Nina Ottosson has created a range of interactive toys and puzzle games to exercise your dog’s mind.
The durable toys can help to prevent or reduce boredom, behavioural problems or excess weight.
Every design has a slightly different technique needed to access hidden food rewards. They require both physical and mental dexterity to solve the puzzle and access the treats.
The puzzles can be set to different levels of difficulty to suit different breeds and age of dog.
We have looked at a selection of toys across the difficulty levels and Meg had a go with the Level 1 Dog Smart hide and seek toy!
This toy is a Level 1 puzzle which is great for introducing your dogs to training games.
The game consists of a disc with removable bone shapes, under which treats can be hidden. The game can be started by using one of two bones, and the level of difficulty gradually increased by using more bones and only hiding treats under some of them.
This game is currently being sold by Viovet for £7.49.
Meg really enjoyed this game, and very quickly developed a method for lifting the bones out of the base to look for treats.
Once she understood the concept we started to make it more difficult by changing the number of sections that we hid treats in, and also the number of bones that we replaced in the holder.
After playing with the game on a few different occasions Meg started to sniff out the treats without lifting the bones, and could then very quickly access all the hidden treats without picking up the bones from the empty sections.
She is quite a fast eater, so we have also used this to slow her down at meal times and give some mental stimulation by hiding her meal in the game and making her do some work to find her food.
This game is a Level 2 challenge, which is a nice puzzle to progress on to after your dog has mastered the dog smart, or if they are used to training games.
This game works by filling the maze with treats through the top and side holes, which are then dispensed when your dog tips the maze. The maze will bob and flip as your dog taps it to release the treats.
This puzzle is one of the higher ranking level 3 games. It has built in play pieces that are not removable, and instead need to be twisted to release treats.
The casino has drawers which can be filled with treats, and locked in place by the twisting bones on the top of the puzzle.
This more complex game requires a higher level of mental and physical dexterity and is especially recommended for more challenging play.
Dogs can be introduced to the game by leaving some of the drawers open, then closing them to allow the dog to start to work out how to open a drawer themself.