Brain Games & Enrichment Activity Deck
Photo by @lunasloftuk
ideal for:
Fulfilling daily enrichment needs, providing mental stimulation & bonding with your dog.
Packed full of everyday brain games for dogs, enrichment ideas, DIY puzzle toys and activities for interactive play!
Specifically designed to help you to develop calmness, confidence and connection with your dog in a quick, easy and stress-free format.
Provides mental stimulation to satisfy your dog’s cognitive wellbeing and enrichment to relieve stress, helping you achieve a more relaxed, chilled and calm household ~ all within a few minutes a day.
Play, bond and learn more about your dog!
As stocked by
Why enrichment?
Enrichment is what your dog actually wants to do. Enrichment activities give your dog an outlet for expressing natural behaviours.
In other words, simply ‘be more dog’!
This is crucial for their overall wellbeing.
Enrichment is a foundation for animal welfare and can help resolve a number of ‘undesirable’ behaviours which often stem from boredom and frustration.
So instead of trying to ‘fix’ chewing, digging, excess energy etc, we can do simple activities with our dog to provide safe and appropriate opportunities to fulfil these behavioural needs.
The main purpose of the deck is to be a resource to learn more about our dogs and help us give them what they need.
When a dog has plenty of enrichment in their life, they are calmer, more balanced and fulfilled and less ‘desperate’ to find their kicks elsewhere!
PACT Animal Sanctuary
Why not give your dog the gift of time, time spent with your dogs is never wasted.
Here at PACT, we introduced a deck of cards into our kennels already busy routine, and we couldn’t be happier.
The deck includes 52 cards which we have found to be a great help with the dogs, there is a card for each and every dog. We have found the deck to be incredibly valuable to our training program, its helped us bond, create calm activities, build trust and enrich the dogs lives.
So if you love your dog and want to enrich their lives, buy a deck! You won’t regret it!
As supported by the RSPCA and used by multiple dog welfare organisations.
The deck is used dog welfare organisations to provide varied enrichment to dogs within their care and support owners with their new dog.
The games help you learn what your dog finds engaging and encourages you to work with them in a way they find rewarding.
Common behavioural concerns such as lack of calmness, destruction and inappropriate greetings can often be resolved through fulfilling a dog’s enrichment needs.
What started as a passion project with my own spaniel has now given me a greater mission – to help owners understand dogs better so less end up being brought in for rehoming.
Always seek the help of a behaviourist when needed.
Benefits of brain games for dogs
Brain games create opportunities for your dog to problem-solve and make their own decisions.
They can also be used to help target and reinforce positive behaviours – namely calmness, confidence and connection with you.
Our brain games are designed to enhance these three core components.
#1 Calmness
Develop calmness holistically by fulfilling your dogs needs.
Provides mental stimulation and cognitive problem-solving, helping to balance out excess physical energy and satisfy even the most active minds.
The Calm category is especially good for use after times of raised stress levels, whether this is positive stress (after an excited romp around the woods chasing scents) or negative stress (a scary encounter with another dog).
# Confidence
Dogs find games engaging; they love to play and are individuals in their own right, thus they learn best through fun, positive experiences.
Solving puzzles, playing, having fun and winning rewards can be hugely rewarding and beneficial to a dog’s self esteem.
Good for low confidence dogs.
Remember, it’s the taking part that counts so be encouraging and make your dog feel like a winner.
#3 Connection
Encourages your dog to interact with you, spend quality time together and help you see more from your dog’s perspective.
Certain activities help to build touch trust levels while games make you a source of fun and aid your training (recall etc).
What’s inside the box?
- Deck of 52 Game Cards – The front of each card is decorative and features different illustrated dogs. The reverse of each game provides instructions for the games and activities.
- 5 colour-coded Key Categories: Calm, Focus, Play, Puzzle & Bond
- Booklet for additional guidance and progressive activity levels.
✔ Scent games – become part of your dog’s #1 activity!
✔ Enrichment activities – includes easy DIY puzzle feeding activities & provides an appropriate outlet for expressing natural & stress relieving behaviours.
✔ Brain games – boosts your dog’s confidence and motivation levels.
✔ Bonding exercises – strengthens your relationship through working together.
✔ Stealth training – reinforces positive behaviours such as toy sharing, recall, proximity and responsiveness while your dog just thinks you’re the most fun person ever.
Our approach is always positive reinforcement!
How to play
The deck puts mental stimulation and enrichment in the palm of your hand.
Perfect for busy owners as the games and activities are quick, simple and easy to incorporate into your dog’s daily routine without needing to rack your brain for ideas.
You will never get stuck in a rut or run out of ways to entertain your dog and enrich their life.
You don’t need much room to play and can utilise your dog’s existing toys along with basic household items.
1. Pick a card
The games are divided into categories so you can select a key area to work on, as and when needed.
Or for variety, shuffle the deck and choose at random to keep it fresh!
