3 Easy Games to BOOST Your Dog's Brain!

Mental Stimulation is super important for our dogs. We need to make sure we are exercising their minds as well as their bodies so they can be happy, fulfilled companions.

Here are 5 super simple games to get their brain working in different ways:

1. Find the Toy

• Show your dog a toy and get them excited about it!
• Shut your dog in a different room and go and hide the toy. Keep it easy if your dog hasn’t done this before, just behind a door can be tricky enough.
• Let your dog out and tell them to find the toy. Give them space to work on their own, but help them if they need it.
• When they find the toy celebrate with them and have a play!

2. Which Hand?

• Put a smelly treat in a closed fist.
• Show your dog your two fists (one with the smelly treat and one empty).
• See which hand your dog nudges or paws at.
• Open that hand. If it has the treat, let them eat it. If it was the empty hand, reset the game and try again.

3. Muffin Tin Game

• Get a muffin tin and some dog toys that fit into the spaces e.g. balls, small toys.
• Put a treat in each of the muffin tin indents. Pop a toy on top on some of them.
• Give it to your dog and see if they can work out how to move the toys to access the treats!
• You can make it easier or harder by varying the types of toys you use to cover the treats and the number of toys.
• You could make it even trickier by only putting treats in some of the spaces.

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration of fun ways to get your dog’s brain working.

If you’d like more, check out my social media series ‘10 Days of Easy Dog Games’