Helping Your Dog Be a Dog: The Power of Enrichment
Enrichment is important for your pups physical and mental health. It allows them to engage in their natural behaviors such as smelling, playing, digging, and running. These are all essential functions for what it truly means to be a dog.
It has been shown that enrichment has a broad range of benefits for dogs such as helping them to relax, reduce stress and anxiety, and decreasing unwanted behaviors.
There are many types of enrichment; cognitive and behavioral, environmental, feeding, musical, scent, and social enrichment.
Cognitive and Behavioral Enrichment
Training
Problem-solving tasks
Memory tasks
These all include mental stimulation for your pup. These types of activities can help pups feel calmer, reduce stress and improve your pups behavior.
Environmental Enrichment
Toys
Walks
Dog parks
These activities expose your pup to environmental complexities. These help to increase your pups activity levels and encourage exploratory behavior.
Feeding Enrichment
Puzzle feeders
Toy filled with food (Kongs)
It was found that activities that include chewing and feeding decreases boredom with your pup. These types of activities cause your pup to learn.
Musical Enrichment
Playing music
It was found that pups feel calmer when listening to classical music. This leads to less excessive barking and more time relaxing.
Scent Enrichment
Snuffle mats
Scented toys
Exposing your pup to different scent was found to increase engagement and reducing stress behaviors
Social Enrichment
Other dogs
Other animals
People
Pups are social animals, so that means they need social interaction.
