thebigb010 Posted May 21, 2003 Report Share Posted May 21, 2003 I have a 2 year old female BC (we got her as a puppy). She has had no training and I like her that way. DOnt get me wrong she will listen and obey simple commands but for me and my family she is a great pet and that is all we are looking for. I am lucky to have a great deal of land, at first we had her on a leash and eventually decided on a fence. Princess now has a very large yard for herself, about 100'x 50'. This is HER yard, she dig holes, leaves her toys aroung and sometimes completly destroys her stuffed animals leaving the yard looking like it just snowed ( all the stuffing all over the yard). This is fine with us and we sometimes just sit in the living room and are totally entertained just watching her antics. My question is this, I see "Mental Stimulation" mentioned everywhere in this board. Can someone give me some examples of this? What kinds of games other than fetch would you suggest. Like I said I am realy not interested in "Training" her, hell she has trained all of us (and that is just fine) but we would like to have even more fun with her. I have thought about another BC for her to play but I am a bit scared that she will reject a new puppy. Although I have had dogs all my life (some 40+ years) this is not only my first BC but it is my first pure bread dog, I have always had mutts. I will NEVER live without a BC till the day I die. Any suggestions in the "FUN" department would be great. Well now it is time to fight her for the BED, I will most likely loose and end up on the couch (again). G-nite B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie'sMom Posted May 21, 2003 Report Share Posted May 21, 2003 You don't have to engage in more 'formal' obedience or agility training to give your BC some mental stimulation. My puppy LOVES her basic obedience training practice (although the actual class is way too slow for her.) She's also learned to "get your toy", so now we're moving on to naming the toys. She has to work out which toy is which and she thinks it's fun. I also hide toys(with a treat inside) and she looks for them--thinks it's a blast. She started catching her Kong when we were playing retrieve games ( her all time favorite games by the way) so that got me onto toys that were meant to be caught, like frisbees. I guess what I'm saying is that just about anything the dog shows an interest in and is just beyond his current abilities is enough to 'mentally stimulate' the dog. If you watch your dog and what he likes, you can probably invent lots of games for him to play. I haven't investigated the more formal games yet because she's still so young, but she would probably love flyball or agility when she's older. I don't think I'd compete, but she'd love the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diane allen Posted May 22, 2003 Report Share Posted May 22, 2003 Anything that makes the dog think counts. And yes,they can "think" in a doggie-sort of way. "Commands" can be anything you can think of: find a certain toy, put the toy in a certain place, pick the XX toy out of the pile of three (I got similar toys shaped like a square, triangle and ring for this!), turn right, turn left, wave or high five, weave between your legs in a figure eight, go out around a XX (tree, barrel, fill in the blank) and come around, find anything you hide, etc.. All of these involve physical activity as well, so its not like the dog is sitting at a desk "thinking" abstract thoughts! Your imagination is the limit! Its fun to give a dog choices and watch them figure out what it is you really want. They can do it! And its great to see the light bulb go on. My two cents' worth... diane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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