Why We Love Puzzle Toys
- haileydeagan
- May 9, 2024
- 2 min read
We’re all about enrichment at The Bone & Breakfast. All of our personal dogs are working breeds, so we’ve seen firsthand what under-stimulated dogs can look like. We use enrichment to curb bad behaviors, help soothe anxiety, and just give the dog something to do for a bit.
They Can Help With Anxiety
Does your dog have separation anxiety when they’re away from you, or even just separated from you in your house? Puzzle toys can help with this in general, to distract the dog from the issue at hand, but did you know there's some enrichment toys that are scented to help calm your dog?
Project Hive has vanilla and lavender scented toys to help soothe your pet while they chew on one of their chews, a bully stick, or any other stick-shaped chew you put in the toy.
They Can Tire Your Dog Out
A tired dog is a good dog! If your dog has bad or destructive habits, including excessive licking (which can lead to hot spots), puzzle toys can help! These habits are often repetitive and formed out of boredom. If you’re mentally exercising your dog with puzzle toys, then they can’t be bored in the first place.
They Can Replace (Some) Exercise
A lot of people think that if you have a higher drive dog, you just need to walk them more or play with them more. That’s not necessarily true! Higher drive dogs like huskies, German shepherds, terriers and other working breeds need mental stimulation too. Now that doesn’t mean your dog shouldn’t also be getting physical exercise. But it does mean that you can satiate a lot of their desire to work by giving them a puzzle to figure out.
They’re Fairly Hands Off
Once your dog understands how to use a certain type of puzzle toy, you can give it to them and go about your tasks without hovering over them. There’s even some you could give your dog when you leave the house to keep them entertained in your absence.
Where to Find Puzzle Toy Options
Here's a link to our amazon page. Pinned at the top is our Puzzle & Enrichment Toys list for our favorites. Amazon can be a great option for lots of other types of dog toys as well!
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