A Rainy Week and the Dog Brick Puzzle

The rain started on a Monday and did not stop until Friday. By Tuesday morning Pepper, my six year old cattle dog mix, was standing in the middle of the kitchen giving me a look I knew too well. She is 42 pounds of busy. When the walks get short and the back yard turns to mud, she does not lie down and nap. She finds a job, and the job is usually something I would rather she did not do.

I had three guest dogs in the house that week too. A young lab, a beagle, and a spaniel mix who hates getting his feet wet. Four dogs, one covered porch, and a tile floor that shows every muddy paw. Breakfast is at seven and dinner is at five, and the walks were down to quick loops around the block. What I needed was something for the middle of the morning, when everyone had been out and was now staring at me.

That is why the Outward Hound Nina Ottosson Dog Brick comes out on weeks like this one. I bought it two years ago. It is a treat puzzle about 12.8 inches across, and it weighs 8.82 ounces, so it is easy to carry from the hall closet to the kitchen. Outward Hound calls it a Level 2 intermediate puzzle. I call it the thing that buys me ten quiet minutes while the rain runs down the window.

The first time I put it down for Pepper, she pawed at it like it owed her money. She is a hard chewer and a fast thinker, and she does not like to be slowed down. It took three sessions before she stopped pawing and started using her nose. After two weeks she could solve it fast. That sounds like a small thing. It is not. A dog who has to think about where the kibble went is a dog who is not chewing the corner of the rug.

The way it works is simple enough. I hide kibble under the sliders, flip the lids down, and drop the bone pieces into their spots. Pepper has to pick up the bones, flip the lids, and move the sliders to get the food. The listing calls it a three in one puzzle. I call it a good use of a dog's nose. There is nothing to plug in and nothing to charge. It is a puzzle with moving parts, and that is all it needs to be.

Pepper does not need a bigger challenge. She needs a job that ends before she gets frustrated and starts using her teeth.

I do not leave it on the floor. The pieces are not for chewing, and Pepper is a dog who will test a thing if she thinks it might give. The Dog Brick lives on the top shelf of the hall closet and comes out only when I am sitting beside it. After each session I wipe it with a damp cloth. The listing says it is not water resistant, so I do not rinse it in the sink or leave it out in the rain. That is a small chore, and I would rather do it than replace a chewed puzzle.

The guest dogs get turns too, one at a time, each in a separate spot on the tile. A guest beagle who normally inhales his breakfast will work at the sliders with his nose for a good while. The young lab needed a hand the first time, so I left one lid open and let him find the easy food. That is not cheating. That is teaching. The point is to keep the dog in the game, not to make the puzzle a test he fails.

I tried the Outward Hound Dog Tornado the same month I bought the Brick. It is a fine puzzle for some dogs. In my house it lasted about a month. Pepper flipped it and chewed a layer, and I gave it away. That was the end of that. The Dog Brick stayed because it gave her three jobs to do with her nose and no loose layer to get a grip on. I am not saying every dog will do the same. I am saying that in a house with a hard chewer, the flatter puzzle was the one that survived.

The rain week taught me something about my own routine. Pepper still needs both walks. A puzzle is not exercise, and I do not pretend it is. On the days when the weather cut the walks short, I put on a rain jacket and took her around the block anyway. The Dog Brick filled the middle of the day. It did not replace the walk, the training, or the chew at seven. It just gave her a job when the yard was closed and the house was full.

I also like that it is easy to store. The dimensions are 12.75 by 9.25 by 2 inches, and at 8.82 ounces it does not feel heavy in my hand. For a house with four dogs and a closet that is already full, that matters. It slides onto the shelf beside the KONG Extreme and the LickiMat. Those are different tools for different jobs. The KONG is Pepper's evening chew. The Dog Brick is the rainy morning brain game.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to buy it for the dog who needs a job, not for the dog who needs to be worn out. A puzzle will not tire a young lab the way a long walk does. It will give a smart dog something to do while you drink your coffee. I would also tell you to put it away when the session is over, to sit with your dog while it is out, and to skip it if your dog is a determined chewer. The Dog Brick has earned its spot on my shelf. It has not cured the rain, and it has not made Pepper a calm dog by nature. It has given me ten minutes of quiet on a wet morning, and in this house that is worth having.

If you are looking at the Outward Hound puzzle and wondering whether your dog will use it, start with one easy round. Leave a lid open. Let the dog win. Then make it a little harder the next time. That is how I got Pepper from pawing at it to solving it in two weeks.