Enrichment for Dogs

Enrichment enhances your dog’s life by providing activities and opportunities that allow them to express their natural behaviours.

Providing enrichment has huge benefits for your dog:

• It allows them to carry out behaviours they enjoy and need to do, like chewing, sniffing and digging.
• It helps them feel fulfilled, satisfied and happy
• Studies show that enrichment can increase ‘optimism’ in animals
• It can help reduce some problematic behaviours

Enrichment is important for all dogs. It offers a range of activities that can have a positive impact on welfare, behaviour and wellbeing for all dogs, regardless of their age or breed type.

It also helps on hot days or if your dog is restricted on exercising due to age or injury.

• Rotate activities regularly
• Include a variety of enrichment types
• Be mindful of your dog’s preferences – think about their breed type and what outlets they might need, as well as their personality

Dogs are often fed the same food every day, but food enrichment can help change your dog’s ordinary bowl of food into a fun and mentally challenging activity!

Food enrichment creates lots of opportunity for dogs to display their natural scavenging behaviour, which is both enjoyable and satisfying.

You can use:

• Slow feeders – they literally do as they say by slowing down your dog’s feeding. You can find a wide variety at your local pet shop.
• Activity feeders. These are hollow balls with holes. Small pieces of dry food are placed inside. To get the food out, your dog needs to roll the ball around. You may need to show them at first, so they understand the concept.
• Snuffle mats
• Frozen stuffable toys
• Destruction boxes with food inside
• Scatter feeding some or all your dog’s dinner in the house or garden. This is a great way to activate their natural searching behaviour

Tip:

It shouldn’t be too easy or too difficult for your dog to get their food as this can lead to frustration. Please slowly build up to more challenging activities as your dog gets used to getting their food in this way.

Did you know music can affect your dog’s mood? Try playing calming music for relaxation or something more upbeat for play. Try offering toys that make different sounds (once your dog is not worried by the sound). You can also try playing the radio or podcasts or even reading aloud to your dog to see if they enjoy it.

Activities like scent games, nose work, hide and seek, and food scattering, all require dogs to use their phenomenal sense of smell. A slow ‘sniffy walk’ lets your dog explore their environment, at their own pace, which can be very rewarding (especially for dogs who must stay on the lead).

If you have a garden, no matter how big or small, you can make it more interesting to your dog by planting safe herbs and plants, adding logs to climb, and hiding treats.

Dogs are social creatures and spending time with their friends is essential for their wellbeing. Depending on your dog’s preferences, this can be with people, or other dogs.

Dogs don’t have to have exciting play with other dogs to benefit – slow walks sniffing the same spot is something most dogs tend to enjoy. If your dog is not keen on other dogs, just focus on allowing them to spend time with their favourite people. This can be through play, training, a car ride or just relaxing at home together.

Depending on your dog’s personality, they often love lots of choice and variety in their environment. This could be a choice of beds to sleep on or a variety of places to go for walks.

If your dog is anxious, they may prefer a more predictable routine and visiting quieter areas.

It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut, so think about some new adventures you and your dog can do together. You may enjoy hiking in woods, or a car ride to a nice quiet sniffy spot for your dog.

• Empty cardboard box – a shoe box is an ideal size, but this depends on the size of your dog
• Newspaper or scrap paper
• Empty egg box
• Tasty bite-size dog treats or your dog’s dry kibble

1. Get your empty cardboard box
2. Add some newspaper or scrap paper and shred enough of it to fill at least half the box
3. Scrunch up the remaining paper and mix it in with the shredded paper to fill the box to the brim
4. Pop some treats in your empty egg box and bury this in the paper, somewhere in the middle of the box
5. Scatter some treats in the rest of the box, making sure to keep some of them more hidden
6. Let your dog into the room to investigate and dig out the treats
7. Once your dog is used to destruction boxes, you can close over the box
   If you feed your dog dry food, you can hide some or all their food in the box. This will make mealtimes much more interesting.
   NOTE: Please supervise your dog at all times to make sure that they are not swallowing any pieces of paper.

Find it!
This is great fun for your dog and entertaining for the family too, watching your dog find hidden treats or toys!
Step 1: Show your dog that you have a piece of dog food/treat/toy in your hand
Step 2: Say ‘find it!’ and throw the piece of dog food/treat/toy across the floor
Step 3: When your dog finds the toy or piece of food, say a clear ‘yes!’ so they know they’ve followed through on the action that you wanted from them
As your dog gets the hang of this, you can make the ‘find it’ game more advanced.
Step 1: Ask your dog to ‘stay’ or simply close a door between you
Step 2: Hide the dog treats or toy behind pieces of furniture
Step 3: Open the door and say ‘find it’
Step 4: As your dog progresses, you can hide dog treats/food/toy in less easy places to find.

How to play
Step 1: Ask them to sit and stay or clip them on their lead
Step 2: While they are sitting – throw the ball and wait for it to land
Step 3: Release your dog from their sit/lead and ask them to ‘find it!’
Step 4: Reward and praise them heavily when they find the ball – they may not find it straight away, but give them praise when they get close to it, even if you have to help them find it the first few times
These types of games are also perfect for older dogs because they provide them with the ability to play fetch at a slower pace.

Start off with one of your dog’s favourite toys and give it a name. Once you have a name for that toy, say it every time you pick it up and begin play with your dog.
Then, using the ‘find it!’ cue, ask your dog to find the toy and praise them for it when they bring it back. After practicing this, your dog will associate the name and the toy and you can test them by asking them to find it among their other toys.

Dogs know their owner’s scent more than anyone else’s, so the following makes use of your dog’s connection to you.

Dogs use a combination of wind scenting (sniffing the air to locate you) and tracking (sniffing along the ground where you have walked).
You might need someone to hold your dog or wait until your dog is in another room then hide behind a door or sofa and call them.
When you first start this game, you may need to call your dog more than once. When your dog finds you, praise them verbally and give them a treat.

• A rubber mat with holes – an outdoor doormat works well
• Clean fleece fabric
• Scissors (ideally a fabric scissors)

1. Cut your fabric into strips of 2.5cm wide and approx. 15cm in length
2. Thread a strip through a hole and tie a knot to secure the fabric to the mat
3. Repeat until you’ve covered all the holes with strips of fabric

Once your mat is ready to go:

1. Place the snuffle mat on the floor and let your dog sniff and explore
2. Get your dog’s favourite dry treats or kibble and place a couple on top of the fabric. Allow your dog to take them, as this will help them get used to eating from the snuffle mat.
3. Once your dog associates the mat with dog treats/kibble, you can start hiding them deeper under the fabric. Your dog will use their heightened sense of smell to sniff out the treats.
   As your dog gets used to the snuffle mat, you can start using the mat for mealtimes – if you feed them dry kibble.
   Note
   Please monitor your dog when they are using their mat to make sure they don’t chew the fleece strips or the rubber mat.