May 2024

MAY

Hello, Sunshine

May 2024

With four months of the year behind us already (how is time going so quickly?) I am delighted to see the lighter nights and sunnier days finally upon us once again.

As a small business, we are always interested in our customer’s feedback, so over the next few weeks we will be enlisting a collection of pup partners to trial some new products that we are working on. If you are interested in testing some new products & happy to provide feedback please drop us a message at hello@cognitivecanineco.co.uk We will be looking for a range of testers from younger pups to senior dogs as well as dogs living with conditions which impacts their health so if you would like to be involved I would love to hear from you.

I am constantly working away in the background on new content and would also love to hear from you on what you would love to see more of in 2024.

Laura &Waffle

Adventures Await

Lead Tasty Treats Poo Bags

let’s get outdoors!

As the warmth of spring melts away the chill of winter, we're all breathing a sigh of relief, including our dog’s! With daffodils in bloom and Easter eggs a distant memory, it's time to embrace the return of lighter nights and sunnier days. With this in mind, we're encouraging those of you who are physically able to seize the moment, lace up your boots, and head outdoors as much as possible. This month, our products have been chosen to be the perfect companions for your outdoor escapades and long car journeys . From scenic hikes to road trips, these adventures are bound to create lasting memories in 2024. We're eager to hear all about your favorite CCC-fueled adventures, so why not share a photo of your beloved pup on their favorite walk? Let's make this spring one to remember!

Where have we been exploring ?

Norfolk Rutland NE Lincolnshire

Who do we deliver to ?

Have you ever wondered what our most popular breed is? And if your dog’s name is one of a kind or loved by many? Well, wonder no more !

popular breeds

Most popular names

To add some delicious treats to your next box or ....add

Have an idea?

We’re always thinking up new recipes and treats behind the scenes. So if you, or your pup, have an idea for a new recipe, we’re all ears! Drop us an email at hello@cognitivecanineco.co.uk,

So what is enrichment?

Enrichment is defined as ‘something you add to your dog’s environment that they choose to interact with and that has a positive impact on their psychological or physical well being.’

Although this sounds complicated, it's really easy to do and just involves adding some simple but fun activities to your dogs day - it can be as simple as just scattering some of their food on the floor!

Providing our dogs with adequate mental stimulation can be just as important as meeting their physical needs, and can help to prevent a wide range of problems that occur when our dogs become bored and understimulated such as excessive barking, destructive behaviour and hyperactivity

To provide the best possible activities for our dogs, we need to look at the natural behaviours and activities that they enjoy. These will vary from breed to breed and dog to dog, for example if you have a scent hound providing some activities that involve sniffing are going to be really popular, where as a Border Collie might enjoy the challenge of a puzzle type activity.

Enrichment Top Tips

The most important thing to remember with any enrichment activity is that the aim is to make your dogs life more interesting, not more difficult. We've broken down all the enrichment activities in this guide in to step by step actions to make sure that you're working at your dogs pace and not asking too much from them. If we ask them to do something too complicated such as a puzzle toy that they don't understand, they're likely to become frustrated or lose interest - it may even put them off trying other activities in the future, so starting off simple can really help.

The activities we can do with our dogs fall into two categories:

Engagement/ Bonding Activities - these involve you being interactive and present with your dog and will increase the bond between you. This means your dog will be more attentive to you in general, not just when your training.

Independent Activities - These are activities you can leave your dog to do while you're busy or stuck for time, and can help to calm and tire your dog. Both are important and a healthy mix of both is the best way forward

A tired dog is a happy dog....

"A tired dog is a happy dog" is a phrase that's used a lot. Tired can mean a lot of different things, for example you could feel tired and relaxed after a chilled out day. Alternatively you could feel absolutely exhausted and just not being able to stay awake after something that's physical or mentally strenuous, which is definitely not a happy experience! Providing the right balance of mental stimulation, physical exercise and rest ensures our dogs can feel a relaxed and happy tired, rather than just exhausted from too much running around.

Snuffle Toy Product Guide

We love interactive toys like this as there are so many ways you can play with them. Even if your dog can be a soft toy destroyer, creating activities rather than just leaving them out for your dog to play with can help get more life out of your toys.

What if my dog just wants to detroy Mr Snail?

The key here is to start off with some really yummy high value treats so your dog will find searching for the food more interesting that destroying the snuffle toy.

It can help to start off by just sprinkling the food over the top and around the snuffle toy so it’d really easy for your dog to find - finding the food rewards your dogshould mena your dog is likely to carry on their search for more treats than try to destroy Mr Snail. As well as being great fun for any dog, there are lots of times when a snuffle toy can be a useful training tool too : Does your dog struggle with visitors? Maybe they are worried by strangers or just find visitors too exciting? Having a snufffle item handy means you can engage them in a calming activity in their own space away from the excitement helping minimise barking or jumping up.

