Mischief Monday - The Cold Continues

Dear pals,

We have had another week of extreme cold. It was so cold every morning, we didn't get a proper walk. We limped to get the mail a few times. A few days at lunch it was warm enough to be outside for like 15 minutes before our paws froze.

We have begun to get restless and are driving Lady a little crazy.

We should have started this early because this got us some puzzle time!

                                                      

The real mischief is the treats Lady put in the purple puzzle were too big to get out! 

After a good try, Lady took the treats out and let me have them! 

Keeping Active During The Deep Freeze

Like many of you, we spent most of the 2 weeks post-Christmas in record breaking cold. With the wind, it felt like -40C/F (they feel the same). 

My dogs don't do well in the cold, so we minimize our time outside (sometimes to like 30 seconds, just long enough for business). For the most part they did really well without their daily exercise. We did get 2 lovely days in a row and had long walks, and if the forecast was right, starting yesterday and for the foreseeable future, it should be more reasonable temperatures (like closer to freezing).

We have been dusting off our assorted puzzle toys. 

We always talk about how brilliant our girl is (and she is) and we don't give our boy enough credit for being smart. He is also very smart, he is just much quieter about it. He is actually much better at doing puzzles because he isn't as food driven as Hailey and he is focused and careful. 

Hailey is impatient (she is so like me in this regard) and just tries to use brute force to get the treats out.

Phod finished his puzzle first, so he went over and helped Hailey. She was totally fine with this. We are lucky they don't fight over food! He remembered you just had to lift up a piece to get the food. 

Once Phod had enough, Hailey used her force to get the last of the cookies out. 

What is your dog's puzzle strategy?

Tasty Tuesday - Puzzle Time

It was raining on Sunday and Lady didn't feel like doing our usual Sunday walk.  So we did some fun indoor stuff instead.

We played a game of find it, and Lady messed with our minds by hiding the cookies downstairs in the living room and not in the kitchen/dining room.

Then we got puzzles.

It wasn't a walk, but it was a pretty fun wet Sunday afternoon!

Puzzle Time for 4

First, Lee was sassing me in yesterday's picture because I was trying to make her jump (without a cookie) and she didn't want too. It cracked me up that she sassed me as she got into position to jump (and she did jump but because I was laughing at her, I didn't get a good picture).

On Monday, I worked half a day to spend half a day with my parents. I decide part way through the day that the pups all needed puzzles. Tendra and Barley had never had puzzles before.

It went like this:

Hailey happily played with her favourite puzzle the bottle. 

After finishing his puzzles, Phod went over to show the guest how to do a puzzle. 

Tendra took a few minutes, but started to get the idea of it and without Phod's help would have likely done very well.

Barley, well I realize in the chaos I never took a picture of him (I meant to). He just stood around thinking this whole puzzle thing was stupid and no amount of showing or suggesting was going to make him to it.


3/4 dogs give puzzle time 2 paws up!

Training Thursday - A New Puzzle

Last weekend, while out finishing my Christmas shopping I found this:

As I know Santa plans on bringing a lot of gifts, I decided to give it to them right away. [Also we have leant 2 of our other puzzles to our cousin cats Loopy and Panda to try so we are down some puzzles].

Pros:
- I like that at Winner's it was only $15 (nice price)

-I like that it has 2 different types of spots (slid spot and a flip flap)

-I personally prefer the wood to the plastic. I find them to be sturdier than the plastic (and Lee has never tried to chew the wood ones)

-I like that the holes for treats are fairly large so I can use a variety of treats

-Hailey really seems to enjoy it and worked really hard to figure those flaps out!

Phod coming to help

Cons:
-Like all puzzle toys, Hailey figured it out fairly quickly

-It does spin on the floor when Hailey was trying to open it- this may be annoying for some dogs, but we liked it because it made her work harder







While it is still new and we haven't used it too many times, we give it 3.5 paws out of 4. We think it is good value for the money, but worry it may become too easy too quickly.

 _______________
Card Count: In the past 2 days we have gotten 6 - so 41 now for us.
2 still for the people (Lady says there is one she hasn't opened a 3rd as it is with a gift - we think she is stretching for more cards).
2 for all of us

Training Thursday - Review of another puzzle toy

 Today we are talking about the Trixie Move2Win Level 3 puzzle.  This is one of the items I purchased through Amazon.ca after our consult with the behaviourist.

I went with level 3 as Hailey tends to solve things very quickly. Here are our thoughts:

 Pros:
-This is the first puzzle that Hailey has not figured out right away, in fact she hasn't totally figured it out yet. Because it is so challenging to keep her and Phod motivated we put special treats like hot dogs in it.

