Snuffle What?

I was scrolling through a FB group the other day and kept seeing snuffle mats mentioned. These mats are like extreme samples of 70's shag carpet. The object is to hide tiny bits of food inside so dogs have to root around to get the tidbits. It engages a dog's nose and brain by mimicking hunting for food in the wild. Apparently dogs really enjoy it.

I was intrigued. And I wanted one. Like any other American girl, I searched "snuffle mat" on Amazon. They averaged $30-40 each. Uh, no. Then I Googled "DIY Snuffle Mat" and found step-by-step instructions from The Honest Kitchen. Much better! I was able to make my own snuffle mat for $10. I ordered the sink mats from Amazon (two for $8) and bought 1.5 yards of cheap fleece from Walmart.

Before

After

Trooper was happy with the results. If you want to make your own, print out the instructions from the link above. But first, here are a few tips from me:

• Get the thin fleece. Your running four strips per hole. It gets tight! My finger tips still hurt from all the shoving and pulling.
• Tight knots will give you more room in the little holes.
• Go with one color/pattern of fabric. I had plans of making a fun pattern using 3 different fabrics. You can't tell, and I spent way too much time on it.
• Get a rotary cutter! I lost count of how many strips I cut, but it was well over 600 for a small, 11" X 12.5" mat.

Canine Enrichment is the fancy smanchy term for "working your dog's brain so he doesn't get bored and destroy your stuff." In the past few years it's become a thing. There are books, videos, online classes and Facebook Groups dedicated to this. It's a good time to be a dog.

I've been doing -- and sharing -- enrichment activities for years.(What can I say? I like my stuff unchewed.) I recently gathered some of my favorite posts and made an enrichment page for the blog. Click on the tab above to see 20+ different fun and cheap enrichment activities. Enjoy! -- K

Beat the Heat Fun

It's hot outside. I don't want to be out any longer than I have to. Honestly, I don't want to do anything! But if we don't find something to keep Jedi occupied, he finds a way to entertain himself. It's not always good. Sure, it makes for a fun Monday Mischief post to read, but it doesn't make for fun household. Thus my never ending quest for -- dare I say it? -- Jedi mind tricks. Today I'm sharing our latest Anti-Mischief find.

 

A few weeks ago Hubby tagged me in a Facebook post from Folsom Veterinary Hospital. You may have seen it too. Essentially, they made a giant flavored ice cube for dogs. I thought it sounded interesting so we gave it a try.

 

I bought a carton of low sodium chicken broth and gathered up scraps from the last few dinners. We had a little steak, a bit of grilled chicken and a hot dog, all cut into tiny pieces. Yum. I diluted the chicken broth with water to make about two quarts. I found a clean plastic container and went to town. The trick is to freeze it in sections so the tidbits are spread throughout the cube (otherwise everything ends up on the bottom).

 

I started with the chicken. I dropped a handful in the bottom of the container, poured about a third of the broth/water mixture over top and froze it until it was solid -- a good three hours or so. Next came the steak and another third of the liquid. Again, it had to freeze rock solid to get the layered effect. Finally, I dumped in the hot dog and the rest of the liquid. Then I let it sit in the freezer overnight.

 

The following day we ran the container under hot water and plopped the ice cube into the dogs' kiddie pool. Jedi thought that was the best thing ever!

 

 

He licked and chewed on that giant ice cube non-stop for 45 minutes until Hubby had to take it away because it was starting to rain. (Welcome to Florida!) This is definitely an outside treat.

 

 

Don't worry, he got it again the next day and picked up right where he left off. Roxy, on the other hand, wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Go figure.

