# Best bordom buster toys and chews



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

He needs much much much much more brain work. I don't necessarily walk my dogs every day since my neighborhood does not have sidewalks and people drive like crazy through it, so if we don't go in daylight we don't go. They get a few good romps in the yard, but the main thing they do all get every day is training that involves nearly everything they do. Their egress and entry to the house is under orders. Their access to food is under orders. They all practice position work every day more than once a day. To be allowed to play with a toy there has to be attentive obedience before the toy is released back to the dog in question. Without making a specific time for training sessions we do tons of training and nobody chews anything inappropriate or runs amok in the house. None of them has been confined in ages, including Javelin who has had free run of the house since he was about 7 months old.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Sounds to me as if he is bored, bored, bored, and is unlikely to get less so as he heads into adolescence. I would up the exercise AND do all the training Lily suggests AND, if he doesn't find chewing interesting, provide things he does enjoy - things he can tear, dig, or take apart. A ball pit, perhaps, with a few treats hidden in it. A bundle of old cloths loosely tied up together. Hide treats around for him to hunt for and find. You mention that you walk/play in the mornings - what happens when you get home? If you cannot afford a professional dog service, is there a neighbour who could play with him for awhile during the day? Eight hours is a long time for a healthy Spoo puppy to sit around patiently doing nothing - he is inevitably going to look for ways to entertain himself...


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## Dina (Jan 24, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> He needs much much much much more brain work. I don't necessarily walk my dogs every day since my neighborhood does not have sidewalks and people drive like crazy through it, so if we don't go in daylight we don't go. They get a few good romps in the yard, but the main thing they do all get every day is training that involves nearly everything they do. Their egress and entry to the house is under orders. Their access to food is under orders. They all practice position work every day more than once a day. To be allowed to play with a toy there has to be attentive obedience before the toy is released back to the dog in question. Without making a specific time for training sessions we do tons of training and nobody chews anything inappropriate or runs amok in the house. None of them has been confined in ages, including Javelin who has had free run of the house since he was about 7 months old.


Lily cd re could you give me some examples what you mean by the training. We almost always will ask him to sit, stay, or leave it when giving him food, having him go out the door, playing with a toy, tossing a ball or toy and having him wait until we release him from stay or leave it. 

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## Dina (Jan 24, 2016)

fjm said:


> Sounds to me as if he is bored, bored, bored, and is unlikely to get less so as he heads into adolescence. I would up the exercise AND do all the training Lily suggests AND, if he doesn't find chewing interesting, provide things he does enjoy - things he can tear, dig, or take apart. A ball pit, perhaps, with a few treats hidden in it. A bundle of old cloths loosely tied up together. Hide treats around for him to hunt for and find. You mention that you walk/play in the mornings - what happens when you get home? If you cannot afford a professional dog service, is there a neighbour who could play with him for awhile during the day? Eight hours is a long time for a healthy Spoo puppy to sit around patiently doing nothing - he is inevitably going to look for ways to entertain himself...


When we get home i will take him for another half hour walk, and play some fetch. In the house we will work on training while dinner is cooking usually 20-30 mins with some play in between. 

We have left him a box that he enjoys ripping up that kept him occupied yesterday, which i am totally fine with. 

I think he may have a little bit of separation anxiety as he will whine as we leave him. Each day is the same routine as to when we leave, and we do not make a big fuss about leaving, just a "be good buddy" as we leave, but he will whine as soon as he sees the garage. And when we come home he starts this really high pitched excited whines. We put him into a lay down until he is calmer before we pet him now. He is doing better and i am sure he will get used to being alone as he had before.

I was just hoping to get some advice on what kind of toys or chews people leave there spoos. He has made big improvement from monday to this friday and it could be that i incorporated that fetch play as i had not before. 

He also loves large unstuffed toys but i am yet to find a big one for my little guy. 

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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Dina said:


> Lily cd re could you give me some examples what you mean by the training. We almost always will ask him to sit, stay, or leave it when giving him food, having him go out the door, playing with a toy, tossing a ball or toy and having him wait until we release him from stay or leave it.
> 
> Sent from my HUAWEI G7-L03 using Tapatalk


In addition to the sit, down, wait and stay that you are doing you can teach tricks, especially those that help your dog to focus towards you. I would suggest touch a target, touch your hand, spin, roll over and things along those lines too. Another good one is "its yer choice" which you can Google and you will see many variations of on YouTube. Its yer choice teaches attention and is good for impulse control. If you look in the thread, Javelin's Road to Ring Ready, you will see some games I use for ring attention, but that I also do at home, particularly the Five Cookie game and something I call "With Me." I also do little things like rally sign exercises all the time with each of my three. Before releasing to his food, don't just ask for a sit but instead chain together sit down sit then advance it to sit down sit stand down stand. Increase the duration of the behaviors you require before the release.

