Hi, I'm James. And I'm Laurent.
And this is Beedi, our little Pomsky.
For those of you who are new to our channel, and have not watched our previous Pomsky videos,
Pomskies are a mix between: a Pomeranian and a Husky.
Pomskies are super energetic dogs, especially when they're puppies.
And we're always looking for things to keep Beedi occupied.
Because, when they get bored, Pomskies can easily get into trouble, and can become
quite destructive. When we first got Beedi as a puppy, one of our neighbors, who had a Husky,
recommended that we get a puzzle. And we're so glad we did. Puzzles are a great way,
to keep your dog occupied, and exercise their brain in a fun way.
In this video, we'll be showing you some of our favorite puzzles,
and how to use them. So, let's go!
Because Pomskies are part Huskies, they're usually pretty good at regulating their food intake.
We normally leave Beedi's food in her bowl.
But she doesn't overeat, just because her food is there.
Yeah. She only eats when she's hungry.
We actually had the opposite problem. Her food can stay in her bowl for hours.
And she doesn't want to eat it. She's a picky eater. Yes, she is.
My dads expect me to eat my food in a bowl? Who do they think I am?
I'm a Pomsky! That's not how I roll.
But the minute we take her food from her bowl, and put it in a puzzle instead,
all of a sudden, she's interested in the exact same food she ignored for hours.
The mental stimulation, of having her food in a puzzle, makes eating a lot more fun.
There are many types of puzzles, from different brands.
But the brand we recommend using is Nina Ottosson.
The first puzzle we ever bought, when Beedi was a puppy, was from Nina Ottosson.
And we've bought a few more since then.
We reached out to Nina Ottosson, when we decided to do this video.
And they were kind enough to send us a couple of new puzzles, for Beedi to try out.
And when we received the package, Beedi had almost as much fun opening it,
as she did playing with the puzzles themselves.
But these puzzles have turned out to be awesome.
Just like puzzles for children, puzzles for dogs have different levels of difficulty.
Nina Ottosson puzzles can be Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3.
And we're sure other brands may have similar difficulty ratings.
Level 1 puzzles, like the Smart Dog puzzles, that Sophie's playing with,
just have the food hidden under a white bone. You lift the white bone,
hide the treats in the puzzle, and put the white board back.
Dogs have to lift the white bone, with their nose or their paw, to find the treats.
We actually never got a Level 1 puzzle for Beedi.
The people at the pet store where we shop, told us that for smart breeds, like Pomskies,
we could start directly at Level 2. This puzzle here, is called Dog Brick.
It's a Level 2 puzzle. And it's the first puzzle Beedi received as a puppy.
We've had it for more than 8 months. And it's still her go-to puzzle.
Level 2 or Level 3 don't necessarily mean that the puzzles are super difficult.
It means that the puzzles have different functionalities.
You can keep a Level 2 or Level 3 puzzle simple, if you only use parts of the puzzle.
Or you can make it more challenging, if you use all the bells and whistles.
The Dog Brick has several functionalities. In the middle, you have the white bones,
that she needs to lift with her paws or nose, to get the treats underneath.
And on the side, you have the red trays, that she needs to open, to get the treats inside.
And underneath the red trays, there are hidden treats, that she can get by sliding the red trays.
But she can only slide the red trays, after she has removed the white bones first .
So, there are lots of different aspects to this puzzle.
And that's why she never got bored with it.
If your dog is smart, you can skip Level 1, and start directly at Level 2.
But we wouldn't recommend skipping directly to Level 3 puzzles.
You don't wanna put your dog, in a position where they're going to fail,
or get discouraged, and lose interest in the puzzle.
When we introduce a new puzzle to Beedi, we can clearly notice a progression,
in her understanding of how the puzzle works.
When she first got the Dog Brick, she struggled with it.
But every time she did it, it became a little bit easier than the previous time.
Now, she does it in a very methodical way. And she finishes it a lot faster.
That's why you want a puzzle with many functionalities,
like lifting, sliding, or pulling.
So that you can make the puzzle a little bit more complicated over time.
And make sure your dog never gets bored with it.
You also wanna make sure it's not a puzzle, where your dog can just
learn to lift it upside down, and get all the treats that fall on the floor.
The first new puzzle Nina Ottosson sent us is called the Challenge Slider.
You have to slide all the hole covers, to get the treats that are hidden underneath.
It's a Level 3 puzzle. But Beedi got the gist of it fairly quickly.
She struggled a bit, the first couple of times. But now, she does it like an expert.
And she loves it!
And we love it too. Because it has a tray you can pull out.
It's a lot easier, to put all the treats in, at once.
And then, you just close the tray. And you're good to go!
That Challenge Slider has been a big hit with Beedi.
The other new puzzle, Nina Ottosson sent us, is called the Dog Worker.
It's also a Level 3 puzzle. And that one has a lot of different functionalities.
We first started with some of the easy ones.
And made the puzzle more complicated over time, by introducing new tricks.
Because young dogs can learn new tricks.
Enough already with the dad jokes, Daddy. Jesus Christ!
There are holes, where you could hide treats, and cover them with the sliding knobs.
But there's also a rotating table, that she needs to turn, to get the treats underneath.
And you can make the puzzle more challenging, in a lot of different ways,
by preventing the turning table from turning, when you block it with one of the knobs,
by hiding treats into the knobs. And then, it becomes a multi-step process,
to get to the treats.
And that's exactly what you want from a puzzle.
Making it easy, at the beginning. And then, making it harder over time.
We try, as much as possible, to put real food in Beedi's puzzles.
And that works really well, if she hasn't eaten yet.
But if she's already eaten, and she isn't hungry anymore, she may not be interested in the puzzle,
unless we use treats, instead of food.
And let's face it, part of the benefits of a puzzle, is that it keeps her busy.
And she leaves us alone for 5 minutes.
Sometimes, we use real food. And sometimes, we use treats.
Sometimes, we try to mix real food with treats.
Because we use treats a lot, we want to make sure we don't give her junk food as treats.
One of the brands we really trust is called Yeti.
We've used the Yeti Biscottis, ever since Beedi was a puppy.
And Yeti has two types of treats, that Beedi really likes:
The cheesy chicken bites. And the cheesy beef bites.
It's real chicken, and real beef, but mixed with yak cheese, that Beedi really likes.
And we want to give a big thanks to Yeti, for sponsoring this video.
The cheesy bites are great for puzzles, because you want to use treats,
that you can break into small pieces. If you make the pieces small enough,
you can use only 3 treats. Even for a puzzle that has 20 or 25 compartments.
But they taste so good, that even a tiny fraction of a treat, is enough motivation
to make Beedi play with her puzzle. And you can refill the same puzzle, 3 or 4 times in a row,
which should keep her occupied for 20 minutes, without giving her too many treats.
And the more I do it, the faster I get, and the more treats I get too!
So, we hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, give it a big paw up!
And put your comments, in the comment section below.
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Bye. Bye. Beedi says bye. Bye