Top 20 brain training for dogs and its benefits

What is brain training for dogs?

Sometimes a dog exhibits a very different or a strange behavior that might not be appealing or controllable. This troublesome behavior may add disinterest in both the dog and the owner. This situation can be controlled and managed by a unique “Brain Training” for your dogs. Quick and easy step by step instruction can make the dog more disciplined.

Even a dog has his/her own natural intelligence which needs to be brought out of it through simple and effective brain training activities and techniques. The dog will gradually start behaving in a proper way, will amend to your commands, will react to your love and pain, and thus, the undesired behavior will automatically get decreased and after a period of training will completely fade away.

Adrienne Farricelli wrote a book on “Brain Training for Dogs”, which took her approximately 10 years to understand and relate a dog’s behavior and its level of intelligence. She has effectively highlighted almost all the techniques to improve the intelligence of the dog by gradually eliminating the bad behavior and reprogram the brain to be obedient, loving and caring by adding on new cultural information.

What are the top 20 brain games and its benefits?

Brain games are stimulators which can help to increase the critical and analytical thinking adding on to the behavior of a dog. These games are used to indulge a dog completely into another level of mental workout which can additionally help in the dog training.

1. “Follow me” games– In this type the owner will instruct the dog to follow where ever the owner goes. By following this brain game, chances of getting separate from the owner at a crowded place gets reduced.
2. Word finding game– In this type the owner can teach letters to the dog, by repeating it to it and then keep it at another place, and instruct the dog to find the letter that you speak out.
3. Put toys elsewhere game– In this type the owner will instruct the dog to pick up and then put the toys it plays with at some other place or in some other corner of the room.
4. The name games– In this type the owner will repeat some names of the family members, making them sit in front of the dog. Repeat it for some time and then ask the dog to go the member of the family of whom the name is taken. If it does the activity correctly, the training and the game is done perfectly.
5. New tricks game– In this type the owner can teach and play with dog simultaneously, by making the dog learn some new tricks just to make the dog smarter.
6. Toilet training game- In this type the owner should take care that he/she can train the dog properly where to pee. The owner should bring a dog’s toilet seat and train it to sit there and not to roam all over the house and pee anywhere.
7. Smell and finding things game- In this type the owner makes the dog smell a food or a treat, or anything, though it is said that the smelling senses of the dog is really incredible, thus the dog will learn much in a very less time, and this will act as an energizing game for the dog.
8. Dog rolling Game– In this type the owner instructs the dog to roll itself, teach the dog how to roll, and the technique to roll. This will also act as a fun activity and game for the dog.
9. Sit stand and run game– In this type the owner can instruct the dog the proper timing to sit, then stand and run. The owner should take the dog for a walk in the park and make the dog run along. The sitting and standing instructions makes a dog more attentive and obedient.
10. Memory tin game– In this type the owner takes 3 tin cans and put a treat inside one of it, then shuffle the tins in front of the dog and tell the dog to choose one tin in which the treat is kept. After some attempts, the dog will be able to recognize in which tin the treat is kept.
11. Countdown game– In this type the owner starts a countdown for a specific activity to be done (e.g., to eat a treat). The owner counts backwards from 5 to 1 or if for a long time from 10 to 1. This inculcated the habit of the dog to be obedient and patient in his habits.
12. Hide and seek dog game– In this type the owner can play a hide and seek game, where the owner hides and the dog finds. This is a fun activity for both of the owner and the dog.
13. Treats finding game– In this type the owner hides the treats and the dog is to smell and find them and then the dog is allowed to eat them.
14. Jumping game– In this the owner trains the dog to jump. For this the owner, can keep the treat higher at a place so that the dog can jump so that the laziness and boredom of the dog goes away.
15. Food dispensing toys– This is a toy that will help the dog to find his food before having it.
16. “Which hand” game– In this game the owner puts a treat in one of his hand and ask the dog to select in which hand the treat is. This makes the dog to think and improves the mental ability.
17. The smell games– In this game the owner gives the dog different food items to smell and accordingly to identify them correctly.
18. Sit and wait games– In this game the owner instructs the dog to keep sitting until he tells the dog to now get up and get going. This will also make the dog more patience.
19. “Choose one” games– In this game the owner tells the dog to choose one of the given treats kept in front of it. The dog then tries to grab both but the owner should try to play with dog and side by side ask him to choose, which stimulates the dog’s ability.
20. A “yes-no” game– In this the owner instructs the dog by saying a “yes” or a “no” for the things that it should do and for the things it should not respectively. This is a nice game as well as a good training session for the dog.

Benefits of the dog brain games

To start with these games, it gives your dog long hours of active entertainment time, rather than just sitting and eating. These also help to teach new and innovative tricks, definitely preventing them from utter boredom. Also, the games help the dog to prevent gain excessive weight, rather developing a whole different bond with the owner, reducing the anxiety of separation.

Regularly playing these games can effectively help to reduce unwanted and destructive behavior of the dog due to laziness and restlessness. Puppies who are teething, will love the games that follows them towards a substance that they can chew. Using kibble to put food out of their bowl and then rewarding them can encourage slow eating and proper chewing.

These games can help build your dog’s memory to be more accurate and sharper, and his overall development will be enhanced, reducing the bad behavior.

What are the bad dog behaviors?

Bad dog behaviors include when your dog doesn’t listen to you, barks uncontrollably, is aggressive, is digging all the time, is chewing things he shouldn’t, is pulling on the lash, is jumping up, gets over excited and is hard to settle down, is whining constantly, is fearful of certain sounds or even some kind of stimuli and then might suffer from anxiety, is digging all the time, nipping and growling at dogs, separation related behaviors, inappropriate mounting, eating non-foodstuffs etc.

What does an owner feel like after such bad behavior?

The owner might get frustrated and might want to train a new puppy instead of a grown-up dog, might regret getting a dog, might feel helpless as the dog does not listen to “no” or any of their instructions, might feel totally stressed out, or even might want to create a special bond with your dog and can try all possible ways in which this can be done.

How does It Work?

The idea of “neuroplasticity” in human brain, which is highly researched upon at Harvard university which tells that human brain is like a soft plastic, capable of changing and molding to new behaviors and habits.

Even a dog’s brain works exactly the same way, if the appropriate mental stimulation and training is given to it, the dog’s brain will become more receptive towards learning more and more information and new behavior will be inculcated within his system.

What are the types of training techniques?

It can be punishment based; like physical punishment (e.g., tapping nose, smacking), tugging back at lead and heel training, vocal punishments (e.g., speaking in a higher voice, shouting) secondly reward based; food/treat reward, play reward, praise reward, and miscellaneous; like toilet training, placing the dog to sit on its hindquarters, sitting on command, coming on a call, leave/ take up an object, heel training etc.

Conclusion

Once the brain training begins, there is no need to hire any professional trainer to train the dog personally or even taking the dogs to training sessions. This training program can be done in the houses by the owners only if the owner can indulge some time and put a little effort to train his/her dog. The training is a very valuable, useful and trustworthy practice to eradicate and eliminate the bad behavior, to teach complete obedience, to give full love and to boost the intelligence to a higher level, to be able to act faster by listening to the owner’s commands, and many more.

How often should dog get teeth cleaned?