20 Best Brain Toys For Dogs (2022 Updated)

I’ve noticed our husky/Kelpie mix intensely watch us do things like put stuff in drawers, open & close things, so I figured I’d try one of these puzzles. Right now she’s 6 mos old and getting into everything so I felt like she’d guess the Level 1 puzzle pretty quickly so I bought the Level 2-3 one.

I didn’t fill all of the pockets at first, just the “bones” to see if she would be smart enough to move them. She only used her nose and teeth to move them, and it took her some encouragement from us but she found all 4 but she also wanted to run off and chew the bones.

I didn’t think she’d open the flip lids so I left the bones out and put treats under them. She sniffed and pushed them around, of course trying to chew on it too. But now with her third time, I filled all 20 spots (used Blue Buffalo Bites Salmon flavor – really fishy smell!) – she “solved” it in under 3 minutes.

Filled it again, solved it in about a minute. (So much for keeping her occupied for 10-15 minutes!) I really didn’t think this would work but I’m so surprised at how much it allows her to focus her otherwise crazy attention to doing this even if it’s for a brief time.

I’m probably going to have to graduate her up to the Level 4 expert level by the end of summer. I’m sure other dogs may just plop themselves down and take their time sniffing out the treats. Watch them and encourage them to find it (they will get frustrated and try to chew it & the lids do pop off so this is NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN LEAVE THEM UNSUPERVISED with – it’s a chance for you to praise them and encourage them to find the treats to keep them focused on the task).

Mix up treat flavors so they can focus on the ones they really like to smell & eat. I wouldn’t recommend putting peanut butter in it because the puzzle is not meant to be chewed on. Definitely put the puzzle out of the dogs reach when done.

This is our first puzzle toy, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have an 8 month old cavalier king charles spaniel who was recently spayed. Our trainer suggested some enrichment activities to keep her out of trouble.

Here’s what I think. PROS: * It’s fairly sturdy, though my pup isn’t rough with it. Common sense dictates that if your dog is more destructive, you should closely supervise and take it away once all the treats are found.

* Though it doesn’t state so on the box, this can be set for 3 levels of difficulty. First, you can hide treats in the holes and slide the fins over to cover them. To add a layer of difficulty, slide the pegs to lock the fins in place.

This will require the dog to slide the peg before they move the fin. Finally, add some treats to the bonus holes in the pegs. Those can only be found after the dog slides the peg away from the fin, then moves the fin, and finally slides the peg back and forth over the hole to drop and reveal the hidden treasure.

Whew! Got that? CON: * This is a level 2 puzzle. I didn’t start with a level 1 because they seemed too easy. Nonetheless, my pup quickly figured this out, even at the highest level of difficulty. She likes it, and it’s still fun for her, but I was hoping to keep her engaged for more than a few minutes.

Just received a box from Chewie today and my dog knew right away that there was some good stuff inside of it. There were treats in there but I also had the puzzles in there so she was very interested in opening the box.

Once we took the puzzle out and started filling it with kibble, she was super interested and it kept her attention while we filled it for about a full seven minutes which is how long it took her to get all of the treats out.

Then she was still interested in it for a while to make sure that she actually did get all of them. Several times she picked it up and dropped it on the ground so the treats would fall out. I was hoping that the puzzle pieces would snap in a little more sturdily into the base so that if she did pick it up she couldn’t knock the treats out.

I was very pleased at how well it held her attention. I think whenever we do it again, she might resort to just dropping it on the floor again. I’ll repost if that happens. But she’s almost 10 years old and has been pretty lethargic/bored lately.

This activity perked her right up which was very nice to see!.

My 8. 5 pound chihuahua terrier mix looks so excited when I set this puzzle down for her. This level two puzzle is a fun challenge. I think she’d be able to solve it faster if she removed the white bone shaped treat covers completely.

However, she often just nudges them out of the way just enough to eat her kibble. As a result, she has trouble sliding the red squares into the center which means she can get frustrated when she can’t easily reach the treat compartment underneath.

