Nearly half of all dogs in the country are understimulated!
Many dogs rest 20 hours or more per day. This understimulation can create and reinforce problematic behaviour. The dog simply gets
excess energy which is channelled into behaviour the dog owner and others perceive as problems.
We can then ask ourselves why an intelligent and social creature like the dog can be understimulated and problematic. The answer is
simple; it’s in its nature.
Behavioural synchronisation
With all animals living in families or herds, activities are synchronized in the group. They must be coordinated, because their survival
depends on everyone doing the same thing all the time and everyone thus having the same level of energy at any given time.
What is the group’s strength in nature can easily become a problem for us, because the dog does what it is supposed to do, which is
coordinating its activities with us people. This means that in the beginning, when it’s a puppy, it does as we do and follows us around
wherever we go.
Boring inside
Quite soon, the dog will realize that we are not so stimulating indoors, because so few exciting things happen. We mostly potter about
the rooms busying ourselves with various objects. That’s boring and the dog thus lies on the floor trying to sleep away its boredom.
According to its nature, after all, it’s prevented from coming up with things to do by itself.
It doesn’t take long until you have dog that rests all day, except for when it’s taken out on walks. This means it’s storing energy and
“recharging the batteries” until the time comes when it’s let outside. When this happens it’s full of excess energy and pulls its leash,
barks at people, attacks other dogs, chases after animals and exhibits other problematic behaviour.
The time for walks is reduced, because who wants to take a troublesome dog on long walks.
Mental activation
Physical exercise is, of course, important for both the dog’s and the owner’s well-being, but it’s not really all that tiring for the dog.
Mental stimulation is what truly makes the dog tired and satisfied. After all, it has one of the highest mental capacities of all animals.
In the wild, this was crucial to track prey, often several times bigger and stronger, outwit and kill it. This requires teamwork, the ability
to learn and to solve problems. All such activity has today been replaced with processed dog food served in a bowl.
Important to be active indoors
For the dog to be happy and healthy, we must provide it with such stimulus it is programmed for and dependent on to feel well – mental
activation. Indoors by all means. It needs to be able to challenge its mental capacity and become tired and satisfied by natural means. It
needs to work with its nose, solve problems and learn new things.
There are books with programmes for mental activation and this topic is becoming one of the most important in the world of dogs.
Special activity toys have also been produced which make for good playing activity. One problem with these is that dogs quickly get so
good at playing with them that they are no longer challenging enough.
BUSTER ActivityMat
I have been following the development of “BUSTER ActivityMat” for some years now, which challenges dogs’ mental capacity without
them getting too good too quickly at solving the problems it presents. It’s quick and easy to set up and provides the dog with mentally
valuable playtime. An activity which is equal to going for a walk that takes at least twice the time.
Everyone benefits
It’s not just the dog and dog owner who benefit from mental activities, but society in general. Dogs become calmer and more
harmonious, thus being less criticized by the people around them. BUSTER ActivityMat can, in other words, be beneficial on all levels
and has the potential to become the number one toy.
Thanks to it being so easy to take care of and its great range of different problems for the dog to solve, it’s something all dog owners
realize the benefit and joy of.
Järna, Sweden, 12 April 2012
Anders Hallgren
Psychologist and dog psychologist