Canine Learning and Games for the Mind

Canine Enrichment: Brain Games for Dogs

Just like people, dogs also need a variety of activities to make their life more interesting and, at the same time, keep them healthy and happy. Dogs are intelligent animals that, need both physical exercise and mental stimulation. To maintain and improve their health, we must engage their cognitive abilities and challenge them to solve problems.

Dog puzzles, food-filled, treat-dispensing, or interactive dog toys can keep your dog busy for a long time all whilst being fun. Mind-stimulating games do not necessarily require a large budget or a big time commitment on your part, but often a little inventiveness will greatly enrich your dog's life and encourage the efforts of your dog's brain. The snuffle mat game is a great example of a simple way to stimulate your dog's mind while keeping it entertained for a long time.

Dogs that have at least part of their day filled with activities that encourage them to explore and use multiple senses through fun brain games will not only be healthier in the long run (which we talk about below) but will also have less chance of developing dog behaviour problems. Sometimes behavioural issues can appear in the form of anxiety, in other cases, through destructive behaviours such as chewing on furniture, and others still from frustration. Although canine enrichment is not the solution to all behavioural issues, it is a good first step to improving your dog's life—they, just like any intelligent creature, need mental stimulation to be content.

Canine Cognition

Dogs can count. They can also understand more than a hundred words, have high problem-solving skills, or even act deliberately to deceive other animals and people to get dog treats. This was shown by the research of psychologist and leading canine researcher Stanley Coren, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, who confirmed that dogs' mental abilities are approximately at the level of a 2.5-year-old child. 

However, Coren explains that dogs' intelligence varies. Several factors influence canine intelligence, which is divided into three types:

• Instinctive intelligence: what the dog is bred to do

• Adaptive: how well the dog learns from its environment to solve problems

• Working and obedience: the equivalent of ‘school learning’ in humans.

Nevertheless, a very clear indicator of the intelligence of dogs is their ability to understand another species, us humans, so well. Dr Alexandra Horowitz from Barnard College, Columbia University, points out exactly this when she talks about dogs' mental abilities: they are attentive and responsive to humans, which is a clear indicator of extraordinary social cognitive capabilities.

Biopsychosocial Influences on Learning

The intelligence of dogs and their ability to learn, i.e. their trainability, is influenced by numerous factors. Some are biological and often predestined for a dog at birth (for example, the dog's breed). Other factors are psychological, perhaps less noticeable, but equally logical as the biological ones (for example, if a dog is under stress, it will hardly be able to learn well). Finally, environmental and social factors greatly influence a dog's learning ability.

Biological Factors

Genetic Factors: Breed

When we talk about how smart a dog is, we usually mean how trainable they are or how well they perform their job. Their breed can somewhat predict this ability. Breed characteristics dictate what is normal or acceptable for a breed of dog, and selective breeding has resulted in different breeds having different personalities and even instincts, which affect trainability. The shape and structure of the dog can also impact their learning ability; some dogs learn better with visual cues, while others react more successfully to audible ones.

Some breeds are more easily trained than others; for example, the American Kennel Club points out these breeds as highly trainable: Border Collies, Poodles, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Shetland Sheepdogs, and Australian Cattle Dogs, to name a few.

This does not mean that all dogs of these breeds will be equally trainable or that an individual dog of another breed will be less trainable; it means that generally, dogs of those breeds are found to be the most easily trainable. Each dog requires an individual approach and a unique amount of patience. Sometimes even dogs that are quickest to learn come with challenges because just as they learn good things easily, they can learn bad behaviours just as quickly.

Maternal Health

The mother's health during pregnancy greatly impacts the puppies, which is especially evident in their health during the first few weeks of life and later in adulthood. During pregnancy, the mother must; consume quality food, exercise enough, avoid excess stress, and have a strong immune system since she will pass on important antibodies to her puppies to help to build the immune systems of the puppies. The mother's health during pregnancy has a foundational role in the puppy's health, impacting their ability to learn.

Dog’s Physical Health

Just as it is difficult for humans to focus on completing any task if they feel physically weak or in pain, so it is with most dogs. Dogs are often known as stoics who hide their pain; this may be instinct, but it can also be that we are not observant enough. If your dog is struggling to learn, they may be struggling with physical pain.

If your dog is injured or recovering from an illness, ensure you allow plenty of time for rest and accept that they may need tasks or games that are slightly less taxing to the mind for a while.

Nervous System Abilities

The health of the nervous system can also affect the learning process. For example, if the dog can not move between activating the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, it may either be too stressed to learn anything or disengaged.

The sympathetic system controls "fight-or-flight" reactions and prepares the body for physical activity allowing the activities that the mind “wants to do” to be realised. The parasympathetic system regulates "rest and digest" functions. The learning process is more successful and faster when both parts of the nervous system function well and are activated at the right time.