This is a blog hop! Click around to see what kind of mischief others are getting in to. A great big thanks to Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Alfie’s Blog and My Brown Newfies for hosting today's fun! -- K

Nose Work Supplies & Silly Games

It's been cold and yucky outside lately (by Florida standards anyway). I've been trying to keep Jedi entertained. He's a pain in the butt when he's bored. Our Find the Odor class resumes on Monday. I am so excited! Jedi and I were practicing regularly until Christmas Eve. That's when I knocked the glass jar contained all the Sweet Birch scented Q-Tips off the counter. The jar shattered into hundreds of teeny tiny pieces. I was afraid to save the Q-Tips, worried there were glass fragments embedded in them. This left me in a quandary. My instructor gave me the Q-Tips for practice. I didn't have the oil myself, and you can't exactly buy Sweet Birch oil at Winn Dixie!

Our new nose work kit!

I searched the internet. I found Sweet Birch oil on Amazon (seriously, you can buy pretty much anything on Amazon) but I was worried it wasn't right. And how would I store it? Then I found K9 NW Source. They had premade nose work kits for reasonable prices. I ordered the Deluxe Starter Kit on December 27th and it arrived 6 days later -- even with a Sunday and a holiday in between. This kit is great! It's smaller than I had thought -- not much bigger than an International Coffee tin -- but it's packed full of goodies. This air-tight box contains oil, pre-scented Q-Tips (in both black and white), tins and tubes for hiding, and tweezers to keep my fingers from smelling like Wint-O-Green Lifesavers all day. Trust me, that scent gets annoying pretty quickly.

The Muffin Tin game

In the meantime we've been playing silly nose games. I'll hide toys and treats in and under the couch, then asked Jedi to find them. Sometimes he really has to dig to get them. Other times I'll hide somewhere in the house and have Jedi come find me. We have a lot of fun with the Muffin Tin game too. Have you played this one? It's really easy. Better yet, it's cheap budget friendly! Grab an old muffin tin and a bunch of tennis balls. (Dollar Tree sells balls two for a dollar. They're not all that great for fetching or chewing, but they're perfect for this.) Hide treats in the tin, cover them with balls, and then tell your dog to get the treats. For Jedi I only hide treats under 3-4 of the balls to make it a bit more challenging. Sometimes Jedi will paw at the balls, sometimes he tries to nose them out of the way and sometimes he'll just pick them up with his mouth and drop them to the side. The Muffin Tin game is a fun, easy thing to do with your dog when you can't get outside. So, what do you do to keep your dog from driving you nuts when the weather is bad? We're always looking for ideas! -- K

DIY Cavaletti

Jedi drags his rear feet. It's something that I'm hoping we can fix in Body Awareness and Targeting class. I had a friend suggest using cavaletti. They are small jumps used to strengthen muscles and adjust stride in horses. Apparently there are dog versions too. I was really excited until I saw how much they cost. The average price was $50 for a set of three, and everything I read said at least five cavaletti are needed to be effective. ugh. I found some plans on the internet to make your own cavaletti as well, but most of those required skills and tools that I just don't have. But then . . .

I was surfing the internet on my phone and saw a picture that made me squeal with delight -- Dollar Store Cavaletti! (I have never been able to find it again to give credit where credit is due.) Here's what I came up with based on what I remember:

• I found these bright little baskets for $1 each. I bought a dozen.
• I had some 1/2" PVC left over from a home improvement project. I cut it into six 48" pieces.
• I bought a roll of fancy tape for $2 at Wal-Mart to decorate the PVC -- just because.

Assembly is super easy: Run a PVC piece through the middle holes of two baskets to make hurdles a.k.a. cavaletti. (Use higher or lower holes to increase/decrease the difficulty level.) Spread the baskets far enough apart that your dog can walk through them comfortably.

Cavaletti should be spaced shoulder height apart. I had an extra piece of PVC that I held up to Jedi and marked at the withers (the highest point behind the neck). I taped that spot and used the pole to measure the distance between cavaletti. Then I ran Jedi through.

 

Did he knock them down? You betcha! The fifth and sixth one were knocked over every time. But it didn't scare him and he willingly ran through again and again. And when we were done everything disassembled easily and takes hardly any room to store. Score!

