Do you offer your dog enrichment activities? Do you know much about enrichment for dogs? We're here to help if not, and to offer new suggestions if you already use some enrichment.
So what is it? Enrichment is a range of activities usually catered to a particular species natural behaviours and used to make their lives more interesting. It's often referred to as the difference between surviving and thriving.
Zoos use enrichment routinely to make the lives of their captive animals more natural and more interesting, so it makes sense to do it for our captive animals too! The most common options are related to food, as no animal in the wild has a food bowl placed down for them every day, instead hunting or foraging. Dogs do both of these things as they have a bit of scavenger in them.
In dogs, food based enrichment is pretty simple. Either make them have to work out how to get to their food or make them find it for themselves. Popular options are Kongs and snuffle mats but there are many more options and some come with added benefits. Aside from the fact that making a dog use its brain or nose intensively will help them to be calmer and rest better, some types of enrichment can boost their mood, make them less pessimistic about the world and boost their confidence.
The photo here shows puppy Violet hunting for pieces of kibble amongst some bits of recycling that made different noises as she moved around busily sniffing out the food. This helps pups who worry about some everyday noises learn to accept them as background noise becomes associated with a very relaxing and positive activity (sniffing and eating).
Food enrichment is one of the easiest ways to get started. Using a portion of your dog's daily food allowance in an interesting way provides a source of mental stimulation and in some cases, even physical exercise.
We've pictured a selection of the more common options for food enrichment, including lick mats, snuffle mats (or toys) and a variety of food dispensers like Kongs. Some are designed to encourage licking of a wet food, others are meant to make the dog figure out how to extract the food and are suitable for wet or dry food. Others, like the snuffle mat, encourage sniffing and finding. These are all calming activities!
One mistake people make with toys like this is putting them down and then leaving them down. This leads to a few common issues:
⚠️ Dog gets bored of them because they're always sitting around empty
⚠️Dog chews and damages them leading to owner frustration
Another common error is seeing advice online that says that you can keep your dog out of your hair for 30mins or more by freezing food inside a Kong or similar, then trying it with a dog who has never experienced this before. The dog gives up because there's no immediate reward and no motivation, so the owner decides this doesn't work.
When introducing your dog to food enrichment, you don't have to buy anything special. We use the grass in the garden and old blankets and towels for sniffing enrichment for example, muffin tins and yoghurt pots can be used for licking etc. Toilet roll tubes with treats inside and the ends tucked in or eggboxes sealed with some treats in can be hidden for your dog to find.
BUT.... here are some tips for successful enrichment:
1️⃣ Always supervise your dog during enrichment activities
2️⃣ Keep enrichment toys or equipment stored out of reach when not being used
3️⃣ Introduce toys in 'easy mode' until your dog understands, then try adding challenge, such as freezing wet food or making dry food trickier to access.
Number 3 is particularly important - if the toy is too difficult, some dogs will give up and walk away, some dogs will get frustrated and may vocalise or become destructive with the toy. When giving food enrichment for the first time, make it easy, e.g. wet food, unfrozen, in a Kong for an easy win, biscuits gently placed on top of a snuffle instead of buried in it. It's also better to use a small amount of food and refill once or twice in a session instead of piling food on. This involves you in the game and avoids your dog guarding the toy or stealing it, as well as improving your relationship and securing your position as 'provider of wonderful things'.
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