In the past, due to the epidemic, many owners were afraid to go out. Even if they took their dogs for a walk, they only dared to go out for a short time and did not dare to stay outside for too long. There was no way to allow their dogs to spend enough time outside. It's a good stroll, but humans will become depressed if they stay at home for too long, let alone an energetic dog!
Fortunately, there are many educational toys for dogs now, such as snuffle mats, hide and seek treat toys, etc., which can consume your dog's energy and relieve stress through the action of sniffing at home.
For owners who are new to related dog educational toys, the following article will introduce snuffle mats, hide and seek treat toys and other dog educational toys to help owners choose the most suitable toys for their furry children at home.
Dogs have been stuck at home for too long due to the epidemic and have no place to vent their energy, which can easily lead to depression.
Pet Toys: Snuffle mats
Studies have pointed out that every time a dog lowers his head to sniff, his brain will continuously analyze the smell. Such brain stimulation makes sniffing for ten minutes equal to the energy consumed by walking for an hour.
But for parents who are exhausted when they get home from work and have no time to take their dogs out for sniffing, or for those whose furry children are inconvenient or older, how can we create an indoor environment at home through sniffing games? What about the gym, to exercise your brain and burn off your energy?
This problem is solved! There are snuffle mats with different functions and different levels of difficulty on the market. As long as you hide snacks in the snuffle mat, your furry child can easily revive his sniffing instinct at home.
Simulated mushroom snuffle mat. Many dogs love playing with it.
How exactly do you use a snuffle mat?
Since many dogs are interested in staring lovingly at their owners all day long, they forget to use their sense of smell to search for hidden snacks in order to prevent them from seeing them.
After we took out the snacks, we needed to spy on each other and secretly hide the snacks in the gaps and pockets of the snuffle mat.
Next, guide the dog to explore the snuffle mat. Some naughty or impatient dogs may want to tear the mat at this time, so timely teaching is necessary.
When the dog that finds the treasure eats the snack, it will automatically be strengthened and encouraged by the snack, and its self-confidence will be cultivated unconsciously. Of course, high praise from parents will also be a bonus!
The brightly colored snuffle mat can be unfolded or folded for multiple ways of playing. Dogs will also like it.
Which dogs are suitable for snuffle mat?
In fact, the snuffle mat is suitable for most dogs. Whether they are large dogs, small dogs, puppies, or elderly dogs, they should all like to play with it. Especially dogs who are often alone at home, have separation anxiety problems, or whose owners are too busy to go out for frequent walks.
These types of dogs are very suitable and need to use snuffle mat, which can not only relieve anxiety, but also achieve the purpose of relaxing the body and mind and burning off energy. In addition, if your dog has a problem with eating too fast, the snuffle mat can also be used as a slow feeding bowl.
But if the dog is very destructive, you need to spend time teaching it to let the dog know that each toy is played differently, and not all toys are just for biting.
Let him know that the snuffle mat is like going out to sniff the lawn. After placing it first, let the dog walk over and smell it. Step by step, lead him to use his nose and tongue to get the food, and stop him in a timely manner.
However, some medium and large dogs are too playful and cannot be controlled at all. It is recommended to buy dog toys that are both food-hiding and bite-resistant. The food placed can be relatively sticky wet food (such as canned dog food, etc.). It falls out easily and takes a lot of energy from the dog.
Popular brands that are bite-resistant and can hide food: SodaPup and KONG, both with strict quality control and strong safety. Super bite-resistant and can hide food, most suitable for destructive dogs.
It should also be noted that when using snuffle mats or food hiding toys for dogs of different ages, the difficulty and gameplay need to be adjusted according to the situation.
To choose the difficulty of the snuffle mat, you can look at the depth of the food bag, or whether there are other challenges besides sniffing (such as hiding the food bag in another bag, etc.)
MewooFun Anti-Worry Hidden Food Big Burger: The burger can be layered and food can be hidden in the layers of vegetables and burgers
If it is a younger puppy, it is recommended to hide the snacks in an easy-to-find place. It will be easier to find and increase their self-confidence. For older dogs, you can hide them more secretly and add a snuffle mat difficulty of gameplay.
What are the benefits of using a sniffing pad?
Snuffle mat training/obedience
Smart parents can make good use of snuffle mats to teach their dogs commands and review obedience. For example, before preparing for a game, you have to "sit down" and only when you hear "GO" can you start playing. But some busy parents may be too lazy to teach, so the next benefit is that it allows you to busy yourself.
