Your dogs need both physical & mental stimulation.

Dogs need to be stimulated, both mentally and physically. Most breeds of dogs were developed to perform specific jobs for people, such as guarding; herding and hunting—work that demands great physical stamina and intense mental concentration. Without a “job” to do every day, our companion canines can become bored—at the very least. In general, a stimulated dog is a better-behaved dog. If the dog is physically spent, he is much less likely to engage in a variety of problem behaviours.

Physical Exercise:
Most dogs benefit from a minimum of two outings a day. If the dog is trained to come when called, it’s ideal if you can exercise him off-leash in a safe area. The first outing of the day should be 45-60 minutes, early in the morning, especially if the dog is going to be left alone all day. The second outing can be shorter, around 30-45 minutes. Strenuous aerobic exercise is best, such as off-leash running/play with other dogs, running alongside a bicycle, swimming, playing fetch games, and accompanying a jogger.

If your dog is a habitual couch potato, check with your vet before staring an exercise program. You’ll need to build your dog up gradually, the same as you would with a person unaccustomed to exercise. Puppies who are still growing should never be made to do any exercise or activity in which they are forced to keep moving. Playing with other puppies or people is the best exercise for a puppy. If your dog has hip dysphasia or some other type of physical problem that limits his ability to exercise, swimming is an excellent option.

Mental stimulation:
Dogs enjoy searching and working for their food, so rather than simply giving your dog his food in a bowl, put some of his dinner in a Kong. Hide small containers of food around the house and let him find them.

Training is another excellent way to stimulate a dog’s brain. You can practice basic obedience behaviours, teach tricks, or set up a few obstacles in your garden for your dog to navigate. Short sessions of 5-10 minutes once or twice a day are best. Keep it light and fun for the dog, with plenty of rewards for good behaviour. There are unlimited activities that you can teach your dogs as well as ones you can both enjoy being involved in together such as agility, flyball, tracking, search and rescue, pet visitation, clicker training, herding, freestyle dancing, etc.

One activity my lot like doing is problem solving. It is natural for them and it will help them grow into more self-confident dogs. As dog owners we have to learn not to rush to our dogs side and help them before they even get around to trying to solve their problems. If you have the time, try to let your dog solve the problem itself, like getting to that toy that fell behind that chair. In addition, you can give your dogs some extra, homemade, problems such as finding the treats hidden in a cloth.

Just get a clean old towel or cloth that you don't need anymore and put it on the floor with a treat underneath it at the very edge of the towel. This is to ensure that the dog will find the treat and that he/she won't give up and loose his self-confidence. Continue this training by putting the treat further and further in under the towel. When your dog can handle this, it is time to make the task a bit trickier. Put the towel flat on the floor, put a treat at one of the corners, on top off it. Start rolling the towel up, diagonally, placing treats strategically along the rim of the roll. Stop when you have reached halfway and the towel is at its longest.

Present the dog to the towel from the tip of the triangle that is left. Now let your dog sniff up the treats and roll the towel up. Some dog’s don¹t understand the exercise and need your verbal support, so try to encourage him/her to continue sniffing. When your dog understands this exercise, you can roll the towel all the way to the other tip, leaving you with a towel full of treats (don¹t overdo it, even if you have a big towel, don't put more than about 15 treats in peanut size, in the towel). Let the dog figure out how to unroll the entire towel to get to the treats.

When your dog knows this exercise, you can roll the entire towel up with treats in it, and try to make a knot out of the rolled towel. It shouldn't be a very tight knot to begin with; you still want the dog to manage the task.

When your dog can handle the knotted towel, even when you have started tying the knot really tight, it is time for you to get inventive. Put the knotted towel with the treats in it in a box or a bucket or hide it somewhere in the house or garden.

You will be amazed how this simple activity will work their brain to the max, plus if you have more than one dog, the cloth becomes a great tug of war toy for them to play with afterwards, so they both get some physical exercise as well.