What is Canine Enrichment?
Canine enrichment is about providing activities and environments that address your dog's physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing by allowing opportunities for your dog to sniff, chew, hunt, and dig! This can prevent behaviour problems, build confidence, reduce anxiety, reinforce socialization practices, creating a deeper bond with your dog
There are 5 types of enrichment:
Social, physical, nutritional, mental and sensory.
Social enrichment: Promoting contact with other dogs!
Take your dog walking with other dogs
Have supervised play dates
Sign up for dog training classes
Physical enrichment: All about getting your dog moving!
Regular physical exercise
Off-lead exercise in a safe or enclosed area
Set up an obstacle course in the backyard!
Nutritional enrichment: Using foraging behaviours to earn food.
Hide food to challenge your dog
Encourage searching for food
An example of food enrichment you can make from items you're likely to have at home.
Hiding food in old egg cartons, empty toilet rolls or paper rolls, is a very inexpensive method of enrichment for your dog.
Mental enrichment: Encouraging your dog to use their brains!
Activities include puzzles and problem-solving exercises
Food puzzles, treat-dispensing toys or interactive feeders
Teach new tricks and behaviours e.g. obedience
Snuffle mats can be used as interactive feeders and toys.
Sensory enrichment: Anything that stimulates your dog's senses! Such as sight, sound, or smell.
Place visually stimulating objects outside a dog’s run
Scents: herbs (e.g. lavender, chamomile), spices (e.g. vanilla, ginger) or commercially available animal scents (e.g. rabbit).
Herbs and spices in the garden work really well as sensory enrichment.
Important Points:
Activities that your dog is AFRAID of, or BORED with, DO NOT USE - these are NOT enriching activities.
Dogs are INDIVIDUALS with INDIVIDUAL preferences.
Change up your enrichment activities to stop the boredom factor!
Food puzzles make great mental enrichment.
