Is Your Dog Ready for His Ph.D.? Try These Brain Games and See
What more can you do with a dog who knows all the skills? Learn some new ones, that’s what. photo: AdobeStock AI
Are you the most over-achieving dog parent in town? Does your dog know all the basic cues, excel in social skills, and boast a repertoire of 30 parlor tricks? Did you enroll them in the best puppy school after many nights of research? Did you hire a trainer before you brought your pup home? Is your dog the envy of your friends and neighbors?
But are you still wondering what more you can do to help your dog earn their Ph.D. in dogginess? Look no further! Here are some graduate level skills, tricks, and games you can use to meet your pup’s high cognitive needs.
When we think of a dog's physical needs, we think of things like proper nutrition, adequate exercise, fresh water, sleep, veterinary care, grooming, and safety. But as an over-achieving dog parent, you’re probably already quite aware of these things. Proper nutrition? Check. Your dog eats an organic grass-fed raw food diet sourced from local free-range farms, thank you very much. Adequate exercise, check! You can pull out your fitness tracker and know exactly how many miles you’ve walked together for the week so far.
Of course, we must also ensure that our dog’s emotional needs - security, love, trust, and consistency - are being met, as well as their social needs. Dogs are social beings and need to spend time bonding with people or other dogs or animals - and they need to play!
Being an A+ dog parent, you’ve probably already worked with a top-notch trainer who’s helped you develop a relationship of trust and love using positive reinforcement and evidence-based training techniques. You’ve taken time to learn about your individual dog’s social needs and set them up for success in that department.
But now it’s time to work on those cognitive needs. And this is where the over-achieving dog parent can get Ph.D.-level creative, offering dogs novelty, choice, and problem-solving games to improve brain/body connection.
If you and your dog are tired of fetch and other plain old vanilla activities, try some of these new brain challenges.
Balance
Studies of humans have shown that improving balance improves higher cognitive skills such as planning, decision-making, and attention. While similar studies have yet to be undertaken with dogs, it’s not a huge leap to assume your dog might reap some of the same benefits that you would by working on balance.
Can your dog stand with front feet on a foam roller and balance without it rolling away from them? Can your dog stand and balance on increasingly smaller platforms? Can you get your dog to put all four feet in an empty dog food bowl? What about teaching your dog to traverse from platform to platform? If your dog knows how to touch your hand on cue, you may be ready to get started with this balancing challenge.
Novelty
Dogs need novelty in their lives, whether it’s in their environment or as part of their daily activities. To keep things fresh, rotate your dog’s toys so they never play with the same two each day. Consider buying a new food puzzle or just get tricky with how you feed your dog meals. You’ve likely used up most of your dog’s calories as part of their daily training and enrichment plan, but if you have some left over at the end of the day, get creative with your presentation. Can you feed your dog their dinner in a different way each night, maybe in a puzzle toy the first night, as part of a searching game the next, and kibble scattered in the bathtub after that?
And don’t forget about novel training games. I love teaching dogs the “Smash-It” game, in which they learn to knock over an ever-expanding and changing array of items. It's the same basic trick, but the change of items makes it feel new each time. Try Smash-it Dominos here. Or perhaps Smash-it with Jingles? What other novel variations can you think of?
Choice
How can you give your dog more opportunities to make choices? Can you teach your dog to tell you which way they’d like to walk once you reach the corner of the block? Does your dog know how to ask you to play with their toys or go on a walk? It’s something they can learn.
Have you explored the world of cooperative care and taught your dog to voluntarily opt in to grooming or medical procedures? Does your dog know how to say “yes” and “no”? Do you know how to read their responses when they do?
Choice is a primary reinforcer for dogs and may be almost as important as food, water, and shelter. So make sure choice is a core part of your dog’s world and interactions with you. Offer them choice whenever it’s safe to do so.
Problem Solving
Problem solving and confidence go hand in hand. Get started with a simple version by encouraging your dog to find a hidden prize, toy, or food. Problem solving lets dogs use their brains and bodies to get the job done, and it’s very satisfying to them.
If your dog already knows a few cues, how about combining them into something new for them to solve? For inspiration, here is Fred, a rescue Pit Bull, showing us his favorite game: the formal retrieve/stair run/nose work/retrieve to basket game. Fred helped shape this game himself; in fact, he’s very adept when it comes to creating new games and teaching humans cool new ways to play. Your dog may be, too.
Now that you’ve got some fresh ideas in your own brain, go out and explore with your dog. How can you add more fun and challenging cognitive games into your dog’s world?
Have you ever seen the Match to Sample Game? So cool. Did you know dogs can learn to count? Yes, they can.
Does your dog know how to do a handstand? No? Well, you better get on that, stat. No way you’re going to be the coolest dog parent in town if both you and your dog don’t each have a 10-second freestanding handstand.
But seriously, no one likes being bored. Dogs need and want a variety of mental stimulation in their lives and it’s our job to help them get it. Even if some of this seems over the top, just remember: you don’t have to be an over-achieving dog parent to want what’s best for your buddy.