It’s good for puppies to have little challenges to figure out as they grow and develop.

I share with owners that they can use puzzles and food games to keep their puppy’s mind working and busy. Mental stimulation is great for wearing them out (think about the great nap time afterwards!) more than physical exercise, believe it or not! We just want to make sure the puzzle or game is age appropriate. The last thing we want to do is frustrate a puppy.

So at this age, little challenges may include climbing over something or going around something to get a reward.

But first we want to make sure they know how yummy treats, canned food or whatever the reward is.

So I started with a small lick mat/bowl smeared with canned turkey baby food. Then added some canned puppy food. You want the reward for the challenge to be high reward (at least starting out with puppies, I do. )

I challenged them to climb out of the puppy pen with some stuffed toys as “stairs”.

I challenged them to climb over the crinkly sounding cat tunnel and then the stuffed long toy to enjoy some scrumptious food.

Then I put the food on the opposite side of a panel and let the puppies figure out how to get to the food. It was simple. They could see and smell the good through the panel. All they needed to do was walk around the end of the panel to get the food. But since it was their first time so took a little longer than others to figure it out.

Most people would look at these things and think it’s just normal puppy activity. But setting up simple, small challenges is a great learning process for little puppy brains to be a tad bit frustrated at first, then learn to figure out the “answer” to the challenge.

It’s so much fun watching their little brains work.

Here’s a video I did (or redid because I didn’t have my camera ready as the action unfolded). I had placed Blizzard back in the litter box because he acted like he was going to potty on the floor. He wanted back out of the puppy pen and went to the corner of the litter box by the door but whined with frustration because he couldn’t easily get over the container corner. It only took about thirty seconds for him figure out if he went to the cut down opening of the potty box he could easily exit. Which is exactly what he did then joined his litter mates back on the floor. Cavapoos are such smart dogs!

https://youtube.com/shorts/e8sbLEjduio?si=LT5PHApJZcJyenXB

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