 

What do you think? Do you have any fun crafty things? Let me know! -- K

 

P.S. Like the idea of going cheap? Check out my recycled perch and ghetto travel plank here.

New Class is Lots of Fun

Jedi and I are now taking class twice a week. Because of the crappy weather last month, our Saturday morning classes were pushed back a few weeks. Graduation is next weekend. The instructor promises it'll be lots of fun. I have hubby coming to take pictures, so hopefully I can share next week.

 

Meanwhile, K-9 Obedience Club is offering a new Body Awareness and Targeting class on Thursdays and we were fortunate enough to get in. (There are two full classes plus a waiting list.) This class is being taught by an agility competitor -- instead of an obedience competitor -- and the atmosphere of the class is very different. Much like her border collie, the instructor is focused, animated and full of energy. Instructor believes in building confidence and giving lots a rewards -- to both canine and human students. In an hour and a half Jedi probably ate two cups of diced chicken and I had a handful of Tootsie Rolls!

 

My perfect perch!

We're doing some rear end exercises where Jedi pivots his back end with his front feet staying on a fixed marker called a perch. We've done something like this before and I always had a hard time finding the right perch. My Star Puppy instructor had us use a book. We did, but it was odd shaped and slippery, which made Jedi uncomfortable. I had another instructor who used round pavers. These were better. I liked the shape but they were low to the ground and awfully heavy to tote around. This instructor sent an email before class started and suggested using a hard plastic dog bowl. That was my eureka moment. For starters, I had one of those! I have no idea where it came from and I have almost thrown it out two or three times. I'm glad I didn't. It's perfect: it's the right height, it's lightweight yet strong enough to support Jedi, it's round, and it's portable.

 

Another thing we're doing in class is using ladders lying on the ground to help teach the dogs foot placement. I've got one of those too, so we're do this at home. Jedi's still a bit leery so we're walking across it the short way for now. Remember, it's all about confidence building! It's funny though, I put it on the ground and he'll run right up to it, tail wagging. He knows that if he walks through it he gets a treat.

 

It's ugly but it works!

Instructor also had this thing in class called a travel plank. Have you heard of this? It's just a flat board raised about 4 inches off the ground. Instructor says she's got about 20 different exercises we could do with it, but for now we're just teaching the dogs to walk across it. You wouldn't think the dogs would freak out over it -- and you would be wrong. Instructor said you can buy some fancy shmancy travel planks online ($80! I looked), or you can go the cheap route and build your own. I chose cheap. Hubby and I went to Home Depot and bought a 1' X 4' piece of shelving, a 2" X 4" post and a box of screws. Voila! We made our own travel plank for less than $10. (The shelf had a slippery finish. I lightly sanded it and stuck on those non-skid bathtub thingies. It's ugly, but it works.)

 

As you can see, we've been a bit busy. Wednesday night conformation classes started up a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to go, but . . . I've been so overwhelmed with work and the training classes we already have that I haven't been able to find a time. I hope to start back up soon though. But not this Wednesday, I have something fun going on. (I'll share later.)

 

Anyway, enough blogging! I have to get back to Jedi. We're supposed to have a special trick for graduation and it's not going as well as I would like. I'm trying to get him to do a full circle while standing on the bowl, but he seems to get hung up halfway round. *sigh* We have four days to figure this out. Wish us luck! -- K

Jedi Plays Spin the Bottle

A couple weeks ago I shared a video I found on Facebook of Bella the Malinois playing with a homemade dog toy. I thought the toy was really interesting. I sent the video to my friend Handyman and asked if he could make one. He did, and it's awesome!

 

 

It's a wooden frame with a dowel running through 3 1-liter bottles. Handyman made it big enough that I can use larger, more challenging 2-liter bottles later. The bottles spin around the dowel as well as move left and right. Yummy smelling treats are placed inside the bottles.

 

 

 

 

The design is simple enough. The dogs have to tip the bottles upside down to get the treats out.

