As a pet parent, you understand how important daily exercise is for your pooch. While physical exercise is essential, you can’t forget about keeping your pup mentally fit as well. Not only is mentally exercising your pup great for their health, but it will also help increase the bond between you two. To help, here are some great games that will help stimulate your furry companion.

Treasure Hunt

Setting up a treasure hunt is a great way to encourage your furry friend to use their natural hunting instincts. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Start by placing parts of their meal (or a few treats) around the house.
2. Then allow them to go sniff it out, and if they need help, try guiding them to the spots at first
3. As the rounds go on, you can start putting their food in more hidden areas and giving them less guidance to where their food is hidden.

The Cup Game

For this game, you’ll need either two or three cups and some treats.

1. Ask your pooch to sit, then place a treat on a small table in front of them
2. Put one of the cups over the treat, then place another cup next to the first one (with the 2nd cup having nothing underneath it
3. Start by allowing Fido to touch their nose on the correct cup, rewarding them when they do so
4. Once you think that your canine has gotten the hang of this you can start shuffling the cups around or adding more of them to make the game a bit harder
5. You can also try to train your pooch to point their paw at the correct cup

Hide & Seek

For your furry friend to learn this game, they’ll need to already understand basic obedience commands like sit and come.

1. Put your pup in the sit position while you go and hide somewhere close by
2. Once hidden, shout the command “come” and allow your pooch to come and sniff you out – making sure to praise them once they successfully find you
3. If your furry friend seems to be struggling with this, you can take a bone along with you to increase the chances of them being able to sniff you out
4. As your dog gets better at this game, try to make your hiding spots more difficult

Pick a Hand

You can play this game with your canine just about anywhere to help pass the time. To play, you will need a couple of treats.

1. Hold a treat in one of your hands so that your pup can see
2. Put your hands behind your back and switch the treat around
3. Then hold both hands out to Fido in closed fists
4. Reward your canine companion when they choose the correct paw
5. The more you play this game, the more familiar Fido will become with it so that you’ll be able to start just showing them two fists, and they’ll know the game is on!
6. You can also increase the difficulty of this game by training your pooch to place their paw on the correct fist.

These games are simple and will help you stimulate your furry friend’s game. You can also invest in some doggy puzzles that will help work their brain by just playing by themself.