Develop concentration
The snuffle mat can help the dog focus on the sniffing game, and once played, the dog will forget about his parents. Of course, while the dog is busy hunting for treasures, you can also comb it, apply medicine, clean its ears and other activities that dogs usually don't like very much, and this just happens to be strengthening it!
You can try to imagine combing the knotted dog hair while playing your favorite sniffing game. In the future, the dog will not be so resistant to combing.
Snuffle pad replaces Slow Feed products to end overeating
Modern dogs open their mouths when they eat, and the hunting genes in their blood may have been almost forgotten. The gluttonous ones even swallow the dates without any scruples, finishing a meal in 30 seconds with big mouthfuls.
Making good use of the snuffle mat can make the dog's meal time naturally and happily lengthen, reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, maintain health and live slowly, and save the number of doctor visits in the future!
Consume physical strength
10-15 minutes of sniffing consumes as much energy as walking for an hour! For hyperactive children or parents who have no time to walk their dogs, let the dogs use their brains at home to help consume a lot of physical energy and stabilize the emotions of not having enough play or exercise, so that excess energy will not cause destruction, and the cute pets will become pig teammates XD
Dogs playing with snuffle mats have many benefits. It not only relieves stress and consumes energy, but also cultivates dogs' concentration.
To sum up, the benefits of using a snuffle mat are to awaken your dog's sniffing instinct. Regardless of age or size, you can easily enjoy the fun of sniffing at home!
Just watching the furry kids happily hunting for treasures will make the corners of human mouths turn up inadvertently. Parents who love furry kids, hurry up and buy a snuffle mat to heal your body, mind and soul.
Hide and seek treat toys, leaking food balls and treat mazes
In addition to the snuffle mats introduced earlier, similar methods include hide and seek treat toys, leaking food balls, treat mazes and other dog educational toys, all of which use snacks as inducements.
The leaking food ball can stuff snacks into the rolling ball for dogs to chase. The materials are usually durable and environmentally friendly nylon and rubber; harder nylon will make a chirping sound to attract dogs, while rubber will be quieter and will not make noise. Neighbor.
Compared with snuffle mats, leaking food balls are smaller in size and can be taken away by dogs at any time. They also come in many cute shapes. The treat maze is a more difficult educational toy for dogs, and it can also effectively consume the dog's energy.
Although the three dog toys all use snacks as incentives, the amount of exercise and difficulty are very different. You should choose the most suitable toy according to the condition of the dog at home.
Leaking food balls can increase the amount of chasing exercise
Hide and seek treat toys vs. snuffle mats
Amount of exercise
In terms of the amount of exercise, from the largest to the smallest, they are leaking food balls > snuffle mat > hide and seek treat toys. Because the leaking food ball will roll around, the dog will need to chase it and push it with his mouth while waiting for the snack to fall, so the amount of exercise will be the largest. Also, because the gameplay is simple and intuitive, it is quite suitable for energetic puppies.
Although snuffle mats and hide and seek treat toys do not seem to require much exercise and will not let dogs run around, they are high-intensity mental activities, so they can also consume a lot of energy in the process of sniffing. .
Among them, the amount of exercise on the snuffle mat is higher than that of the hide and seek treat toy, because the dog needs to keep turning in circles during the sniffing process, and the amount of exercise is actually no less than that of the leaking food ball.
Dogs get more exercise playing with leaking food balls than with snuffle mats and hide and seek treat toys.
Difficulty
The simplest of these three toys are leaking food balls and hide and seek treat toys, because the place where snacks are hide and seek is not too secretive, and the gameplay is relatively simple.
As long as the leaking food ball is rolled or the dog presses it with its mouth, the snacks will fall out, and the places where hide and seek treat toys can be hidden are also limited. Relatively speaking, snuffle mats have more difficulty variations. The mat you choose will have different levels of difficulty depending on how you hide the food.
In addition, if your dog is quite smart, you can challenge a more difficult treat maze educational toy. This type of dog educational toy is designed so that you need to go through certain steps to find the snacks hidden inside.
It will be a big challenge for a dog that is coming into contact with it for the first time, so you should also choose educational toys based on the dog's condition. If the dog at home is more likely to give up easily or is not so greedy, it may not be suitable for high difficulty levels treat maze.
Outward Hound educational maze toy series. Dog maze puzzle toys are relatively difficult, and the owner needs to be nearby to give appropriate reminders.
