HOW TO KEEP THE CANINE & HUMAN MIND ACTIVE
Are you bored? Is your dog? People ask me how to keep their young dogs stimulated. Older dogs, too, but puppies do need activities to keep them from chewing the chair leg or your favorite shoe. Now, I’m not a trainer like my friends mentioned below. But I am a holistic health coach and dog mom, so I recognize mind/body balance as a big part of well-being. In my dog wellness guide, I’ve got a section on mental stimulation. Fetch it from the home page - it’s free.
As we age, we lose our cognitive function if we don’t engage enough. Use it or lose it. That’s part of why the isolation of seniors is problematic. There are links between depression and cognitive decline, too. If we remain curious and work on mental and social fitness along with physical fitness, we’re in better shape. The same goes for our dogs.
Exercise and social time are key. If you’re reading this, you likely have a dog, so your dog takes you on walks everyday, right? Okay, maybe YOU take them, but in our life, dog is king (or prince) and our dog decides the route most days.
But what else? What about between walks, on a rainy day, if daycare isn’t an option for the pups?
Dogs and people both do well to include some brain games. I’ve got some funny images in my head right now of people eating frozen kongs and playing tug of war with their teeth, but of course what I mean for humans is more along the lines of crossword puzzles and Trivial Pursuit. We’ll leave the kongs and chew toys for the dogs.
So, while you do your puzzle, some other tools and toys to engage Fido are:
Snuffle mats
Kongs to freeze stuffed with treats and peanut butter or cream cheese (be mindful of your dog’s tolerance for rich foods)
Lick mats with plain yogurt spread on them
Bully sticks - not too often (also very rich - the kind of thing that can lead to pancreatitis)
Raw meaty bones (on a towel)
Puzzle toys in which to hide treats
Weeble wobble feeder by Kong to put food nuggets in to make meal-time more fun
A few thoughts on food and cognition:
Lion’s Mane mushrooms have been shown to benefit us as well as our dogs in terms of cognitive function. You can find them in powder form for dogs or humans. There’s also mushroom coffee - for us, not them. Gingko biloba helps brain health, too. And so do omega 3 fatty acids that we and our dogs can get from sustainable seafood, fish oil, green lipped mussel powder, and safe algae oil.
Now for what’s NOT great for brain health - sugar, alcohol, simple carbs. This applies to dogs, too, though they should never get alcohol.
Also for dogs - It’s best not to leave food out all day. If you ever boarded your dog, that would make it tough with other dogs stealing their food. Plus you may need to put supplements in food with age and want to make sure your dog eats them.
If your dog is a grazer, adding a topper to the food would entice them more - Honest Kitchen and Stella & Chewy’s have good, healthy options, for instance. Also, some gently cooked veggies and chicken, beef or turkey could add value as could an egg or sardine.
We now know that grazing all day isn’t great for longevity - another reason to feed our dogs (and ourselves) at specific times.
A multi-pronged approach to nurturing the genius in your dog might bring you closer and keep you together for longer. After all, we’ve all got more will to live when there’s something to look forward to everyday versus staring blankly at a wall. Remember that their minds need stimulation as well as their bodies. Three walks a day is great as is jogging with you, playing in the dog park, or daycare for dogs who like that, but dogs also like puzzle toys, rotation of other toys, frozen kongs, antlers, nylabones or appropriate bones to occupy them. Plus bonding time with you from tug of war to belly rubs. In our case, we also add in a little safe doggie massage with acupressure points as well as daily physical rehab exercises from a program designed by my dog’s physical rehab vet since he has some back pain and arthritis.
A well-exercised dog – both body and mind – is a dog who sleeps like a log most of the time. If your dog can’t settle at night, consider what might be going on and discuss with your vet –
sundowning with age,
fleas or insect bites,
uncomfortable temperature,
an uncomfortable bed (some dogs benefit from orthopedic beds),
some plug-in scent is overwhelming them,
unsettling outside noise (white noise machine can help),
they’re in pain or discomfort from aging, achy joints – consider CBD & other supps - or something requiring vet attention,
they’ve got to go out to the bathroom because they drank too much before bed or have an undiagnosed condition like diabetes, for instance,
high-pitched sounds are bugging them from the fridge or WIFI,
some artificial light is shining in their eyes,
seasonal allergies have them feeling itchy,
their stomach is upset from something they ate,
they didn’t release enough energy,
or you’ve changed their schedule and confused them a bit.
Now, that rest is extremely important for our dogs’ cognitive function (and overall well-being) just like ours. It’s when we all detox and rejuvenate. Ever heard of the glymphatic system? During sleep, certain enzymes remove brain cell damage caused by free radicals. Lack of sleep prevents brains from functioning normally because of neurotransmitters and neurons that can’t regenerate. And our dogs need even more sleep than we do…as you probably guessed by their afternoon siestas.
Dr. Brian Hare, Co-Founder of Dognition & Director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center teaches a course called Dog Cognition & Emotion that I took years ago. He authored The Genius of Dogs. Along with other canine scientists and trainers, he created the Dognition Assessment: interactive games and analyses that teach us how our dogs see the world. By understanding our dogs’ minds, we build deeper connections. Their website says: “The Dognition Assessment provides a window into your dog's individual cognitive style — the thinking, learning, and problem-solving strategies that influence much of your dog's behavior. You'll play science-based games that assess 5 core dimensions of your dog's cognition — empathy, communication, cunning, memory, and reasoning.” Hmm. Our dogs can be cunning. Huh. Those little rascals.
Some other resources to speak dog better are ispeakdog.org, any book by Alexandra Horowitz or Stanley Coren, courses by Ian Dunbar, Victoria Stilwell's podcast, and other leaders in dog behavior (and training who focus on positive reinforcement and games-based training.) I learned so much from my friend Rob Haussmann @dogboynyc, founder of dogboynyc.com, who is a great trainer who has been featured on tv and online. He has classes with many benefits like mental stimulation: agility, tricks, scent work, puppy socialization, basic obedience & manners. My friend Sherri Rohde is a certified trainer for games-based work, which is interesting and fun! She can be found @therapydogtalk or at instagram.com/sunnysbestlife with the pawsome Sunny! And my newest friend and colleague Kylie Campbell does wonderful work with dogs as a trainer, and you can find her @art.of.behavior on Instagram. She's fear-free certified and does force-free training and cool videos with her dog Maggie who has a heart-melting frosted face.
If you haven’t grabbed my free dog wellness guide, you can get it from the home page. It has a cognition section with tips and links to products and courses that may be useful. May you and your dog have plenty of engagement, even in the winter months.