Hi,

I just did a short training session w/Kodee. He was driving me crazy, chewing on stuff, getting into things he normally leaves alone. So, I finally decided that he was probably just bored. I stopped what i was doing and did a 5 minute training session, and he just laid down and is now hanging out, being a good boy. I know physical exercise will calm a dog down, but had anyone noticed that "mental exercise" seems to do the same thing? Mind you, our training sessions are NOT strenuous. I'm not training a SAR dog or something. We're working on touch, extending the length of time he'll do "sits" and "downs", "watch me". Nothing phyical.

Do other people's dogs do this, or is mine just an oddball?

It's totally normal, in my experience. In fact, on mornings when I don't have the time or the will to walk the dogs I'll do training that requires a lot of mental activity from them. A great example of this is "Shaping" (a concept from clicker training). You teach the dog that they can ellicit a click by performing some behaviour, once this idea is firmly ingrained they will begin to offer behaviours, waiting for you to click. You will watch closely and begin to shape the behaviour. For instance, if I wanted to shape a left handed spin, I would:

1. Wait for the dog to look left (with its eyes), click (do this until the dog offers the behaviour immediately)
2. Wait for the dog to turn its head to the left, click (until offered regularly)
3. Wait for the dog to look at his tail, click (ditto)
4. Wait for the dog to move towards his tail, click (ditto)
5. Wait for the dog to complete a half turn, click (ditto)
6. wait for the dog to complete a full turn, click (ditto)
Once he's done this five or six times, begin associating a word (spin!) with the action when he does it.

A behavior like this can take 5 - 10 minutes to train, (once the dog knows how to work for clicks) but once the session is over most dogs are pooped! That's a lot of thinking for them.

David is right on, many times I think mental exercise is MORE tiring than physical exertion for dogs (and humans).

The more physical exercise my dogs get, the more they require to get them physically tired. they merely gain endurance!

If I incorporate learning a new task regularly, I think they become more focused and content because they love to use their brains.

I think exercising the mind is so important and I am glad Kori brought this up. Wisconsin winter is right around the corner, so I need to get my lesson plans ready.

 Quote: cindy easton rhodes

David is right on, many times I think mental exercise is MORE tiring than physical exertion for dogs (and humans).

The more physical exercise my dogs get, the more they require to get them physically tired. they merely gain endurance!

If I incorporate learning a new task regularly, I think they become more focused and content because they love to use their brains.

I think exercising the mind is so important and I am glad Kori brought this up. Wisconsin winter is right around the corner, so I need to get my lesson plans ready.

So true! My dog actually gets bored on walks! I play the brain games mostly in the evening before bed. I have a dog that does not sleep well, and the more physically and mentally tired the better.

Clicker games, ob for toys, "find it" are some of the things we do.

Yep, it got down to 11 degrees (winds were 10- 20mph) last night here, so my "mental exercise" is already in effect.

I do alot of building work during the winter months.

We do "find it" in the house, but we also play "find mommy" in the back yard as the last thing we do before bed. It tires my puppy out both physically and mentally. We recently had to expand our "find mommy" to the forest, because the back yard lost all the leaves from the trees and it was too easy to find mommy. (although the leaves didn't hide my scent before, anyway.)

It's a great end of day exercise. But winter in Estonia is upon us, and soon we'll have to start finding more games and mental exercises for in the house as well. Just reading this thread has gotten me motivated to go teach her something new right now. :-)

That's so funny...we've recently introduced "find mommy" in our house, as well. Fun game for everyone and it's really cool watching him use his nose and problem solve during the "hunt".

This subject is so interesting. Would love to have more detail/ideas for "indoor mental" games. Maybe Cindy will share her lesson plans??? :wink:

Training "party tricks" is fun. Not even so much for the tricks, but because it's fun to do the training. Dogs who are eager to do stuff and need mental stimulation are well-served by motivational training. JMO.

In all training sessions, which are short, I always start and end with a command I KNOW the dog will do, and will have a marker and reward. Upbeat!

Short is good so no one (human or dog) can become frustrated.

Another advantage is, your improving the bond, and improving the dogs capacity to learn, just through the act of instruction. There are so many benefits to training "tricks", even if you never have the dog ever perform them!

I need some more ways to wear out Starbuck. I don’t have the time for a 1.5 hour walk every day.

Some days we play with the Frisbee in the back yard. We do a 2-ball chase with a Frisbees instead of a ball. She will run non-stop until I put them away. Today I started to add a “Sit” command before I throw the item. What do you think of adding a command before throwing the item: sit, down, speak, etc?

A game that we play inside is “Find the Nummy”. I have a jar of dry liver treats and I can hide them just about anywhere in the Living Room, Dining Room, Office, Kitchen and Hallway. She will sniff around and find the treat. We started with 1 room and with the treat in the open. Once she got the hang of it we increased the difficulty. Now she can find them on a door handle, under a blanket or pillow, under another toy, etc. We have also played the game at the park. I hide her eyes and throw the treat in a random direction. She will run back and forth on the Flexi leash looking for it.