Would you like your dog to focus more on what you're saying to them on a walk? Who doesn't!?
Would you like to tire your dog out more so they are more settled when you get home? Who doesn't!
My dog Max is tennis ball mad - but did you know that launching a tennis ball for your dog to chase over and over might not be very good for them? I made the switch from repetitive chase games, to sniffing games. He still moves around a lot, still gets to play with me and his favourite toy, but in a much calmer way. This means he is also a lot calmer.
Doing lots of fast pace exercise can wind dogs up so they find it difficult to calm themselves down. It also creates athletes who need more and more exercise to tire them out! Free roaming dogs, even if they do hunt, will only likely do one or two chases of something, not over and over and over again.
By introducing more mental stimulation your dog will be mentally tired out from satisfying an important natural behaviour.
Plus, the way we introduce the sniffing games in this video build up self control, and use the Premack Principle. The Premack Principle is the concept of using environmental/life rewards to reinforce behaviour. Like being allowed ice cream if you eat all your vegetables. Or being able to go and play on the computer after doing the washing up.
Learning to calmly wait and listen are really helpful skills for dogs to learn to improve their recall and connection, and build impulse control.
Give it a go with your dog!
Music by Coma Studio, Chilled Ambient Minimal pixabay.com/music/upbeat-chil...
Outro music by Denys_Brodovskyi, Ethereal Vistas pixabay.com/music/beats-ether...