Puzzles for a GSD who disassembles everything

[EnraaGygas]

Please note the very particular word disassemble, not to be confused with destroy - Chase is very gentle with toys. He just wears them out from playing but he never intentionally destroys ANYTHING, so all types of toys are welcome, it's never a waste.

Aside from snuffle mats/toys, what are some puzzles you guys recommend? Presently all the puzzles I have (over 6, including a Kong Flipz, a JW Rockin Treat Tower, a button puzzle off Amazon, and a little bingo ball dispenser looking dealy from Pet Value to name a few) he's mastered to the point of disassembling them and just removing the treats the same way I would load them in.

It's incredibly impressive, but obviously I want to give him new challenges and new puzzles to complete AS INTENDED. We use puzzles as part of our daily routine (I load three at random and give them during the day post-outdoor training/play) and I definitely want to keep him doing them since he REALLY looks forward to it.

 

[Malakai The Great]

Chase sounds like one of those little engineers in a GSD suit, if he can disassemble the puzzle the same way you load it, that’s talent.

For dogs like him, you usually need puzzles that can’t be taken apart or that require multi-step thinking:

• Trixie Level 3 or 4 puzzles - layered slides, twists, and locks
• Outward Hound Challenge Slider / MultiPuzzle - hard to “cheat”
• Simple scent games - identical boxes, only one with treats
• Frozen layered Kongs - great mental work and no pieces to remove

Chase is telling you he needs hard mode. That’s a good problem to have.

 

[murph]

I LOVE TOPPL

I have like 8 and all the sizes so I can take the food, put it in the TOPPLs, freeze them, and it's like a weird nested doll challenge that never gets old!

 

[EnraaGygas]

Chase sounds like one of those little engineers in a GSD suit, if he can disassemble the puzzle the same way you load it, that’s talent.

For dogs like him, you usually need puzzles that can’t be taken apart or that require multi-step thinking:

• Trixie Level 3 or 4 puzzles - layered slides, twists, and locks
• Outward Hound Challenge Slider / MultiPuzzle - hard to “cheat”
• Simple scent games - identical boxes, only one with treats
• Frozen layered Kongs - great mental work and no pieces to remove

Chase is telling you he needs hard mode. That’s a good problem to have.

Thank you for the suggestions! I use the Kong in his crate and it is a WICKED little tool! I've never even heard of Trixie, so I'm excited to see their selection.

As far as the scent games go, we work on scent pads outside and so I think he'd enjoy that scent game a lot!

 

[EnraaGygas]

I LOVE TOPPL

I have like 8 and all the sizes so I can take the food, put it in the TOPPLs, freeze them, and it's like a weird nested doll challenge that never gets old!

When he outgrows his Kong (very soon) that's what we're going to upgrade to! I've been eyeing them, especially when they pop up cheap at Winners/Homesense

 

[murph]

When he outgrows his Kong (very soon) that's what we're going to upgrade to! I've been eyeing them, especially when they pop up cheap at Winners/Homesense

I pay $25/ea and it was definitely an investment, but I have 3 dogs, so I made sure they all have at least one for each day and make them in batches so everyone gets their toppl time. Can't recommend them enough.

 

[murph]

Chase sounds like one of those little engineers in a GSD suit, if he can disassemble the puzzle the same way you load it, that’s talent.

For dogs like him, you usually need puzzles that can’t be taken apart or that require multi-step thinking:

• Trixie Level 3 or 4 puzzles - layered slides, twists, and locks
• Outward Hound Challenge Slider / MultiPuzzle - hard to “cheat”
• Simple scent games - identical boxes, only one with treats
• Frozen layered Kongs - great mental work and no pieces to remove

Chase is telling you he needs hard mode. That’s a good problem to have.

Dude Murphy tore up that slider puzzle after one use I was so mad.

 

[lil wizard]

KONGs changed my life

 

[EnraaGygas]

I pay $25/ea and it was definitely an investment, but I have 3 dogs, so I made sure they all have at least one for each day and make them in batches so everyone gets their toppl time. Can't recommend them enough.

They regularly retail for $46.99 here, so seeing a price like that, I'd ALSO have 8 lol

 

[EnraaGygas]

KONGs changed my life

We definitely love the crate Kong!

