Inspiration Needed For Brain Train

[JustJamAA]

Hey,

 

My female 4 year old Grey:

 

1) gets bored very easily

2) has a very low attention span

3) but also, 'gives up' easily

4) is very food motivated

 

 

My husband says she's just a total diva, haha.

 

Any bordom breaker / brain train games you can think of that might suit her?

 

thanks!

 

[DocsDoctor]

A party trick/ fun game I taught my old guy Doc was a doggy version of the old "Hunt the Lady" card trick. You need three small containers (mugs, patty tins, yoghurt pots) and a treat. Turn them upside down, and show your girl that you are hiding the treat underneath one of them. Then swirl them around on the floor until she gets confused as to which is which. Then invite her to "find the treat". She will soon learn that she can do this by sniffing the pots.

 

In my experience lots of short training sessions work better than one long one. Bear in mind too that greyhounds were bred to be independent hunters, unlike say gundogs or sheepdogs who were always bred to want to work with people. So they are less "trick-minded," in my experience, though for sure they need to learn the commands that will keep them safe - come, stay, bed, etc. Again, something I found helpful with my first greyhound was to attend a mixed-breed obedience class with a good, positive trainer. We had fun and it was a greyt way for him to learn about other breeds and me to learn about dog body language in a controlled setting.

 

Also - is she getting out enough? Needing more exercise? Both Doc and Ken (my current greyhound) would agree that the best and most interesting antidote to boredom is a nice walk!

 

And do a search on Greytalk for "lure poles" - greyhounds love these and they are a greyt way for them to get the kind of short, intensive burst of exercise they also love..

[JohnF]

Walk in a new place and/or different time of day. You'll know when they're interested as they want to lead the walk.

[krissy]

For dogs that give up too easily and need to build some resilience, or dogs that don't understand the concept of offering behaviours and "trying", I really like 100 Things With A Box. It can be a little bit of a difficult one to get started on for some of the retired racers... I find a lot of them are not especially curious (but again, this is something that we can encourage and build) so it sometimes takes a bit of extra creativity and patience.

 

As you will see in the video, the idea is to provide no instruction. We're not luring or asking for a behaviour. We're just letting them offer behaviours with the box and any interaction with the box earns them a reward. It encourages them to keep trying because the rate of reinforcement is very high. Now, with the racers I do find that in the beginning that I sometimes have to encourage them to investigate the box just to get them going. Sometimes I even have to throw treats in and around the box to get them going to the box, and then once they eat all the treats and go back to look for more then I can start the exercise for real.

 

Box exercise is at the end of this video. The other exercises are certainly useful as well. The set of 3 is what I use for lesson number one in my basic obedience.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sN18pcmDrg

[Roo]

Those treat snuffle mats are great (or so I hear) for dogs who love food but aren't too motivated to work for it. It's fairly easy, but does take sniffing and nosing around to get the treats.

 

The box game is also a great one!

 

And yes, walk walk walk. Walks are the best for engaging the snoot in some sniffing exercise.

[XTRAWLD]

Great vid Kristie! Oh Kenna is so big now!

[JustJamAA]

thanks for your responses! They sound great.

 

Yes she gets plenty of walks and physical activity overall, although at the moment she's got a poorly paw, so she's on bed rest - hence why trying to keep her entertained but still rested in the house.

 

thanks