Sometimes she’ll chew on the lid of the red square because she can smell the treats in the compartment below. I’ve been intervening at this point to show her how moving the white bone shaped treat covers over to the floor will allow her to slide the red squares inward so that she can then reach the treat compartment below.

I think she’s starting to catch on— we’ve only had this puzzle for a week. I was pleased that she was able to flip open the lids of the red squares and slide them inward with her nose without too much difficultly.

I was worried that this might be too hard for her but it has provided the right amount of challenge. If your dog is already doing level one puzzle toys, treat balls, and slow feeders with ease I would encourage you to try this puzzle out.

I love that I can look at my pup and see her wheels turning while she’s working this puzzle. My only gripe is that one of the lids has popped off with what I consider gentle use. I was able to re-attach easily but I’d recommend keeping a close eye on your doggo while they use this since it isn’t intended to be a super durable, free access chew toy.

As an interactive toy, this is a good one but not the absolute best. Made of a hard shell, it is best used on carpet or softer flooring as it can be very loud on tile, etc. (my pup has used it on carpet, lino and tile).

The ball doesn’t open, so it is a bit fiddly to put more than a few treats in. Also, due to the small holes for treats to come out, food will come out somewhat slowly and you’ll need to use kibble or small treats.

Our pup enjoys this one but gets frustrated or bored if we put more than 1/3 cup (of his regular food) as it dispenses quite slowly due to the small holes. That being said, it is a very reasonable price our preferrest treat dispenser costs about $40).

This ball is hard plastic and makes a lot of noise as it knocks around the house. My dog loves to push it around, but it drives me nuts because of all the noise. Too bad it isn’t made out of softer plastic! Also, if you have 2 dogs, like I do, beware of jealous fighting over this toy once the treats start to fall out.

Yikes. So many things I didn’t consider when ordering this.

My cockapoo really enjoys this toy, especially at dinner time. He will nose it all around to get his food out. I wish it would open up to more easily add food or remove food. We use it with treats for when we are leaving for work.

I would recommend this product. Just make sure you’re willing to add the food or treat piece by piece.

My dogs love to eat meals or treats out of this toy. I had to get a second so they wouldn’t fight over the one. I’ve never had any issues with the blue pieces coming out or not sliding well on either like some people have said, and I purchased two of these with several months in-between from two different stores and they both work great.

I love the there’s a tray you can pull out to load it. At first, I had to show my dogs that the pieces could slide and they took it from there. Within a matter of days they were experts. It’s amazing to sit there and watch they slide each piece with purpose, one after another, as opposed to just pawing at it until something moves like they did in the beginning.

They can solve it pretty fast now, so it’s often better to feed a whole meal in them instead of individual treats. My boys are little so I cut up treats into tiny pieces so they aren’t eating too many calories in treats considering there’s 24 spots to put them.

But then they solve it so quick because they don’t take long to eat. The only downside is the cleaning. My dogs eat moistened kibble so it can get messy; even with dry kibble and treats you need to wash it because of the saliva will grow bacteria.

I use my kitchen sprayer and slide the pieces as I got to make sure to clean in between. Despite this, I still love this product. I will put it away for awhile so they have more interest when I get it out, but when I do leave it out they will go sit and paw at it when they want a meal.

This toy is great for burning off nervous energy when bad weather restricts your walks. It’s made of smooth plastic with no sharp edges. It’s rated Level 3 which is the most challenging. The sliding motion required didn’t come naturally to my dog.

I Found it best to start by teaching him to slide the doors with just one door at at time until he got the hang of it. He likes this best when I sit with him and fill a few cups at a time. He gets so excited that after a 20- 30 minute session he’s ready for a nap.

Tip: Baby carrot slices make a great (non-messy) treat to use with this puzzle.

If you’re looking for a puzzle that will keep your pup busy, this is a good one! Have had this puzzle for several months now and it never fails to keep my pup entertained. He hasn’t quite figured out how the pieces slide but he does scratch at the puzzle until he’s able to get all the treats out of it.

