The Importance of Mental Stimulation

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!