Psychological Factors

Emotional Health

Dogs are unlikely to learn something new or show success in training if they feel an emotional imbalance. Complex emotional regulation doesn't come naturally to every dog, especially not if it has experienced trauma in the past. Emotional regulation skills refer to an individual's ability to influence emotional expression, intensity and length. But although it doesn't come automatically to every dog, they can learn to regulate and control their emotions within their natural limitations. This self-discipline process often requires a lot of work which should be considered when expecting the dog to be more successful in training and mind-stimulating games.

Arousal Level

Arousal is a dog's responsivity to environmental stimuli; their level of arousal can be changed in response to things such as people, other dogs, animals, traffic sounds, etc.

Learning occurs best when our dogs are in the optimal training zone (which you can read more about here). Under-arousal dogs may not engage in training, and dogs that are over-aroused are more likely to have difficulty controlling their behaviour.

When enriching your dog's life with games for the mind, observe your dog's arousal level before and during the game; this is an excellent opportunity to help your dog learn arousal regulation skills.

Type of Attachment Bond With Handler

The psychological and emotional well-being resulting from a strong bond between owner and dog can impact a dog's ability to learn. Our dogs should feel safe and confident, which allows them to focus on the task rather than worry about external factors. For example, dogs that are fearful or experiencing anxiety are less likely to enjoy learning or do so successfully.

Internal Stress

The consequences of prolonged exposure to stress on humans have been the subject of research by numerous scientists for years. But dogs can also suffer from stress, impacting their learning ability.

Signs of stress in dogs include pacing or shaking, whining or barking, yawning, drooling, licking, and changes in body posture. Long-term exposure to stressful situations in dogs can cause shedding, changes in bodily functions, a decrease in the dog's confidence and hiding or avoidance behaviour. A dog that experiences stress will have less energy to devote to learning.

So before introducing engaging in mind games, the dog should be removed from stress triggers and allowed enough space to calm down.

Social factors

The social environment of dogs affects their emotions and psychological state and, consequently, their readiness to engage in games and learning. Dogs assess the situation in their surroundings and act on what they perceive with the skills and training they have received.

Zachary Silver from Yale University observed dogs' reactions to the social environment and analysed their interpretation of the surroundings. He recognised that dogs were highly skilful in monitoring human communicative cues, especially our points and gazes. But their capabilities are even more complex than a sheer observation! The research has shown that by observing the environment, dogs conclude whether a human is helpful or unhelpful—and will be more inclined to be next to the helpful person. In the presence of such a person, dogs will also be more ready to learn and train.

Cognitive Decline of Dog's Brain

The ability of dogs to process information declines as they age. Although this is a normal effect of brain aging, pronounced indicators of mental problems can lead to a diagnosis of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CCD or CDS). The initial symptoms of the disorder are mild, but they gradually worsen beyond what is expected with normal aging.

According to the PetMD editorial, this condition refers to the aging of the dog brain, which ultimately leads to changes in awareness, memory deficits and decreased responsiveness to stimuli.

Dr Brian Gray Barnett, a veterinary research associate at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, points out that approximately 28% of dogs from 11 to 12 years of age and 68% from 15 to 16 years of age have CCD. Another study, Barnett notes, suggests that 22.5% of dogs over the age of 9 show cognitive damage.

The conclusions of such scientific research further encourage us to regularly expose our pets to mental stimulation, even when they're young, to help and prolong their physical health and cognitive abilities. For example, quality brain stimulation throughout life and mental exercise reduce the effects or delays cognitive decline in older dogs.

Brain Games: Use the Nose

Among the best ways to enrich your dog's everyday life is to encourage your dog to use its extremely pronounced sense—the sense of smell. Alexandra Horowitz, author of the bestseller "Being A Dog: Following The Dog Into A World of Smell" explained with a simple example just how strong a sense of smell is in dogs. She explains that dogs can smell one picogram of a scent. For comparison, if there was one cinnamon roll in a room containing one gram of cinnamon, humans could smell that. But that scent is so pronounced to dogs as if there were trillion cinnamon rolls in the room.

Considering this, it's no wonder dogs are often used at airports and crime scenes. Furthermore, since the dog experiences are so intrinsically connected to scents around them, the enrichment of your dog's everyday life will significantly improve if you focus as much as possible on their nose. Allow them to sniff the environment and develop a fun game that will reward them with dog treats after following the scent, such as food dispensing toys or a treasure hunt. One popular game is the Snuffle Mat Game— an excellent brain training game that improves canine health in a fun way. Besides bringing a lot of fun, this dog toy can help slow down fast eaters. It encourages dogs to use their sense of smell while helping reduce anxiety and burns energy.

In addition to all the benefits already listed, Mary Robins of the American Kennel Club points out the conclusion of another scientific study: dogs that sniff the world around them have a more optimistic view of life and consequently fewer emotional and psychological issues.

So get sniffing - or at least, get your dog sniffing :)