by Heidi Atwood
Puppies are busy! They have a full schedule of training sessions, meals, walks, potty breaks, and playing - and hopefully, a lot of naps. Puppies also get overstimulated very easily and very quickly when they are tired, or even when they are fully rested and are focused on something exciting. This can lead to classic signs of overstimulation such as biting, barking, nipping, jumping, growling, and the “zoomies”. Since young puppies require a lot of rest, up to 16-18 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, quite often they become overstimulated simply because they are tired.
To help your pup settle down for a nap or at bedtime, tiring out their brain is quite often the missing piece. Puppies usually get a lot of exercise just by being puppies, so we want to provide mental exercises as well to help bring down their energy levels and encourage calmness. What can we do to keep a puppy occupied in calm ways? Challenging their brain is important for development, and is very helpful for helping them settle down for some much-needed rest.
Here are some examples of mentally stimulating activities:
Short Training Sessions
Stuffed Kongs
Lick mats
Snuffle Mats
West Paw Toppl’s
Slow feed bowls
Food puzzles
Frozen pup pops
Non-food-related mental stimulation:
Teaching them to clean up toys
Jungle gyms
Digging pits
Toys that challenge them without food, such as a ball puzzle cube or a “hide the squirrel” type of toy
Hiding their favorite toys and sending them to find them
Scent work
I like to increase the challenge by freezing my stuffed Kongs, lick mats, and Toppl’s. I use just a small amount of soft food on and in these items, and using your pup’s own moistened kibble is a great way to give them some of their daily food allotment without the worry of overfeeding your puppy. Freezing these items makes them last longer, and also makes it easier for the handler to grab an item out of the freezer when they first notice a puppy’s energy level rising. A slow-feed bowl can be made into a very long-lasting and mentally challenging meal by moistening the food and freezing the whole bowl. This is a great way to keep your pup occupied during your own mealtimes.
Getting energy “OUT” isn’t usually helpful, because as puppies run around and play, their energy levels are actually rising and this can create even more overstimulation and excitement. It is helpful to keep activities low-key, especially as bedtime approaches, to help your puppy settle down for the night.
If you have kids, you have seen them focusing on their homework in the evening, and you have probably noticed that the brainwork exhausts them. Let’s give our pups the equivalent of a page of math problems to help tire out their brain, which will also help them relax. Just like reading to children before bedtime, mental stimulation can be very calming. We’re never going to tell our kids to stop reading so many books!
Mental stimulation can be a helpful way to keep a puppy thinking throughout their lifetime. I still give my 11 and 13 year old dogs lick mats and stuffed Kongs because they love them, and why not keep an older dog’s brain sharp as well?
New baby in the house? Rely on mental stimulation to keep your pup busy with positive activities that will encourage calmness and rest, especially during times when you are busy elsewhere, and your pup is getting a bit less of your attention.
Make it easier on yourself! You don’t need to entertain your puppy all day long, so help them learn to amuse themselves in positive ways that will also help with brain development, and help them get the rest they need. It’s a win-win!
This has solved a big mystery for me. My 4 year old golden doodle, a pandemic puppy, was never socialized properly and was so alert to every thing I did that as a puppy he never napped properly. So he is what I call hyper alert, with many of the habits you mentioned in this blog. Being older has diminished them somewhat, and when it is just the two of us he is a great companion. But it is so helpful to better understand why he is the way he is. Thank you
Can you give some suggestions for lick mats or kongs other than peanut butter? I freeze peanut butter and banana and put in the woofsicle often, but want to know some other recommendations so she doesn't tire of it. I've also tried yogurt and blueberries in them, however, she does tire of it at times. However, the peanutbutter is always a hit!