 

 

 

 

It took Jedi a while to figure it out. It's harder than it looks!

 

 

 

 

Roxy wasn't sure about the hitting and spinning part, but she was more than happy to eat the treats!

 

 

 

 

This is a blog hop! Click around and see what kind of mischief others are getting into today. -- K

 

 

Beat the Heat Fun

It's HOT here in Florida. Temperatures are in the 90s with high humidity. I'm miserable; I can't image how the dogs feel. For fun, Hubby and I bought 60 pounds of ice and filled up their kiddie pool. Wanna see their reactions?

At first Jedi wasn't so sure. Hubby tossed a few ice cubes to pique his interest.

 

 

We buried a few toys in the ice as well. He was curious.

 

 

 

He took a tentative step, and then . . .

 

 

 

he started digging. See all the ice he flung out?

 

 

 

He had a blast!

 

 

 

Roxy, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it. This is as close as she got!

 

 

What are you doing to keep your dogs cool and entertained during the summer? Seriously, inquiring dogs want to know!

 

 

We've joined the Monday Mischief blog hop. Hop around and see what fun others are having today. -- K

 

 

 

Tug Toys

Psychedelic fleece

Truth be told, I AM NOT a crafty person. My mother quilts, sews, bakes, knits, tats and crochets. She is also quite adept at cake decorating, origami, decoupage and ceramics. I have no idea what happened to me. Anyway, when I see a fun but simple craft that I can do, I get really excited. My latest find: no-sew tug toys. (Actually, I didn't "find" it, Erin over the Five Dog Blog did.)

I bought a yard of bright fleece (on sale -- score!) and with some measuring, cutting and braiding I created a tug toy that Jedi actually likes. Unlike his rope toys, this one is soft and machine washable. And it doesn't hurt so much when he starts flinging it around. YEA!

Are you inspired yet? If you follow the directions in Erin's blog you can make one too. My only advice: keep your braids tight and anchor your loop. Erin used a chair. I'm not as classy; I used my big toe.

I'm so stoked by my success that I'm wondering what other crafty things I can do. Mom would be so proud. -- K

Jedi's First Silly Trick

I saw a video where Dr. Sophia Yin taught her dog to get into a box using just operant conditioning techniques. I wondered if I could do something similar with Jedi. I saw a cheap Tap Light knock-off at Walgreens and thought “Why not?” I’ve wasted $4 on worse things (i.e. a creepy Sponge Bob balloon.) I grabbed the Tap Light, the clicker and a hand full of dog treats then set off to see how smart my puppy is. Hubby and Son #1 thought I was crazy.

I put the light on the floor and ignored it. In true puppy fashion, Jedi ran over and sniffed it, nosed it, licked it, chewed it and eventually stepped on it. When the light came on I clicked the clicker and gave him a treat, saying absolutely nothing. Jedi looked at me, barked at me and gave me an excellent sit, while trying to figure out how to score another treat. (Did I mention that he’s extremely food motivated?) I ignored him and he went back to the Tap Light. Soon enough he pawed at it and the light turned on. I immediately clicked and treated again, still saying nothing. Jedi grabbed the treat, gave me a funny look and went back to the Tap Light. Within five minutes he figured out that if he pawed at the light he got a treat. At one point he was stomping on it so much that I couldn’t click fast enough. To prove to Hubby and Son #1 that it wasn’t a coincidence, I moved the Tap Light 6 feet away. Jedi ran across the room, jumped on the light, and ran back to me before I could finish clicking. He's a smart puppy!

It’s been a couple days since I introduced the Tap Light. I’m now adding a verbal command – TAP – and trying to shape his tapping from a frenzied stomp to a clean, deliberate tap. All in all, I think it was an interesting experiment, resulting in a silly, useless dog trick for Jedi and a check in the “New Year’s Resolutions” box for me. Keep logging in to see what he learns next! -- K