Puzzle toys are a great way to stimulate your dog’s mind and increase your bond with each other. We decided to try the Nina Ottosson For Outward Hound Dog Brick Puzzle Toy to see if our dog would be interested in working her mind a bit.
What Is The Nina Ottosson For Outward Hound Dog Brick Puzzle Toy?
This puzzle toy is considered a Level 2 out of 4 in terms of difficulty.
According to the box, this toy is designed to “help reduce destructive behavior by exercising your dog’s mind”.
It consists of four rows that have various compartments for you to fill with food or treats that your dog needs to find.
Your dog will need to flip open, slide over, or take off each of 20 different compartments.
The red compartments can either slide over or flip open and the white ones need to be lifted up in order to get to the treats.
Why We Chose This Puzzle Toy
We decided to try this puzzle toy for our dog as a way to see if this type of toy is something she would like to do.
We didn’t want to start with the very easy puzzles yet we didn’t want to do anything she might find too hard.
We realized this would be the perfect toy for her because she is very food motivated and would probably do anything in order to get her treats.
How We Used It
We filled each red compartment and underneath each white compartment with some of our dog’s favorite treats.
We then let her get to work at finding the treats.
Results
As you can see, it did not take her long to get all the treats out of the compartments.
Our dog easily destroyed this puzzle toy. She took the doors off of some of the red compartments. They were easy to snap back on though.
Pros:
- Easy to use. Just fill each compartment with your dog’s food or treats.
- There is no need to train your dog, they just follow their nose to find the treats.
- Can be used to split up your dog’s food so they have to look for it. This causes them to slow down while eating their meal.
Cons:
- Only works if your dog is food motivated.
- Can be too easy for your dog.
- Seemed to be cheaply made. Our dog took the doors off of the red compartments while she was looking for her treats, however, they were easy to snap back into place.
- If your dog is anything like mine, they may eat everything too quickly.
Overall Impression
The Outward Hound Dog Brick Puzzle Toy is a good starter puzzle toy.
It is good for dogs:
- That are food motivated.
- Like to use scent to search for things.
It is not good for dogs:
- Who couldn’t care less about finding treats.
- Are destructive with their toys.
Please check out our other posts on Health, Indoor, Outdoor, and Travel accessories for your dog, as well as Reviews of various products and travel destinations.