I was worried when I first got it that he would break it because he’s 40 lbs and he steps on the puzzle to get the treats out but it has held up great! It used to take him about 20 minutes to get the treats out but he’s much quicker now.

Once he got the hang of the puzzle, I started using it as a slow feeder for his kibble, and it works great! Overall, I highly recommend!.

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TranslateShow in original languageComprei para meu labrador, mas no primeiro dia ele já danificou a parte maleável do brinquedo e começou a retirar. Tive que cortar e deixar somente a parte interna de nylon do brinquedo para que o cachorro não engolisse o produto.

Se vc tiver um cachorro com mordida forte e grande, não compre.

Leo loves it! His mom did not know what to do with him in the snow, she cannot walk him a lot. But his auntie in California sent this game to him and his mom. He loves it! And it calms his puppy energy for a bit.

Great game! With three options of how to set it up, gives you more options to keep your dog puzzling!.

Found it at a CVS while on vacation years ago on clearance, $5 was a good deal to try it I figured. My lab/shepX, TerrierX, and two Chihuahuas (only 2 left now. ) Was great for getting then to pay attention while taking turns, too a while for them to fully, patiently wait their turns – and the larger breeds took longer to figure out, had to be right there or the lab/shepX would flip and try to chew it to get the treats, and being very light plastic and on carpet (so suction cups didn’t work).

Super easy to clean. Would have beyond an excellent 5 stars if it was stronger & heavier. By far my favorite “school time” toy for the kids. We use it more with winter and other long “cabin fever” times.

So excited I can tell others where to buy it now when they ask on our videos. = D.

Our shih tzu absolutely loves this game. We use his dry food bits as part of his small breakfast routine. At first, he was afraid of the noise from plastic parts clanking together. Now he sits by the game till we set it up to play in the mornings.

It did take a couple days to show him what was to be done, but he caught on very quickly.

I love the other 3 Nina Ottosson interactive toys I have for my dog but not this one. It has this weird piece of plastic that allows the dog to see the treat as it’s moving around and my dog punctured that and made the toy unusable the first time she played with it! And she’s only 15lbs! I’d recommend the Ottosson toys, but not this one.

My puppy loves to flip this around and get treats from it! I will put some of his food in there in the morning to occupy him while i get ready for work. It keeps him busy for a while and stimulates his brain.

My only issue with it is that he ripped off some of the rubber his second time playing with it. I would have expected it it be a better quality.

I call it the spaceship. I have it in a different color, but same one. Zekefur knows just how to flip it over to get the treats to come out. The treats do not have to be tiny for this one, but the training rewards work best.

Keeps him busy for a long time, and he will always have one!.

If your dog has enjoyed other puzzle toys, this is a good addition. Our dog was slamming through Level 3 toys pretty fast so we wanted to try Level 4, of which there don’t seem to be many to choose from.

This toy is a good mix of difficulty. The square tiles are pretty mindless honestly, your dog can just slap away at them and they’ll find all the food. Even the little orange “roadblock” pieces aren’t that tough; random flailing with the paws will knock those out of the way.

So the outside track is a nice easy warm-up “appetizer”. The circle part is quite hard though. The thing that makes it harder than the Level 3 toys is that they dog needs to move *empty* pieces in order to get the full pieces.

That’s hard since their nose draws them to the full pieces, not the empty ones. When the uncover some food, the green wheel is jammed by an empty orange piece, and they have to understand to move that one before they can get to another full orange piece.

So the wheel part is quite challenging. Even though it looks virtually the same as the Level 3 wheel, it’s not. The other nice thing is that this toy is massive, so you can fit a TON of food in it. Even for a big dog you could put their whole meal in here.

Our only complaint is that this toy has tons of nooks and crannies for food particles and slobber to hide in, and it’s really hard to clean it all. Then once you do have it clean, it takes forever to dry because it’s so enclosed, so there’s no air circulation through all those little pockets.

Some drain holes here and there would help it dry faster.

