It’s not just your dog’s body that needs exercise; its brain also needs some stimulation too.

Despite it only being March, my area of Canada is still pretty much covered in snow. Yesterday the temperature decided to hit a positive number, the sun was out, and I noticed the dog was just a little lively. Hmmm? Spring fever?

Our dog is somewhere in the region of 50% Collie and 50% Labrador. These are both working dogs and not only do they need to be physically challenged, being intelligent breeds they need to be mentally challenged also.

So, just because she is older and has less physical exercise requirements, does not mean that she wants to spend her day a sleep with no mental input what so ever.

The brain is still firing in that dog’s head as good as it’s always been.

While giving her a good daily brushing on the deck I was thinking about my article on the difference between dogs and people and then in a flash it came to me.

60% of a dog’s brain is dedicated to smell (The other 40 possible devoted to its stomach). Smelling smells, remembering smells, processing and filing of smells. A dog could be described as “transport for a nose” when you get down to it.

Now, being half lab she is highly motivated by food…so… without further ado I took a scoop of kibble, asked her to sit and stay on the deck, and them promptly buried each piece of kibble just an inch under the snow and then told her “GO FIND IT” and off she did.

For about an hour and a half my dog dug up all the snow on our deck and had an absolute blast doing it.

I really enjoyed myself watching her pressing her nose to the snow, inhaling a huge sniff, and then moving on to the next spot. She would have made a great sniffer dog! She combed our deck methodically and in its entirety.

We then headed for our walk through some forest behind our house where the deer walk through and let her sniff around all the deer tracks and rabbit foot prints.

After this I sat there with a bottle of beer in the sun and she happily sat there sniffing the air and clearly in love with the world.

Now, if you do not happen to have a snowy deck, you could also hide a few treats around your home – you may need to give away the locations of a few of the prizes until your dog understands the nature of the game.

This may NOT be a suitable game for young, large excitable dogs as it could cost you a few pieces of furniture, so use your judgment!

Another idea is a toy called a Kong - stuff it with 'hard to get out' treats and foods and let your dog play with it for the afternoon.

stimulating your dog’s nose – will stimulate its brain.

I smiled in the evening to see her 'flat out' on the sofa snoring away happily, wondering if she was dreaming about her grand day out.

The sun is shining again today, there is still some snow on the deck, so we are off to do it all again!