Like any other border collie, mine is full of beans and has plenty of energy. She gets loads of exercise each day, about 2 hours in the garden playing with me, and another 2 hours walking in total (spread out across the day) Now that it's so hot she's getting physically tired quite quickly, I'm just a bit worried that she might be a bit bored mentally, even though physically she's shattered. She has a kong that she used to absolutely adore and that kept her mind occupied but she seems to of outgrown it (she's doing that a lot lately, outgrowing things she used to love, strange how they do that isn't it?)

So, really I'm asking if anybody has any suggestions for things I can give her to keep her mind occupied (I have an old lurcher too, so it has to be something she can have too or at-least an equivalent)

Any suggestions would be great, because I'm all out of ideas........... Thank you

My collie used to like playing hide and seek. I trained her to seek by showing her the toy then I'd shut her in a room and go and hide it. Then come back and wind her up with an excited "Where is it?!" At first I had to lead her pretty close, but collies are quick on the uptake. Soon she'd be sniffing around the whole house.

She also loved the Nylabone Durachew/Flexichew products. She'd chew them for ages.

Collies are great, so intelligent but completely bonkers. Too high maintenence for my current lifestyle though, so this time I rescued a lurcher.

My lurcher is only interested in eating, sleeping, running and his rubber chicken.

We've been having the same thoughts about our muppet but we've found that new walks tire him out - especially any that give him the chance to swim in extremely muddy water!! He's got a kong toy too which entertains him, I did wonder about getting a different one for him too and maybe alternating them (a bit like you do with toddlers!). I keep being told that agility is really good for them so may try setting up some things in the garden for ours - and we've also tried hide and seek but with the kids and he loves that too

Our main problem is getting him to stop barking when he's playing - it's purely an attention thing but he gets so over-excited he forgets that he doesn't need to bark to get us to kick the ball to him

Hiding things is definitely a good way to amuse them. I shut my collie out the room then hide his toys and send him off to find them. He's smarter than me though and knows most my hiding places already, so it's a challenge trying to find new and improved hiding spots.
Some calm basic training (just sit, down, paw etc..) causes him great excitement too and seems to wear him out.

He has a treat ball which keeps him amused for a little while when all else fails. He quickly worked out picking it up and dropping it repeatedly releases a few treats at once though, so it can be a bit noisy! Ball

Oh aye, the treat balls are good.

Teach her the name of an object and put it on the other side of the room. If it's a ball tell her to fetch the ball. Next teach her the name of another object and put that next to the ball. Tell her to fetch that. Teach her the name of several different things and move on to putting them in another room before asking her to fetch them by name.

If it's an option one way we used to keep our old border collie both amused and cool in hot weather was to take him out into the garden and spray the hose at him. He'd go nuts trying to bite the stream of water and it cooled him down a treat.

I used to make all sorts of complicated games for my Border Collie

Hide and seek was great...throwing two balls at once so he could try to catch them together (which he often did)

But the one he liked most was to tell him to sit, throw the toy, tell him to "wait...wait...wait......go!" He'd try to anticipate when I was going to say go and run just before I said it, so I'd vary it by doing more or less waits each time. iI he went on a wait I'd call him back and start again.

We couldn't play it for too long though as it made him to excited.

I got a couple of these for my dogs and they love them. They do require some human interraction so it's not a toy you can leave them alone with, but they are great for mental stimulation. They also come with gradings so you can start with an easy one then move on to harder ones.

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/category....FQuIzAodYgihJg

All these ideas are great. Basically in hot weather you can try anything for mental stimulation that doesn't involve a lot of physical activity that overheats them. You can try hiding a treat under a cup, then add several cups & see if they can sniff out the treat.

Frozen Kongs are good for that "ice lolly" moment. Or even frozen cubes of meat stock make nice cool treats.

Cool shady mooches under the trees early morning or evening are probably better for physical exercise, or "wet walks" near ponds, rivers or on the beach. Both of my dogs are rel water babies & as I live on the coast near a river estuary we have a lot of choices. But I'm not keen on having dripping dogs around the house every day so I vary their activities.

But I do feel sorry for the newfies & other cold climate dogs in this hot weather.

Some fantastic ideas, thanks for all the replies.

I've been doing hide and seek with her this afternoon, it's so funny. I had to show her a few times where I'd hidden her toy, then she clocked onto the idea that I was moving it each time she left the room. I hid her ball under my pillow, told her to go and find the ball.... she came back down around 30 seconds later with my pillow in her mouth, that gave everybody a good laugh.

Thank you for the link Chaotic spirit, I think she would adore the 'tornado' toys. Pay day Thursday so I will get her one I think, expensive but worth it!

Also, something else I do with her that others might want to try......... 3 plastic cups, put a treat under one and show your dog which one it's under, then move them around to see if she can follow the 'treat cup' with her eyes and identify where it is now. My dog isn't too great at this one but she enjoys the interaction none the less

edit: I didn't mean to post here

Some great ideas I'm going to try a few of those with my 2 GSDs.
Another thing I do in this type of weather is to keep a fine mist spray bottle with water in, and give them a spray, particularly underneath, every few hours. You can feel the heat coming off them and they seem to enjoy the cooling mist.

I've just been reading somewhere about cooling mats for animals. You soak the mats in cold water for half hour or so & the crystals in the beds soak up cold water. The mats are left to dry but continue to stay cold for several days. Great for putting in the back of the car on hot days or in the house if it's warm. They come with washable covers or can be covered with a cotton sheet for added coolness. A bit pricey though (about £30 to £40 for the larger sizes) so my dogs may have to make do with the river!!