My 40 lb Border Collie Lab mix used her nose to push the orange pieces underneath the green disc in the middle, exposing the treats underneath and lodging the orange bit under the disc. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.

It was a pain to get them back out. The sliding squares around the edge function fine, but I think most dogs could figure that “puzzle” out very quickly. Unfortunately we only used it a few times before it became pointless — when your dog only takes 45 seconds to get all the treats out of a puzzle, you might as well just hand them the treats.

Despite the design flaw with the orange parts, the materials are pretty durable and withstood a lot of scratching the first 1-2 times she played with it. Cricket also is a highly curious problem solver with a lot of paw dexterity; other dogs might take longer to paw the squares and circles around.

I bought this puzzle for our cur-pointer mix. She is very smart and can usually finish these puzzles in less than 5 minutes. Finally, a puzzle that lasts longer! It took my dog almost 20 minutes just to work through the outside edge.

The puzzle is sturdy, but as my dog became frustrated with how long it was taking, she figured out how to pop the outside sliding pieces off to get the treats. I did not try the inside circle yet. Moving pieces in and out of the circle with her foot will be challenging for my dog.

She prefers to use her mouth when opening puzzles, so it will take some coaching before she can advance to the circle level. Overall a this is a good product. To make it better, I would add little handles to the center pieces for dogs to move with their mouths.

This toy was delivered today and I have already thrown it out. It is awful, terrible, and I will never, ever be stupidly suckered into buying something recommended by Wirecutter again. (That’s why this toy is sold out.

Many people are obviously as stupid as I was. ) The toy kept falling apart when my dog rolled it (she got the point of it immediately), the plastic is cheap and junky, the top part is in two pieces that fall apart repeatedly, and even though the price has been reduced, it’s still overpriced for what it is.

I am so sorry I bought it. I have a much better treat-dispensing toy made of thick, quality rubber that I bought several years ago, and if i could read the name on it, I would recommend it in a hearbeat, if they still make it.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS.

This treat ball is great!! My dog will push it around for a long time. He looks so cute hitting the ball with his paw. And he’s always really happy when a treat comes out. We have a large one at home and a small one at work to keep him busy while we’re working.

It’s really durable too. He’ll bat it across the hardwood floor and inevitably it’ll bounce down the stairs and is still totally fine. You can adjust the inside divider to make the opening smaller making it harder to get the treats out.

Highly recommend.

This was a random add-on to push an order into the “free shipping” range. When we got it, I didn’t think it would last. We’ve used it once or twice a day for six weeks now! Our mini-Aussie loves, loves, loves this ball.

It has a slider piece inside, so you can adjust the difficulty/size of treat. At first we left it open wide, but she got so good at it, we keep it at the smallest setting. Initially I didn’t close it tightly enough, and she figured out if she bounced it around enough – still didn’t break! – that she could eventually open up the whole thing, so I am a bit more careful now.

When she was teething, and kibble was painful, I cut up small cubes of cheddar, dusted them very lightly with cornstarch so they wouldn’t stick together, and she was in heaven. Well, well worth it. I will immediately replace it when it meets its inevitable demise.

The ball was wonderful. My Aussie would swat at it at first to get a treat, then he would bat it around for awhile as another way. Hand to me to shake out treats. I would hand it back. The ball kept him busy for 3 months.

He must have seen seagulls dropping clams to break open their shells. He did that with the ball. I am impressed. the plastic is thick but apparently not thick enough for my determined Aussie. I need a ball that is just a little bigger than the 4 inches this one is.

Tried stuffing small cookies into these, but it’s kind of tricky to get the cookies in just right to be an effective challenge for the pup. Most of the time the cookies just fall out. Tried inserting a bully stick into it, but again, the stick needs to be of the right thickness for it to work.

As a bully stick (or correct size) holder, it works well; keeps the pup from just marching through the stick. However, to pull the stick out more, I often end up using a set of pliers to pull the remaining bully stick out.

So, it works; just takes a bit more work. Maybe I need to research more on how to use this thing. But so far it’s been durable and “works. “.

