Games and puzzles enrich the family bonds; dogs need to exercis their natural instincts, environment enrichment and spcies-specific behaviors. Big words from big zoos, but do you need to worry about this for your dog? Absolutely not. Our canine family members are not captive wild animals. Our pets spend their lives by our sides. As members of the family, their needs and desires are much the same as ours. Interactive games and puzzles can strengthen the family bond and lead to fewer behavioral problems. They can even improve obedience training results. [1] self-control studies once conducted on humans are not being designed for dogs too. The results are not surprising for those of us with family pets -dogs can learn self-control just like humans can. [2] the focus developed for solving puzzles can carry over into less playful, but more important things like obedience training and behavioral modification. We could all us a little mental stimulation and work to get our meals like animals in the zoo. The truth is dogs stand to gain more through interaction with their human family members than through being left alone with a treat puzzle like a captive specimen. The benefits of such interaction extend well beyond the initial mental stimulation and boredom relief. Taken as a whole, when the dog and his human family regularly interact by playing challenging games, the family develops a sense of common purpose and shared experiences. For most dogs, these memories and experiences form a long-lasting bond with fewer behavioral problems during non-play time. Footnotes: [1] an experimental study of the effects of play upon the dog-human relationship by nicola j rooney, john w.s. Bradshaw in applied animal behaviour science (3 jan 2002, volume 75, issue 2, pages 161-176) [2] willpower: rediscovering the greatest human strength by roy f. Baumeister and john tierney, p49 (sep 2011)