Bone Treat Toy Product Guide

Perfectly designed for indoor play at home or on walks. Fill this toy with nut butter or some of our delicious treats at each end and have those morning zoomies tamed, for now.

Made from thick, springy rubber it is also suited to heavy chewers and whilst no toy is indestructible this gets close.

An all-rounder - these toys are a great weight for throwing, fetching and wrestling. Non abrasive rubber will twist and bend for a satisfying chew and all toxin free

Why we love the Beco Treat Bone :

Sweet Potato Chews Product Guide

Sweet potatoes are amazing, not only are they tasty, nutritious and versatile they are a doggy superfood!

Sweet potatoes have so many health benefits and this treat was one of our most requested treats when we included in a box last year

Why we should feed Sweet Potato:

Pet Muchies Product Guide

Made from 100% natural human grade duck breast

Naturall low in fat & high in protein

Denzel’s Seasonal Bites

Denzel’s soft ‘n’ squishy bites are made from 100% natural ingredients, gently baked in the uk. Low cal so perfect for everyday training treats

Recipe Idea

Sticky Filling for your Beco Bone

Quick & Easy

Into the mixing bowl

Portion of your favourite wett, cooked or raw food

Plain greek Yogurt

Dog safe veggie puree (ours love spinach and apple puree)

Chopped hard boiled egg

Natural air dried chicken foot

Method

Mix together all ingreadients

Pack into one end of your beco bone

Pop in the chicken foot peeping out the end

Pop in freezer for a cooling treat or to extend the fun

Hot Tip : Chews are also a great way to add an edible handle into your frozen pupsicle treats

Teach your dog PAWS UP ON AN OBJECT

A

quick and easy game to challenge your dogs mind!

Platform Training

Platform training is essentially teaching your dog to stand and walk on different objects. This is a great activity for young and old dogs alike as you can adjust the “platform” to make easier/more challenging and its a great confidence building activity and comes in very useful for when you are looking to create cute pics of your dog too!

Structured Shaping

A bit like the hot, hot, cold game we are going to reward your dog for all the approximations toward our goal - getting their front feet on the object

How are we going to do this?

Think Plan Do Review

Plan

Get everything you need together and ready in advance

Treat pouch & selection of treats

Tuggie, ball or your dogs fave toy

Platform of your choice

Phone or tripod to film your training is poss

Timer - set for 2mins

Be inventive but keep it safe. You could start off with a bathmat, pillow, cushion or even a cardboard box

Choose the words/phrases you are going to use. In the past I used to use the word YES or a clicker as my marker word, the word we use to mark all the approximations - the small steps towards the end goal e.g. paws on object

Following a brilliant day spent training on shaping I now have a number of marker words I use which is really useful if you have a dog prone to over arousal or frustration as it clearly tells them what to expect as when you only use YES, it can mean sometimes you get a treat in the mouth, sometimes its thrown on the floor, sometimes you get to play with a toy ... when you think about it like that its easy to see why some dogs might get over excited or demotivated if the reward that comes isnt what they were hoping for or expecting

I suggest trying reward and location specific marker words :

READY STEADY - signals start of session

SNACK - signals food will be given straight to mouth

YIP - Jackpot & high value treat thrown

CHASE - throw their favourite toy for them to run and get Break - signals end of training

Pick up your “platform” and show lots of interest in it before placing down in front of your dog

Mark & reward every interaction with the platform from getting closer, sniffing and touching

Initially if your dog has never done anything like this you may have to use a lure to encourage to put their paws, chin etc onto the object - luring is essentially getting them to follow a reward such as treat a few cm in front of their nose to encourage them to “do” what you want

Review

Watch back your video with sound on - how was your timing, did your dog understand what you asked of them? were our rewards reinforcing enough?

Now watch back your video with sound off - this is really useful as can show us more clearly what our dogs understood and also how much we lured the dog inadvertantly using our body

We can now use what we learned in our next session as we work towards the ultimate goal of getting 2 paws on our object

Already know how to do this?

Add in your cue - can be either verbal such as “paws up” or visual cue

Increase the challenge by adding in :

Duration (how long they need to hold position)

Distractions (could be toys, people etc)

Distance (i recommend working on duration & distractions first as will make increasing distance much easier!)

We absolutely love seeing your pups with our amazing products so don't forget to share and tag us on social media with your vids and pics or email them to us at hello@cognitivecanineco.co.uk, and we'll get straight back to you! Don't forget to use #caninebrainbox