Taking care of a dog involved much more than feeding it twice a day, any animal lover will tell you.  One of the most often neglected aspects of dog care by owners are habits that stimulate a dog's brain.  Teaching a dog to do things that will occupy its mind will make a dog much happier, more well-behaved and more satisfying for the owner as well.  There are several ways that Happiness is pets suggests to challenge your dog mentally.  One is to put dogfood into a toy that slowly releases food as the dog works to extract it.  These can be disks with small holes in the sides or long, bone shaped toys with a hollow center.  Happiness is pets points out that these toys are a fail-safe for dog education, since the dog will naturally be interested in doing anything to eat their food.

Happiness is pets also recommends that you continually train your dog to do new tricks.  Once the basic tricks such as sit, stay and come are complete, owners can work up to tricks like jumping, standing on hind legs or fetching.  These tricks promote good behavior and mental health on all levels.  Most of all, they help to develop a good relationship between owner and pet - and isn't that what it's all about?