 

[murph]

They regularly retail for $46.99 here, so seeing a price like that, I'd ALSO have 8 lol

OH HELL NO

 

[Malakai The Great]

Dude Murphy tore up that slider puzzle after one use I was so mad.

LMAO Murphy said “challenge accepted”… and then ended the challenge in one round.

That’s the struggle with high drive power chewers, anything with moving parts becomes “a structural integrity test.”

 

[murph]

LMAO Murphy said “challenge accepted”… and then ended the challenge in one round.

That’s the struggle with high drive power chewers, anything with moving parts becomes “a structural integrity test.”

Your scent work point was spot on. I have to get a scent, put it in a box inside a box, then hide that box in the woods half a mile away to challenge her at this point.

 

[EnraaGygas]

Your scent work point was spot on. I have to get a scent, put it in a box inside a box, then hide that box in the woods half a mile away to challenge her at this point.

Oh my word you could cadaver recovery train her at this point! That's incredible

 

[murph]

Oh my word you could cadaver recovery train her at this point! That's incredible

Her mom is actually a bomb detection dog, so yeah she could totally do that work if she wasn't adopted by an early 20's college student

 

[EnraaGygas]

Her mom is actually a bomb detection dog, so yeah she could totally do that work if she wasn't adopted by an early 20's college student

That sniffer is meant for incredible things! I think she lucked out - fair bit of work and a whole lot of spoils!

 

[PopeHolySmoke]

Oh my word you could cadaver recovery train her at this point! That's incredible

Cadaver work is the hardest nose work a dog can do. There are over 200 identified VOCs and not all are present all of the time or at the same levels. Research suggests that decomposing humans emit over 800 VOCs. By way of comparison, drugs and explosives are around 20 VOCs. Fun fact: the animal with the closest decomp profile to humans are chickens.

 

[EnraaGygas]

Cadaver work is the hardest nose work a dog can do. There are over 200 identified VOCs and not all are present all of the time or at the same levels. Research suggests that decomposing humans emit over 800 VOCs. By way of comparison, drugs and explosives are around 20 VOCs. Fun fact: the animal with the closest decomp profile to humans are chickens.

That is so incredible. You always think a scentwork dog is a scentwork dog and obviously the level must be the same but holy smokes that is actually insane. I follow a group on Insta that do it but they never mentioned that particular tidbit! Thank you for chiming in with that!

 

[PopeHolySmoke]

That is so incredible. You always think a scentwork dog is a scentwork dog and obviously the level must be the same but holy smokes that is actually insane. I follow a group on Insta that do it but they never mentioned that particular tidbit! Thank you for chiming in with that!

I've been a volunteer SAR K9 handler for over 20 years and have done live find, HRD, and water recovery with my dogs. My current dog, who just retired, decided that she was going to do HRD because she thinks live find is too easy. She's one that wants to be challenged and doesn't get frustrated easily. She definitely forced me to become a better handler. We've got two other dogs in the group that are like that - they want to be challenged. It's so much fun setting up problems for those teams. We set up training problems that are far harder than anything we'll see in the real world because we learn more from failure than success and it makes the toughest scenting conditions at searches that much easier. It really helps the handlers read their dogs better, which in my experience, is the thing handlers struggle with the most. As a bonus, if the dogs spend a day working extremely difficult problems, they're super chill for a day or two while they reflect on what they learned.

 

[EnraaGygas]

I've been a volunteer SAR K9 handler for over 20 years and have done live find, HRD, and water recovery with my dogs. My current dog, who just retired, decided that she was going to do HRD because she thinks live find is too easy. She's one that wants to be challenged and doesn't get frustrated easily. She definitely forced me to become a better handler. We've got two other dogs in the group that are like that - they want to be challenged. It's so much fun setting up problems for those teams. We set up training problems that are far harder than anything we'll see in the real world because we learn more from failure than success and it makes the toughest scenting conditions at searches that much easier. It really helps the handlers read their dogs better, which in my experience, is the thing handlers struggle with the most. As a bonus, if the dogs spend a day working extremely difficult problems, they're super chill for a day or two while they reflect on what they learned.

This is so cool! Like genuinely I love first off that you volunteer to do that work because that is such a generous and fantastic donation of time and effort to your community. But also you never hear this side of it! You could do a whole journal about that kind of journey and it would just be the most incredible read to hear about working a dog like that.