Thursday, January 7, 2010

Puzzling the dog

We've only been back in Minneapolis a few days, and already Dempsey seems stir-crazy. We've been playing a lot of hide and seek in the house, but Dempsey really seems to miss his long walks.

Our instructor told us that exercise is not the only way to tire out a dog; mental stimulation also works well to wear out an energetic little puppy. She mentioned a doggie puzzle she bought for her own dog, but being cheap -- Doreen says: "frugal" -- we balked at the $50 price tag.

Instead, we've created our own little puzzles for Dempsey: complicated retrieves. Dempsey really does seem to enjoy figuring out the best way to retrieve an object, and he works very hard at it. It's great training for his job, though we're sad to report that it doesn't seem to tire him out very much. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit soon; we're all looking forward again to our long walks.














1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree with you about the lack of exercise, Paul! Perhaps a puppy play date soon is in order?

    Somer and Sawyer

    ReplyDelete