Tip: I like to pick a card whenever I put the kettle on. This way you can play a game in the kitchen for a couple of minutes while you are waiting for the kettle to boil and then have a nice sit-down and a cup of tea while your dog snoozes peacefully!
2. Follow the instructions
Play the game for 3-5 minutes (enrichment activities can happily occupy your dog for longer).
DIY enrichment activities will involve utilising household items such as old towels, cardboard boxes, egg cartons etc.
A fleece puzzle plait is recommended, though you could make your own.
3. Relax
Sleep is so important for calmness. Ensure your dog gets undisturbed sleep between walks, training and games to solidify any learning, decompress and gain maximum benefit from the sessions.
2-5 games or activities over the course of the day are typically sufficient to add moments of fun, interest and engagement.
Perfect for:
- Daily mental stimulation.
- Adverse weather conditions (heatwaves, storms etc).
- Restrictied exercise & rcovery from injury.
- Making you more interesting to your dog (especially in distracting environments).
- Helping your dog to settle in new situations.
- Occupying your dog and directing them onto calm acitivities when you have guests.
- Post-walk calmness & decompression days.
- Developing a relationship with a new dog.
- Getting the whole family involved with your dog (always supervise children).
- For people or dogs with limited mobility.
- Older dogs
- Busy times.
- Engaging puppies without overexercising them.
- Fosterers, rescue centre workers and other dog-professionals; boarders, groomers, walkers etc.
“The booklet is a fabulous wealth of information! As a dog trainer, you nailed some core elements missed by some owners. So, thank you for the effort you put into these and the cards.” ~ See more reviews below
£19.95
In stock (can be backordered)
Thank you for supporting my small business! Originally created for my springer spaniel, Cam, we are so pleased to now be making thousands of tails wag all over the world ~ Chloe
Leave a review
This card deck is very much a passion project made with a lot of love and so I really appreciate hearing your feedback. Thank you so much for everyone who has sent a review to me or to one of our stockists.
15 reviews for Brain Games & Enrichment Activity Deck
Think they're the best thing I've seen on Instagram! For someone like me who is a first time springer owner and had to learn everything myself these are perfect!
Great for any dog lover. Lovely cards with some great games on them. Simple ideas well thought out. Glad I bought them. I feel I have an ace up my sleeve with these.
These are great little fun games to help focus, calm bond and play with my dog, and I love the fact that it has a little book that has higher levels of you can train further. It's compact to carry around and to just whip one out, I really enjoy doing the focus games with my pup while out walking!
Lots of useful games to enhance both dog and human bond. Lots of games to choose from. Well worth the purchase.
Great games for every occasion. Wish they'd been plasticised. ...I intend to laminate them to extend useful life and weatherproof them. great for this awful wet weather when we can't get out.
[REPLY: Our #ipledge mission is to be as eco-friendly as possible which is why we have them made out of card instead of plastic 🙂 The new deck do now have a varnish to extend life.]
These cards are a brilliant idea, they are fun, easy to use and only take a few minutes. It is a great way of getting new ideas for games to play with your dog. I have found they are a great way of getting the rest of the family involved in dog training/play. I encourage everyone to take one card a day and play the game with our dogs. The dogs love it.
Good for training and bonding with my boy as well as making his brain work.
Had a quick look over the cards and I know Poppy will enjoy playing the games. Bought these over the Christmas period to keep her entertained.
Great idea. Received our cards yesterday. I think they are BRILLIANT. We are holed up in one room of the house (+2 labs!!) downstairs atm, whilst builders/decorators are in rest, so these are useful for instant entertainment! My one criticism - the script is not always easy to read.
[REPLY: Script font has now been updated to make them easier to read!]
They're easy to follow and great for giving you good ideas to keep them stimulated.
Some can take you as long as you want, others just 5 minutes but it's such a good way to keep then engaged, particularly on a wet and rainy day!
My niece who is 11 absolutely loves getting these out to play with the dog when she's over. I take a handful of the cards whenever we go somewhere too so I have something on hand to prompt some games and training.
Maggie loves them too and does an excited bum wiggle when she sees the box ?
A handy resource for enrichment and training. These cards are a great way to find games that will help you boost the behaviours you want from your dog.
Being able to pick a card at random is an easy way to make sure you include variety in your play.
They're great for rainy days and handy for holidays, and they include lots of ideas that would work for dogs who are on restricted exercise.
I especially like the little book that explains the thinking behind the games and how to take them to the next level as your dog becomes an expert.
On top of that they're very pretty and easy to wrap, so I am working out who I can buy them for as a gift.
Too often we walk Maisie where we should be using her brain and tiring her out mentally. Absolutely love them!
What a great idea! Can't wait to get started on Maisie's training!
They will make amazing gifts for any occasion!
A wonderful idea! Thank you!
Simple and fun fun fun! The calm dog playcards is awesome, easy and simple games to play whenever. Even my boyfriend is using them.
