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Guide To Australian Shepherd Training & Care

Any Good Brain Game / Mental Stimulation Exercises To Do With An Australian Shepherd?


Hello there, I have a 2-year-old Aussie going on 3, and for the last 6 months I have not really kept up with her mental stimulation portion of her training. Not because I don't have time or don't want to, but simply because I have completely run out of ideas.

I work from my home office so I have a pretty good amount of time everyday to work with her, and I have taught her every trick in the book already from the easy ones: roll over, play dead, crawl, spin, sit pretty, etc... to more advanced stuff like getting a beer from the fridge (which she was doing by 9 months old), cleaning up her toys and putting them in a bin, helping bring in grocery bags, closing doors, etc..

I'm honesty completely out of ideas, and when I do find something to try out, she masters it in like 2 or 3 training sessions (1 training session for the "normal" tricks/activities), these dogs are just too damn smart for their own good. We have already tried things like naming her toys, which she can successfully do for every one that she has, and I've also tried giving her puzzle toys (either bought or created like the muffin tin one) which as soon as she figures out once it is no longer a mental exercise for her.

Any ideas on some activities I can do with her? I feel bad she hasn't been getting the amount of mental exercise she is use too, I want something difficult that can be changed up often so I'm not back to searching again after a week. Any tips/ideas welcome. Thank you!

Comments for Any Good Brain Game / Mental Stimulation Exercises To Do With An Australian Shepherd?

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Brain games
by: Anonymous

Have your Aussie pick up her toys that she names and then place them in her toy box or chest wherever you store them. When she places them INSIDE give her a treat, but only if she places the toy INSIDE the container.

Dog exercise
by: Anonymous

Our Aussie really loves tracking. He is really good at it and we caught it up when we were just hiding candy indoors. Planning on taking it further to tracking humans in the woods. If your dog likes it and you have spare time or can lend your dog, missing people/pets organisations can really use such skills in dogs and the puppers usually love the missions.

Also, obedience training like walk foot, stay and keep still and such in combination with walks seems to be some exercise.

Aussies are really smart so giving them "long missions" like a tracking mission or a long lasting command is also good exercise since it keeps them actively thinking.

Also, something we learned early which is nice. Make sure home / indoors is a "calm zone". No or very calm training indoors only. Preferrably none. When your dog realizes that, it will have an easier time relaxing since its not in "ready mode" cause its used to train indoors. It was a Border Collie owner who mostly trains her dogs intensively, but can also leave them like 1 month without any training who mentioned this.

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