I adopted a very tough chewer and was looking for something to keep him amused and his teeth away from things where teeth should not be! The rubber has some give to it so I’m not worried about him chipping a tooth, which was a concern with some of the harder toys.

It’s pretty strong – first one lasted him six months with daily use. I use the True Acre All-Natural Dental Chew Sticks with these. Occasionally one will slide out too easily but mostly they fit well.

Sometimes I have to help rescue the last little bit but pup seems to enjoy the challenge. It’s tough enough to keep him distracted but not so difficult that he gives up.

Hands down best toy we have purchased for our pup! She is a very heavy chewer and most toys are completely destroyed within a few minutes. She also adores food puzzles. This toy has lasted us 3 or 4 months and is just starting to break down due to our girls persistent chewing, throwing up in the air, etc.

Once this one is no longer safe or usable I will definitely repurchase. I stuff it with chicken jerky and stop the ends with a smaller treat. She is always able to get all the treat out and I don’t know how because it seems pretty tricky! It will keep her engaged for at least 20 minutes which is great for zoom calls!.

We have an energetic and smart rescue hound who always needs outlets to use her brain and nose. This toy was perfect for her! The lids are a great addition. It took her a few minutes to figure out how to spin the tubes so I worked with her at first to understand the toy.

She caught on quickly and now it’s all her. Once she caught on we were able to advance her by switching up different cap combinations. I like to feed her meals in this, so she’s working and keeping busy while I attend to other things.

If we use the difficult caps, the three hole one, it takes her maybe 25 minutes or so to eat her meal? I have to refill it but it’s still time that she isn’t bored. She loves this toy, she is excited to see it and waits while I fill it.

It’s just a really great addition to our routine so thank you! It is heavy and well made, she has yet to tip it over and she’s 75lbs. Now I just need more like it so we can switch it up for her! I would say that you shouldn’t leave your dog alone with this or any plastic toy, our girl isn’t a chewer but I could see this toy being chewed on quickly.

I always stay within eye sight in the event she knocks it over or to fill it once she’s emptied it. Lastly, our other hound mix doesn’t understand it yet but he just may need more time to work with it, he uses a spinner feeder currently and loves that.

Love this fun toy! I’m always looking for extra ways to feed my pup so he takes a bit longer to eat his meals. This is a great fit for two reasons. First, every time he swipes at it, only one or two pieces of food or treats fall out.

Second, he is easily frustrated, and I wanted to help him build some perseverance. If something is too difficult to figure out, he will leave it to the next fun thing to do. However, when his favorite treats are involved, he tries really hard! It was very satisfying to watch him nose, swipe, smell, and learn how to make it work for him.

He had many failures, but ultimately succeeded. My only advice is to check the measurements. It was smaller than I imagined, my guy at 6 months is already 60lbs, so he towers over this toy. This is not a detractor for me, just an observation.

For us, we love this little contraption, and it routinely makes it into the feeding rotation.

I have a 20lbs Terrier mutt, who is wicked smart. Level 3 & 4 toys take her 2-3 minutes to solve and by solve I mean she’s eaten all her food. I bought 1 toy that literally took her 15 seconds to solve/eat.

I didn’t have high hopes for this for her. I bought it for a new rescue dog, who is still trying to figure out puzzle feeders. Anyway, I set this up for the Terrier and it took her 7 minutes to solve!!! 7 MINUTES TO SOLVE!!! I was beyond thrilled.

It comes with 2 different tops that can be screwed on. Our dog food is too big to go through the top with 3 holes, so I use the top with 1 large hole. The new rescue dog also figured it out, I leave off the tops completely for him.

It takes him about 15-20 minutes. Bless, he’s not the sharpest. The Terrier tries to unscrew the tops with her mouth, so I would not leave a dog unattended whilst they work on this. Easy to put together, and easy to clean (dishwasher).

The base is heavy but a determined dog will knock this over, no problem. Sometimes, I will stand there whilst they solve it, and put my foot on the base so they can’t tip it over. Totally worth the money.