As an aside, but related, this morning I judged a couple of hours worth of utility match runs at my club. Yesterday we invited the people from my current beginners class to come watch and one of the folks did. I had a chance to talk to her for a minute in between dogs and she told me her dog was very tired when he got home from class yesterday (which she was happy for). My comment to her was that I wasn't surprised since he had worked very hard in class. Not only did he work for his owner, but I made him do a bunch of things. I used him since I wanted to show how to teach rather than using Lily to show how it looks after the dog gets good at the thing we were doing. As we all know, a tired dog is a good dog. I personally advocate for mental fatigue over physical fatigue. The brain uses lots of energy and all the more so when well exercised. If the dog has tons of running with little thinking their minds will still be racing and they will have a hard time turning off and relaxing. Not much running but lots of thinking will put them into a deep sleep with little prompting as happened for my student's dog yesterday.


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## Dina (Jan 24, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> In addition to the sit, down, wait and stay that you are doing you can teach tricks, especially those that help your dog to focus towards you. I would suggest touch a target, touch your hand, spin, roll over and things along those lines too. Another good one is "its yer choice" which you can Google and you will see many variations of on YouTube. Its yer choice teaches attention and is good for impulse control. If you look in the thread, Javelin's Road to Ring Ready, you will see some games I use for ring attention, but that I also do at home, particularly the Five Cookie game and something I call "With Me." I also do little things like rally sign exercises all the time with each of my three. Before releasing to his food, don't just ask for a sit but instead chain together sit down sit then advance it to sit down sit stand down stand. Increase the duration of the behaviors you require before the release.
> 
> As an aside, but related, this morning I judged a couple of hours worth of utility match runs at my club. Yesterday we invited the people from my current beginners class to come watch and one of the folks did. I had a chance to talk to her for a minute in between dogs and she told me her dog was very tired when he got home from class yesterday (which she was happy for). My comment to her was that I wasn't surprised since he had worked very hard in class. Not only did he work for his owner, but I made him do a bunch of things. I used him since I wanted to show how to teach rather than using Lily to show how it looks after the dog gets good at the thing we were doing. As we all know, a tired dog is a good dog. I personally advocate for mental fatigue over physical fatigue. The brain uses lots of energy and all the more so when well exercised. If the dog has tons of running with little thinking their minds will still be racing and they will have a hard time turning off and relaxing. Not much running but lots of thinking will put them into a deep sleep with little prompting as happened for my student's dog yesterday.


Thanks! I do, do tricks such as sit pretty, bow, rollover, bark, quite, wave, jump up, spin, crawl, off/out and up/on/in furniture or in the car, touch (whether it be my hand or a spot im pointing to) leash manors, off leash training, fetch and take it/leave it and drop it. He knows quite bit. Not all of them perfectly but he is getting better each day. This morning i did a half hour of trick and obedience training. As well as i left him with quite a few chews and toys . I was able to leave this morning with no barking or whining. Nor did he try to follow me out the door. I guess we will find out in a few hours how that went. 

I also will play "find it" where he either has to find me or my husband. Or use his nose to find some treats placed around the house. 

I would really like to get him into agility or some sort of sport but am unable to at this time due to the cost unfortunately. I have however been trying to teach him to weave through my legs and he has mastered jumping over small jumps (made from pillows ect) 

He is very intelligent, maybe even too smart haha. I am hoping to teach him how to close doors. I thought about teaching him how to open them as well but not until he can be trusted 100% in every room. 

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## Dina (Jan 24, 2016)

Typically i will do some trick/obedience training for 10 mins minimum before we leave, and about 3x 10-15 mins once we are home

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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It sounds like you know what to do. Just make sure you up the game as he gets better at things to increase the challenges. Ask for longer duration of behaviors and increase the distractions. Everything will just get better and better.

As to a sport I would suggest that you think about rally. It can cost virtually nothing to get going. You can get a book with the signs or download them with the descriptions of what you do and all you would need to be able to practice at home is a few cones and a jump or two. I think there is even an app if you have an iPhone. It is easy to make jumps yourself. You can find directions online and you can get the PVC pipe and fittings you need at a big box home improvement store. I only took rally classes for the social experience, not to learn what to do.


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## Theo'sMom (Mar 23, 2011)

With my high energy pup bully sticks definitely helped. He also loved playing with other dogs and meeting neighbors. I don't know how I would've survived without Thelma, the lab puppy who was exactly the same age. They played for about a year and a half and then she moved away. We also had a poodle puppy play date in my yard, which is fenced in. I happened to meet other red std poodles, who were close in age to my puppy, on a local rail trail. Can you schedule a puppy play date with someone, once or twice a week?


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## Dina (Jan 24, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> It sounds like you know what to do. Just make sure you up the game as he gets better at things to increase the challenges. Ask for longer duration of behaviors and increase the distractions. Everything will just get better and better.
> 
> As to a sport I would suggest that you think about rally. It can cost virtually nothing to get going. You can get a book with the signs or download them with the descriptions of what you do and all you would need to be able to practice at home is a few cones and a jump or two. I think there is even an app if you have an iPhone. It is easy to make jumps yourself. You can find directions online and you can get the PVC pipe and fittings you need at a big box home improvement store. I only took rally classes for the social experience, not to learn what to do.


Thanks for the great idea! I will definitely give it a shot. 

The last two days have been great! I come home to no messes including potty messes and destroying item messes. Hopefully we can keep this up! Also no whining as we leave except for this morning... i guess we will see tonight if he has gotten into any thing.



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