-It is easy to clean.

-The compartments are larger and you can put a lot of different treats in it (unlike some of our other puzzles that can only hold small treats or kibble).


-As it is a puzzle it doesn't get dragged around our floor as much and isn't as noisy.

-The dogs will share this. There are so many different parts, they can each be working on a different part.

-It holds a lot of treats.

-It takes a while to do (which is good and bad).

Cons:

Another chewed piece

Hailey chewed the rope for pulling

-If not completely supervised, it is easy to destroy (while doing the dishes one day, so in the room but not watching, Hailey chewed 2 parts of it). It is not a puzzle we could leave them with while we are doing other things or out




-The Man says he thinks the plugs are too hard to take out (Lady say this is the point and doesn't find them too hard)

-It may be too challenging for some dogs [Phod often gets frustrated and quits].

Overall, we give it 2.5 paws out of 4.

The biggest drawback for me, is I have to directly supervise them with it. It isn't something I can give them to keep busy while I am cooking or if we had people over. However, it is nice to have something that works Hailey's brain so hard!

Disclaimer: I independently purchased this toy and am sharing my opinions/experience. The company is not aware I am doing this.

Training Thursday - Review of Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug

Hailey swinging her jug

One of the puzzle toys I purchases for Lee was Busy Buddy's Tug-A-Jug. Originally, like all the new puzzle toys, Lee was a little nervous of it, but quickly this became her favourite new toy.

Pros:
-It can hold a lot of food, so if you wanted to use this to replace dish feeding, it would hold a lot.

-So far it has been very durable (mind you, neither of my dogs really throw it around)

-It is easy to fill (the bottom screws off).

-It was fairly easy for Lee to figure out (so if you have a dog new to puzzles, it may be a good place to start)

-Although easy, it only gives a treat or two at a time if the dog is just pulling the rope, so it takes some time to get all the food out.

-The rope makes it easy for Hailey to carry it around

-Hailey loves it!

Cons:

-It is made of plastic, so it is very loud when being played with on our ceramic or laminate floors (thankfully Hailey likes to take it to one of her beds)

-Hailey figured out she could bunch her one bed up and have the cookies pour out, so I have to make sure she doesn't have access to that bed (For some dogs it may be too easy)

-It is a pain to clean. The plastic is ok to clean, but the rope is hard to clean and takes forever to dry (several days) - which means you can't use it for several days. We had one incident when we had company and after Lee had little puzzle time, I put it up, without opening it or checking it. When I went to get it a few days later, due to her saliva and the couple treats left inside, it was growing mouldy and was very gross. [While I admit this was my fault, it is something to keep in mind]

Given the issues with keeping it clean, I give it  3 out of 4 paws.

Note: The opinions expressed in this post are mine. I independently purchased this toy and am sharing my thoughts about it. The company doesn't know I am doing this.

Training Thursday - Review of the IQ ball

One of the new puzzles we got was the IQ treat ball. 

We have had the chance to play with it for over a week and here are our thoughts. Note: these are our thoughts, I independently purchased the ball and am sharing our experience with you. The company is not aware I am doing so. 

First it is Phody who loves this. He will ignore the bottle toy and take this one. When he is done, Hailey will take a turn with this, but she prefers the bottle. At first when presented with the ball, Hailey would just bark at it, she has gotten better with it. 

Pros:

- Easy to fill

- Easy to wash

- It seems durable. There has been no damage yet and both carry it in their mouths; it is generally played with (and therefore dropped) on ceramic; it has been rolled down the stairs onto the laminate floor many times. 

- It appears to dispense treats more easily when the ball is full, which makes it easy for them to figure out. However, as the treats are rolled out, it becomes harder. 

-While this size is large enough that Phod  and Lee won't choke on it but can still pick it up. 

Cons:

- Rolling it on ceramic/laminate is loud. Not the best toy if you want the dogs to be busy and quiet.

- Phod tends to get bored of it before it is empty and takes breaks (which then allows Lee to steal it and eat the food). So it can be hard to tell who has eaten what. [Not ideal if you want to use it to replace feeding and not have the dogs in separate rooms].

- It is a ball and can roll under places the dogs can't reach, meaning I may have to retrieve it or deal with Hailey's barking at it. 

-Hailey will become frustrated with it and bark if she doesn't think it is giving her treats fast enough. 

Overall, the dogs are enjoying it. 

We give it 3/4 paws.

Phod always takes it to the front door to play with. Here he is trying to lick the cookies out.

Rolling it

More rolling