Dog Puzzle

Dog puzzles are really great to keep the mind of your dog sharp. There are loads of puzzles on the market, but it is not really hard to make your own. A dog trainer told me that a few minutes playing with a puzzle takes more energy than running around for a much longer time.

It is still a good idea to also go for long walks with your dog, but this puzzle is also really fun to do together.

I've made this puzzle with stuff that was leftover from other projects. I used aluminum pipes, but it would work just as fine with plastic pipes or even cardboard. I just think the aluminium looks a little nicer.

The dog has to turn over the tumblers to get to the treats.

My dog really likes the puzzle.

Materials:

• Some pipes
• Some material for a base (I used some scrap oak)
• Threaded rod
• Two nuts
• Cork
• Dog treat

Tools:

• File
• Drill press
• Drill bits
• Hole cutter
• Metal saw
• Knife

Drill two holes in your base material. The holes must be just the right size for the tubes that you want to use for the risers.

Keep a little more than one foot between the two holes, so you can put a heavy tile or a package of printer paper on the base later on to heavy it down and make it more stable.

Sand or file off the sharp edges.

Cut off two pieces of tube to the height you want the risers to be. Mine are just over a foot (40 cm).

Make sure to sand or file all the edges and remove all metal splinters. You don't want something sharp in the mouth of your dog.

Drill a hole in the top of both risers. (1 cm / 1/2 inch from the top) The holes must be the size of the rod you want to use. (mine is 6 mm / 1/4 inch)

Cut your rod just longer than the distance between your two risers.

To create the tumblers, you just cut off some lengths of tubing. My lengths are between 12 - 25 cm (5 - 10 inch)

You drill a holes close to the middle. The further your hole is from the middle, the harder it will be for your dog to get to the treat.

Put a cork in the smaller half of the tube. If your tube has a different size, you might need to find something else to put in, like a plastic bottle top or something. I didn't have enough corks, so I cut them in pieces.

Now it is easy to put it all together.

Push the risers in het holes in the base.

Put the rod though the holes in the risers and the tumblers.

I only used nuts on one riser, so it is easy to change the tumblers for more difficult ones, when my dog has this one figured out. (the tumblers are harder to tumble when the hole is further from the middle of the tumbler)

Put a dog treat in the tops of the tumblers. The cork makes sure that they don't fall through.

I weighted down the base to make sure that my dog didn't tip the puzzle over.

Now ask your dog to find the treats.

At first she managed to get the treats out with her tongue, so I pushed the corks deeper in the tumblers.

You always have to supervise your dog when she is playing with puzzles. Sometimes you might need to help your dog.

Have fun.