For regular doses of calmness, brain games & enrichment inspo...
Get in touch
Email me
@calmdoggames
Copyright © 2022 Calm Dog Games LTD
Company Number: 11764787
Registered office address:
61 Bridge Street, Kington, HR5 3DJ
Molly (verified owner) –
These games are amazing. My Staffordshire bull terrier is exactly like a grumpy old man, doesn’t like to do anything apart from when we go out for a walk. But these games has brought him out of his shell and he’s loves do them. We play a few different games throughout the day when I know that going for a walk isn’t possible. He loves the puzzle games the best so I always make sure we play one. I’m so glad I got these before the heatwave we have in the UK because they have come in handy. I would definitely recommend this for your dog because not only are you bonding with him but your also getting him active and doing stuff that he would normally not do during the day.
Thank you so much for making the games Steiff absolutely loves them 😊
Alexandra –
We use the cards every day and it’s helped us so much! Ollie learned how to relax and how to enjoy time spent at home with me. 3 cards and I have a sleepy pup for a few hours. Perfect for gloomy/rainy/cold days and superb for little pups who need the mental exercise and stimulation.
Calm Dog Games –
Thanks so much for your review Alexandra!
Janet O’Brien –
These card games are so good. I’m a first time dog owner with a busy job and they are perfect whenever we have a spare 5 minutes, no excuses, no need to plan, we just pick the next one and get on it. We need these in Australia 🇦🇺
Chloe –
Thanks so much for your review Janet!
D’s Fun4Dogs (verified owner) –
These cards are amazing, really nicely designed produced. Well worth the money. Many thanks Chloe. Our boys will love them.
Chloe –
Thank you so much! So glad you like them 🙂
Michael Goodwin –
Love the deck, it’s amazing for days when the weather is too grim to venture outside. Always wears my spaniel out in no time and has really helped me develop a better bond with him.
Gemma Pugh-Roberts (verified owner) –
Having a Border Collie puppy, these cards are well needed and well used!
I purchased them at the start of lockdown 3, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to go out as much with him and that I sometimes run out of ideas of mental enrichment games to do with him.
They are fantastic! Easy to use, well explained and great mental stimulation for my boy!
I highly recommend them for all dog owners and cannot sing enough praises for how great this product is!
Kirsty and Jessie –
I absolutely love these cards and now recommend them to all of my friends with dogs!
They’re so simple to use and are perfect for adding enrichment to your dogs life. They’re also beautifully illustrated too, which I adore!
We already include lots of toys, games and activities in our dog, Jessie’s life to make it enriched and enjoyable. However, I was looking for some new and simple ideas for days when we stay at home but also ideas to use to help with engagement on walks as Jessie is easily distracted by the environment. These have worked wonders and Jessie now wiggles with joy when we play her favourite games from these cards and they have improved her focus and attention greatly. I would highly recommend!!
Chloe –
Thank you so much for recommending them to your friends Kirsty! That means so much. Oh my goodness, “wiggles with joy”, that’s made my day haha.
Mara and Pudge the Lab –
No joke, this deck has saved my sanity! Having an energetic lab puppy during lockdown means having to be very creative in tiring him out when walks aren’t enough. This deck has a variety of games which are suitable for puppies of all ages and really gets them focused and building their bond with you. 100% must have!
Chloe –
Thank you so much Mara! So glad they have been of use, especially with lockdown! Look forward to seeing how you both get on!
Sepali (verified owner) –
Brilliant idea! Bought for my high energy pup: it has been really helpful in tiring her out, through enrichment, instead of heavy physical exercise which she can’t have lots of. It’s full of amazing ideas and has been instrumental in encouraging calmness. Every dog owner should have a pack! I messed up the order, but Chloe helped sort it out quickly and was so lovely throughout 😊
Chloe –
Thank you so much for your lovely words 🙂
Francine Gregory (verified owner) –
Love these ! Creative and easy to use and loads of choice. Lovely format that’s so much more practical to use than a book.
Mel –
I haven’t used these cards yet as they arrived an hour ago but I’ve had a look through and they look brilliant! I love the way some cards have increased levels and each card requires different behaviours from my puppy. I’ve picked out a “play” card I’m going to use with him in my lunch hour
Michelle and Alfie (verified owner) –
Love this! Very easy to use and easy to understand, the exercises are short and fun enough to keep the dogs attention, without getting too worn out, bored, or so full of treats that they wont eat their food. 😉
Me and Alfie especially love To Me, To You, it’s so much fun. 😀
Chloe –
Aw thanks so much for leaving a review, appreciated! Glad you like them 🙂
Sue Troth –
Second to none! I have had a long wait, due to post problems , to receive my cards. Chloe has been incredibly supportive and kept in touch, checking on the situation. I could not have asked for more. And wow, the cards are amazing. Can’t thank you enough , Chloe
Karen Homer-Forbes –
Fantastic, easy to use, bite size training for you and your best friend (canine that is).