Canine Enrichment

Nurturing your pet’s instinctive behavior

By Kennedi Travis

As pet parents, we focus so much on physical exercise. We take Fido for walks around the neighborhood, we play fetch with them in the backyard, or take them to the dog park. This is great, but these activities lack something our dogs desperately need. The missing component is challenging our pets mentally, which we can provide with different forms of canine enrichment activities.

So, what is canine enrichment? To put it simply, it is the act of providing our dogs an opportunity to practice their natural behaviors. From sniffing during a walk to getting breakfast out of a cupcake tin instead of a bowl, enrichment can be a fun way to give your dog something to do while allowing them to participate in natural activities. When we do not fulfill our dog’s needs with enrichment, they will find other ways to fulfill those needs themselves, sometimes in inappropriate ways. This may include eating irrigation systems, digging, chewing, eating socks, the list could go on and on.

When we provide enrichment for our furry friends, we are improving their quality of life, relieving boredom, providing an outlet for stress, and giving them an appropriate outlet for natural behaviors. This will lead to a happier and healthier dog, something we all strive to do. Providing these activities can potentially help prevent these behaviors from occurring in undesirable ways when our dogs simply do what dogs do.

So, how do we begin? I promise it is not complicated! Providing enrichment can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. You can use your dog’s meal or treats or accomplish your goal without using food. Simply letting your dog sniff to their heart’s content during a walk is enrichment. One thing I have noticed as a dog trainer, is that so many pet parents think allowing their dog to sniff is a bad thing. I promise it is not. It is a natural behavior we should be encouraging in a safe setting, like a walk around the neighborhood.

A twenty-minute Sniffari can accomplish mentally what a one-mile walk accomplishes physically.

Years ago, it was a very natural thing for a dog to scrounge around and forage for food. Today, we feed Fido out of a bowl. In doing so, we are missing out on an enrichment opportunity. Make mealtime fun time. Slow feeding bowls, scatter feeding, and utilizing snuffle mats are some of the ways you can turn mealtime into a mental exercise that Fido is sure to enjoy. By doing this, you are allowing your dog to participate in a natural behavior.

One of my favorite enrichment activities to do with my dogs involves a kiddie pool without the water. I scatter their meal inside the empty pool and place playpen balls on top. They love moving the balls around to find breakfast underneath. Don’t have playpen balls? No worries. Simply place your dog’s toys on top of the food instead.

Just like people, our dogs enjoy different types of enrichment. For example, my four dogs are completely different in terms of what types of activities they like to do. Jack and Bailie’s all-time favorite thing to do for enrichment is to chase bubbles in the backyard. Beau loves any puzzle that involves food, whether it has been purchased from a store or made at home. Annie is usually up for any enrichment, as long as it is fun and easy. The individual dog and its personality determine what they find enriching. Remember, the point of enrichment isn’t to make it hard for the dog to do, but to make it fun.

With summer quickly approaching, introducing canine enrichment to your dog may be beneficial as a good boredom buster, as walking outside in the scorching, Arizona heat becomes less feasible. I have found this to be very beneficial in relieving some of my own dog’s energy level during those hot summer days. One of their favorite activities during this time is licking frozen pureed watermelon out of a Kong, much like some of us enjoy a popsicle.

Dogs, like humans, love to exercise their brains. How many of you enjoy putting together a puzzle, doing a crossword, or other such activity? I certainly do. So do dogs! There are so many food puzzles on the market that your dog may enjoy solving during meal or snack time. There are also numerous DIY instructions out there to try with materials that are commonly found in households. You can spend as much or as little money and time you want.

Your dog is sure to thank you!

Kennedi, owner of Pawsitive Dog Training, is a certified dog trainer with five years’ experience servicing Fountain Hills and the surrounding areas. She has a CPDT-KA certification, Fear Free Certification, is an Educator in Dog Bite Prevention and an AKC CGC Evaluator. Kennedi loves all animals, both big and small, and has many pets of her own.