Enrichment for Your Dog
Enrichment is for Every Animal
Every animal needs food. Providing food in games, puzzles, and opportunities for stimulation and problem-solving has proven to be hugely beneficial for their mind and body.
Giving food isn’t the only way to provide enrichment, but it is a fun way for you and your animals! Sniff walks, training, high and low-intensity playtime, and playing with toys all offer outlets for natural behaviors. I take my horse on sniff walks and let him explore places he doesn’t see regularly. He loves looking around, smelling the ground for information, and grazing in new spots.
What enrichment do you offer your dogs and the animals in your life? To read more ideas about enrichment, head to our blog. The link is in the bio!
What is Enrichment?
Dog enrichment activities are any activity that allows the dog to express their natural behaviors like sniffing, shredding, chewing, and chasing. Some breed-specific enrichment might also include swimming, digging, or tracking smells.
The point of enrichment is to meet your dog’s needs with activities they enjoy!
Food Enrichment Activities for Your Dog
Food enrichment is a common way to provide enrichment through interactive feeding toys, puzzles, and other food dispensing activities.
Freezing food in hollow toys is a great way to provide your dog with tasty treats during downtime. You can find some recipes HERE
The goal is to provide mental stimulation and allow problem-solving. We don’t want the activity to be so frustrating the dog isn’t enjoying themselves. If you notice your dog becoming frustrated, make the activity more accessible, or try something else!
Our Favorite Interactive Feeding Toys
Non-Food Enrichment
Sensory Gardens
Shredable paper and boxes
Sniff Walks
Training Sessions
How to Prevent Frustration with Enrichment
If you’re just starting with enrichment for your dog, food or otherwise, the point is to keep it enjoyable. Food dispensing toys and interactive feeding toys might be complicated for your dog the first time around.
Showing them where the food is dispensing, utilizing toys with various difficulty levels, or using smaller pieces of food might make the activity challenging but not frustrating.
Behavior Enrichment Can Prevent
When we work with clients; our priority is finding ways to meet the needs of the family and the dog so you can meet the training goals! This plan of action often involves finding activities that allow the dog to display behaviors that might be undesirable outside of enrichment settings, like digging, jumping, counter surfing, and chewing.
A terrier pup that loves digging up freshly planted flowers might love having a pool filled with sand and toys to discover.
Dogs that can’t keep off the counter to find things to snack on might enjoy snuffle mats and cardboard boxes filled with chews and part of their mealtime food.
An Australian shepherd that loves jumping and herding people would most likely love playing with the flirt pole and chasing bubbles with their family.
