does small jumps, etc until she is about a year then she will be a big girl and can do more without hurting herself I went and watched a nosework class which was interesting. You just get some smaller boxes, buckets, etc and place them on the floor...maybe 10-15 of them and hide like three to four treats under different boxes and let the dog find them...make sure the dog is not in the area when you are hiding the treats...at first I would use small pieces of hot dog so the dog can smell it and get the hang of it. The dogs in the class seemed to really like it, I'm collecting small boxes now to try it at home


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## Witz (Feb 28, 2011)

Do some basic tracking. You can lay a simple track with small pieces of turkey hotdogs. Find a field, keep the pup in the house/car, create a starting point with extra pieces, walk (short steps) in a straight line dropping the pieces in every step to start then every other with the end point have a reward of lots of pieces. The distance can be increased and you can add turns to increase the challenge. There are plenty of references to tracking exercises and it is something that dog usually love to do.


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## Jen&Bear (Jan 14, 2012)

That's a good starter. Thanks witz & everyone else


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