Regular training is a fantastic way to build a bond with your dog. Understanding how your dog learns, and what things they may struggle with can create that bond between dog and owner.

Training can be started at any age. However, it is recommended to start as early as you can. Training your dog at a young age can help to prevent bad habits or behavioural issues before we start seeing them as a problem. This could be things like play biting, chewing, separation anxiety, jumping at yourselves, or guest, resource guarding, or anxiety around people or other dogs. However, it's never too late to train an older dog. You may have adopted an older rescue that needs some help socialising, being left alone or guarding varying resources.

Many behaviours that you teach your dog can benefit your daily lives. For example, a very good recall response. Having a solid recall is vital to ensure your dog is listening to you and comes back when needed. Ideally, your dog should be able to listen no matter the distraction around them and this can be crucial to prevent them running in trouble or even getting lost.

Making training for your dog fun and positive helps to teach new behaviours and with a little time and consistency, you can teach your dog anything! As well as teaching your dog the right behaviours or helping with issues, you need to provide as much mental and physical simulation as possible.

Training your dog is a great source of mental stimulation. Mental simulation can help to prevent your dog from getting bored and showing unwanted behaviours. The nice thing about using training as mental simulation is that you don't just have to do your basic level obedience, for example, sit, down, settle, etc. You can always work on nice fun tricks like spinning, rolling over, walking backwards, and coming to middle. If you keep it fun and positive your dog will engage more in the training and therefore get more out of each session.

Always remember to keep training sessions nice and short, especially with a puppy. Having shorter training sessions will keep your puppy more engaged and prevent them from getting bored or frustrated. Finish sessions on a nice positive note and always remember to progress their exercises based on how well they are getting on.

Charlotte - Behaviour Counsellor

Mental stimulation is such a useful tool at the disposal of any dog owner, whether their furry 
friend is young or old. This is something which is often overlooked by many dog owners but 
can really be the key to success if your pooch is becoming bored, frustrated or even anxious. 

Kongs! 
Kong toys are a fantastic place to start with mental stimulation. Kong as a brand offer a 
fantastic range of products that are designed to stimulate your dog's brain and be more than 
just another chew toy or tennis ball. Kong toys often involve the use of treats and a process 
of working hard to receive the goodies inside. 

A Kong is best stuffed with wet food or treats, the more smelly and tasty the better. Wet is 
best as using dry will be far to easy and only last a couple of minutes before the game is over.
 The longer we can keep our dogs interested in these toys the better, a Kong which lasts an 
hour is the equivalent stimulation of a 45 minute walk!

DIY Mental Stimulation!
You don't have to go out and buy numerous different toys and games to fulfil this brain 
stimulating need, instead, why not make your own. A few ideas include a empty plastic bottle
filled with treats and holes in the side for your dog to try and get them out. This is a cheaper
version of a treat ball, however I wouldn't leave them alone with a bottle, so just make sure 
you keep an eye on them with this one. Another simple idea are doggy ice lollies! You can 
easily make a frozen treat for your dog by putting numerous tasty bits in water and leaving 
them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Your dog will love working their way down to the 
good stuff through the ice.

Top Tip!
The biggest thing to remember when using mental stimulation is to keep it interesting and 
new! If these games are left down with all the other toys all the time then they will quickly 
lose their appeal, once your dog is finished with them, take them up and bring them out 
again later as a treat. Another handy way of keeping them interesting is by changing the 
treats you use inside your mental stimulation games. If you constantly use the same rewards, 
it is likely that your dog will get bored of them and be less inclined to work for them.

George Rooke - Head Behaviour Counsellor