Most pet owners can’t dedicate more than two hours a day to giving their pups a walk or taking them to the park. That leaves our dogs with 22 hours to just sit, sleep and wait around the house. Sounds pretty boring, right? Well, it is. And, what is more, it’s not only extremely boring for dogs, but it can also develop behavioral problems. So, what’s the solution to this? Enrichment activities for dogs.
But, what are enrichment activities for dogs? And how can you put them into practice?
Let’s dive right into it.
What are enrichment activities for dogs? And why are they so important?
Enrichment activities for dogs are a series of different exercises that stimulate our dogs mentally, emotionally and physically. They allow them to have a more interesting environment, which leads to a happier life.
But why are they so important in our dogs’ lives?
Well, in the first place, enrichment activities for dogs offer a wide range of health benefits:
- Stimulates cognition
- Improves stress management
- Enhances ability to manage frustration
- Helps manage expectations
- Tires out your dog
- Allows dogs to get more motivation from their food
- Improves confidence on themselves
Apart from improving their health, enrichment activities for dogs are also an essential tool for preventing them from getting bored.
Imagine only having two hours a day to go outside, and then spending the remaining 22 hours of the day doing nothing but sleeping and laying on the bed, you would feel quite bored, right? Well, it works pretty much the same for dogs. By doing enrichment activities for them, we are providing them with what would be a Netflix show to watch for us, a book to read or a song to listen to.
But what’s the problem with our dogs getting bored?
Boredom is one of the main causes of emotional and conduct problems in dogs. That’s because if a dog doesn’t receive stimulation, it will tend to find ways to enrich itself, resulting in unwanted behaviors such as continuous barking, excessive chewing, wrecking your couch and going potty inside the house. In addition, this accumulation of energy can lead to stress and emotional issues.
That’s why enrichment activities for dogs that prevent them from getting bored are so important.
Types of enrichment activities for dogs
Taking your dog to the park and allowing them to be enriched socially by interacting with other pups is an essential enrichment activity, but it’s definitely not the only one. Let’s take a look at the different types of enrichment activities for dogs there are.
1. Social enrichment:
As said before, taking your dog to the park and allowing them to interact with others is an essential form of enrichment, and it falls under the social category.
Letting them have fun with other pups in a safe environment at least once a day is key for them to live a happy and healthy life.
2. Cognitive enrichment:
This type of enrichment makes your pup work on their problem-solving and decision-making skills. By giving them a “job”, you’re encouraging physical and mental stimulation. Cognitive enrichment activities for dogs are great to combat boredom and encourage energy release.
This can be accomplished by playing sports such as fetch, practicing positive training regularly, providing food puzzles and playing hide and seek.
3. Physical enrichment:
Physical enrichment provides outlets for positive expression of dogs’ natural behaviors. Contrary to popular belief, this type of enrichment activities for dogs aren’t exclusive for the hyperactive ones, all of them should be enriched this way.
It goes from everything between creating an obstacle course in your backyard to providing safe toys, and rotating them to maintain the enriching effect of the toys.
4. Nutritional Enrichment
Nutritional or feeding enrichment activities for dogs allow them to not only use natural behaviors to earn food, but they also make mealtimes more fun and challenging.
What is more, if your pup is one of those that chokes down their food in no more than 20 seconds, this type of enrichment is key for them.
We mentioned puzzle feeders before and you may have wondered what they are. Well, they are an excellent tool to stimulate our dogs mentally and to make eating more challenging for them, which is one of the pillars of dog enrichment.
You can also hide their kibbles or multifunctional treats around the house, which makes them work to find their food (instead of receiving it effortlessly), while keeping your dog healthy by implementing dog supplements in their diet that act as delicious treats .
5. Sensory enrichment
This type of enrichment activities for dogs stimulate their five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.
Put it in practice by placing visually stimulating objects outside a dog’s run; including auditory enrichment, such as soothing music; or blowing bubbles with a dog-friendly bubble solution as it serves as an exercise for your dog’s eyesight.
But, wait! You don’t have to run off to buy all the dog enrichment toys you can find just yet. If you’re on a tight budget, or just want to get your creative juices flowing, here are some amazing and DIY easy enrichment activities for dogs you can do at your own house.
