Puzzles and treat games for dog.

haminka

Struggling to find something to keep our puppy occupied on her own. Bought her the expensive mind game from petshop where you apparently can keep the dog occupied for a long time trying to figure out how to solve the three options it offers. Took her 5 minutes to find all three ways of getting to treats.
The maze dishes - she learned that if she bangs on the side with her paw, they turn over and she just calmly collects the treats. Same for those treat balls etc.
We are teaching her tricks like turn over, play dead, stand up etc. but we are looking at something to occupy her on her own.
Any ideas that work for longer than 5 minutes?

cocker5

haminka wrote: »

Struggling to find something to keep our puppy occupied on her own. Bought her the expensive mind game from petshop where you apparently can keep the dog occupied for a long time trying to figure out how to solve the three options it offers. Took her 5 minutes to find all three ways of getting to treats.
The maze dishes - she learned that if she bangs on the side with her paw, they turn over and she just calmly collects the treats. Same for those treat balls etc.
We are teaching her tricks like turn over, play dead, stand up etc. but we are looking at something to occupy her on her own.
Any ideas that work for longer than 5 minutes?

Frozen stuffed kong?

Cherry Blossom

All those puzzles in the op need to be supervised to make sure the dog doesn’t try to eat bits of wood/plastic from the toy. Likewise if you are going to give bones they should be supervised. Frozen, stuffed kongs were always my go to as well for getting puppies used to being left alone for short periods. Once they are always left in the same room they quickly become used to it and no longer need the frozen long. They still don’t last longer than 5-10 mins though.

tk123

Bailey loves this - https://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/intelligence_games/448795 I think Lidl had a version of it too?
The little tray thing kept getting fired across the room when I had it on the ground :pac: .. what works best for us is to set the dispenser up on the table/counter where he can't paw at it and put the button down out in the hall/the other side of the garden and he'll go back and forth. Just be warned it either goes DING or BOING so if you want some peace it might not be the best idea lol lol. And of course supervision like CB says.

I found lick mats can last longer than a kong if you have dogs who just lift the kong up and keep smashing it off the ground lol

haminka

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

All those puzzles in the op need to be supervised to make sure the dog doesn’t try to eat bits of wood/plastic from the toy. Likewise if you are going to give bones they should be supervised. Frozen, stuffed kongs were always my go to as well for getting puppies used to being left alone for short periods. Once they are always left in the same room they quickly become used to it and no longer need the frozen long. They still don’t last longer than 5-10 mins though.

Yep, it's all done under supervision. I will try the frozen kong, the unfrozen filled with peanut butter didn't last long. She got bored with it.

haminka

tk123 wrote: »

Bailey loves this - https://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/intelligence_games/448795 I think Lidl had a version of it too?
The little tray thing kept getting fired across the room when I had it on the ground :pac: .. what works best for us is to set the dispenser up on the table/counter where he can't paw at it and put the button down out in the hall/the other side of the garden and he'll go back and forth. Just be warned it either goes DING or BOING so if you want some peace it might not be the best idea lol lol. And of course supervision like CB says.

I found lick mats can last longer than a kong if you have dogs who just lift the kong up and keep smashing it off the ground lol

Thanks. Would be great but we feed raw exclusively so not sure we could use this one.

tk123

haminka wrote: »

Thanks. Would be great but we feed raw exclusively so not sure we could use this one.

I’ve put loads of different type of treats in it including dehydrated training treats.

Gael23

Dog should be supervised when playing with them but other than that I think they are a great idea.
Problem is mine is so intelligent he got the hang of it within minutes

Choc Chip

haminka wrote: »

Yep, it's all done under supervision. I will try the frozen kong, the unfrozen filled with peanut butter didn't last long. She got bored with it.

You might need to work up to her being able to tackle a frozen kong - lots of dogs need to develop the ability to work on something for that long.

If she gets bored with peanut butter, i'd put a dab of peanut butter in and a load of easier food to get out, experiment with stickier, more difficult food and freezing it for longer times as she gets used to settling down with a kong.