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Mental Stimulation for Dogs

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  • Mental Stimulation for Dogs

    Please provide your favorite mental stimulation / enrichment activities for dogs.
    sigpic

  • #2
    Obviously obedience training is mentally exhausting for your pet, but I think you already know that and are looking for other ideas.

    I have found that doing K9 NoseWork with my dog Hank is both fun, mentally challenging, and also fantastic activity for a dog like him (highly aroused and reactive). I think most dogs love to do any type of activity which involves their nose. I have found that Hank focuses so well when he is searching for odor and is much less distracted by the outside environment. What's more, the happiness on his face is priceless when he makes a "find".

    I bet your kids would enjoy getting involved in hiding the odor/treats and watching the hunt. Its a perfect activity both indoor and out.

    Check it out and look for classes in your area. You can also find tons of information about nosework on line.

    HTH!
    sigpic
    Hank 02/07/2010
    Sam 08/25/2007 - 06/28/2013

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    • #3
      Free shaping is my favorite way to mentally stimulate.

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      • #4
        When I break out the clicker Silas gets so excited. We work on proofing his old tricks. I usually have one new trick that I am working on. After about 10 minutes my poor baby's three brain cells are exhausted and he just tries to get stuff for laying down and doing "watch".

        When he was a puppy he ate all his meals from a kong wobbler or another food dispenser toy, now he is too lazy most days.

        Nose work is a great one. I gathered a few cardboard boxes and put them out in the living room. I keep him in the kitchen while one of my kids hides a treat in a box. Then he get the find it cue and off he goes. We all love that one and it works like a charm to wear him out.

        You can teach him the names of different toys and ask him to bring you a specific one. Not sure if this would work for a dane, I taught a german shepherd that once when I was dog sitting.
        Last edited by jadasmom.1; 01-19-2015, 03:57 PM.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Greenmagick View Post
          Free shaping is my favorite way to mentally stimulate.
          ok, what the heck is free shaping????
          sigpic

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          • #6
            Shaping is building towards a behaviour in gradual pieces. This is baby Riddle as an example:
            http://youtu.be/HsQ8LAMS0Lc

            In the beginning, I put the bowl down and clicked and treated (c&t) for any interaction with it. I don't ask for any behaviour, I just wait and c&t the behaviour that I like. Once he started pawing the bowl I would only c&t for paw action with the goal to get him to put a paw on the bowl. Once he'd constantly put a paw on I'd raise the criteria and wait for both paws to be on the bowl and c&t. This video is the third session and I've given the behaviour of stepping into the bowl a name at this point, but I'm shaping movement of his back feet around the bowl. This is the beginning of working towards a pivot turn. You'll see that I'm c&ting for any little steps he takes with his back feet and gradually expecting him to move farther before he gets the c&t.

            This is the next session when the behaviour has a name and is essentially a left finish into heel
            http://youtu.be/KzpH9GIjNR8

            And after fading out the target (bowl) and adding in other behaviours like heeling and backing up the initial foundation work leads to things like this
            http://youtu.be/sTzArvciaSk

            Zephyr pivots tighter than any dog I've competed in rally with. Literally on the spot. All starting with some basic fun shaping games


            Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
            Zephyr CGN, RE, TT- crazy harlequin
            Divine Acres Riddle Me This- regal fawn

            http://thegrownups.ca/ on life and (not) growing up.

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