Last night I decided to try out the new dog puzzle toys I got on sale from Petco.
They were all on sale for under $10 each, so I decided to give them a try. The purple one and blue one were labelled for small dogs, but I figured either of my dogs could try them out even though Penny is medium sized and Malcolm is large.
The dogs figured them out pretty quickly, as in under a couple of minutes. But it gave them something a little different to do. These are definitely best with supervision only. The plastic they are made of isn't very durable. The little cup covers that the dogs move on the purple and blue games are quite thin and could very easily be chewed up. Even a good solid chomp would likely damage them. So if you have destructos or chompers best to stay away from these for safety's sake.
I used a stronger smelling training treat to put in these at first to encourage my dogs, but you could easily use dry kibble if you wanted to. The green star game rotates and you can adjust how difficult or easy it is to rotate by a knob on the bottom.
In the end, I definitely wouldn't pay full price for them or any of the puzzle games I've seen. They're just too easy and most dogs figure them out very quickly. But they are good to give a dog something a little different to do from time to time. I would definitely use these with supervision only and put them away when the session is over.
One added bonus I found for my dogs is the little cup covers make for a great retrieves training session once the puzzle is empty. They were scattered all over the place so I used the opportunity to work on my dogs' retrieving skills by asking them to pick them up and hand them to me so I didn't have to bend over to pick them up (bending over would aggravate my health condition). Malcolm, my German Shepherd mobility service dog, has a lot more practice and training for retrieves than Penny, my cattle dog/basenji in home medical alert service dog. Malcolm even helped by picking up the games' bases and bringing them to me. :-)
Last night though, Penny did her first ever distance directed retrieve. Penny was being very enthusiastic and tried to toss me one of the cups she'd picked up. It bounced about 5 feet away from the chair where I was sitting. I pointed towards it and told her to "get it" and with some encouragement she went and got it, brought it back, and mostly got it into my hand. :-) I had to grab for it a little, but she got a treat party anyway. Her first ever send away retrieve and she did so well!! I'm so proud of my girl...
Both the dogs enjoyed their sessions with the puzzle games, though they didn't last very long. They seemed a bit disappointed when I put them away. I'll bring them back out on another day.
If you'd like suggestions for toys and games to help give your dog something more to do, please contact me at fcdogtraining@gmail.com
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