🏋️ Think of enrichment as a gym. Only instead of working at your dogs muscles, it works out one of the essential organs in his body. His nose!
🐽 Your dogs knows his nose!
Have you ever watched how your dog behaves when he wanders around your house or out on a walk? Your pooch spends a whole lot of time with his nose to the ground, right?
Your dog actually sees the world through his nose.
🍕While you may be able to smell a pizza your dog‘s nose is strong enough to smell each ingredient. 🫒🍅🧀🥓
Scientists say dogs sense of smell is 10,000-100,000 more accurate than hoomans.
Before dogs were domesticated they had to hunt for food.
From tracking prey By its scent to sniffing our varies berries on the shrub – without their powerful nose your dogs ancestors would’ve starved.
Although your spoilt pooch May know longer need to sniff out his next meal, he hasn’t lost those instincts.
What happens when dogs don't use their instincts?
This may lead to boredom. And boredom can lead to problem behaviours such as barking, chewing digging and anxiety.
Sniffing is part of the reason why dogs love walks so much. A walk exposes your dog to an entirely new world of different smells and scents that truly excites him.
When you think about it, depriving your dog of using their number one sense is almost cruel.
This is where enrichment comes in.
⏳ No Time?
Our days are busy with work, children, Study, housekeeping and a million other chores that we have on our to-do list.
We only need to find a spare 15-20 minutes a day.
The Long term gain for the minutes you commit, Will become apparent very quickly.
Dogs are never too old for enrichment.
Because sniffing out food is a low impact game, dogs of all ages can join in the fun. Older dogs who are losing their eyesight still have a keen sense of smell. They may not be able to chase the ball but will enthusiastically dig through a snuffle Mat or snuffle ball.
Ditch the dish!
Kill two birds with one stone.
Use snuffle mats, or snuffle balls,
scatter feeding or other enrichment ideas at breakfast and dinnertime.
If you stop and think about it, a dog bowl is a human intervention. While it makes sense for us to eat out of a bowl, it’s boring for a dog to receive a meal without working for it.
After a little time. Your pooch will associate Enrichment
as a calm happy and safe.
My dogs has anxiety.
If your dog suffers from anxiety like meeting a new person or dog sitter. Enrichment can be extremely beneficial in the circumstances. Many dogs instantly forget their fears as they focus on sniffing around and hunting for treats.
Chewing is calming.
Dogs chew to relieve boredom, loneliness, stress, frustration and anxiety. The act of chewing has a calming and comforting effect on the adrenal-pituitary axis in the brain - it triggers the release of endorphins, and as such is a tool that the dog has at his disposal in order to 'self-medicate' for anxiety and stress.
Chewing is a self- soothing behaviour as it releases endorphins which helps to relax and calm a dogs.
Healthy long lasting chews is the easiest way to add enrichment to your dogs day. Chewing is also great for dental hygiene, relives boredom stress and anxiety.
Always supervise enrichment.
Use enrichment if your dog is tired and stressed out.
If you teach your dog how to use his enrichment time correctly. It WILL relax and calm your dog.
Go to our instagram for simple and effective enrichment DIY ideas.