Importance of Mental Stimulation

Mental stimulation is key to keeping your pet happy, engaged, and fulfilled. Unfortunately, many pets aren’t getting this need met, as studies suggest over 70% of dogs exhibit problematic behaviors like hyperactivity and destructiveness, which is frequently the result of boredom. By keeping your pet mentally stimulated, you can keep your pet’s mind sharp, reduce anxiety and stress, enhance your pet’s obedience, strengthen your bond, and support your best friend’s overall health.

To start, many breeds have natural, bred instincts, whether it’s hunting (e.g. Irish Setter), herding (e.g. German Shepherd), or retrieving (e.g. Golden Retriever). Without an outlet for these instincts, pets can resort to negative behaviors to relieve a buildup of energy and stress. Even for dog breeds that weren’t bred with a specific purpose, boredom can lead to the same behaviors.

Engaging in interactive activities and challenges provides several health benefits. Mental stimulation can keep your pet’s mind sharp, improve trainability, and potentially slow cognitive decline as they age. As the saying goes, use it or lose it. Like humans, working on your dog’s cognitive function can help develop their attention, focus, memory, logical thinking, impulse control, and problem-solving skills. Furthermore, mental stimulation can also provide a calming effect and reduce anxiety and stress for your dog.

There are many ways to provide your pet with mental stimulation. Training is easy (and free if you do it yourself!), and we encourage pet owners to at least train their dog basic commands (e.g. sit, stay, leave it, yes, no, and so on). Teaching your dog new tricks is an effective way to stimulate his or her mind, improve cognition, and strengthen your bond. You can also use puzzle toys like P.L.A.Y. Pet Lifestyle and You’s Wobble Ball Enrichment Toy which helps keep your pet engaged as paw and nudge and wobble ball to get the treats out. Chew toys like Ware of the Dog’s Organic Cotton Frog Toy or BetterBone’s HARD Chew for aggressive chewers are also great, as chewing is instinctual. Sniffing, another natural behavior, can be satisfied with scent games like P.L.A.Y. Pet Lifestyle and You’s Coral Cove Snuffle Mat which helps trigger the release of powerful endorphins, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters. In fact, experts say that twenty minutes of sniffing is equivalent to an hour’s walk for a dog’s enrichment.  Interactive games like tug of war with Ware of the Dog’s Rope Knot Toy can improve you and your pet’s bond. Socialization is also great for mental stimulation, so go ahead and venture to the new park that just opened with your pet and let them make some new dog friends.