You will often read about ‘enrichment’ which overlaps with mental stimulation. Enrichment is about providing outlets for natural behaviour which are beneficial for your dog’s welfare and will encompass physical and mental stimulation.
So how do we enrich our dogs’ minds? Below are some ideas of how to use everyday items and activities to ensure your dog stretches their grey matter not just their legs.
Play Dates – Social Enrichment
Plan for your dog to spend some quality time with their favourite people or dog friends. If they aren’t feeling too social, set time aside to do some of their favourite activities together instead and give them your undivided attention.
Dogs are a highly social species, and that so many of them enjoy spending time with people as well as other dogs is one of things that makes them so special.
Did you know positive social interactions have even been shown to slow down cognitive decline and brain ageing in senior dogs (and people!).
Nose Work – Sensory Enrichment
Dogs have a brilliant sense of smell and love to sniff everything. They gather huge amounts of information through their nose, not least of all the local gossip. A sniffy walk around the block is like us reading the newspaper or checking our emails. Your dog’s checking their pee-mail.
So how about taking your dog somewhere new, or perhaps somewhere they love but rarely get to go. Even better if it’s got lots of good smells, like the woods, or a busy high street (if they like that kind of thing). Let them pick the route and go at their own pace, even if that means taking twenty minutes to cover 100 meters. If the weather’s horrible you could do some indoors games too, such as playing hide and seek with their favourite toy.
Sniffing means your dog will breathe more through their nose, which reduces their breathing rate, which in turn reduces their heart rate and helps encourage calmness.
Puzzle Solving – Cognitive Enrichment
Food enrichment doesn’t have to be about puzzles. It can simply be chewing, using lick mats or snuffling out kibble. But food can provide great opportunities to stretch your dog’s problem-solving skills.
It’s important that any puzzles are fun for your dog, not so challenging they cause frustration. If in doubt, start easy and gradually increase difficulty over a number of sessions.
You can purchase a huge variety of food puzzles which require your dog to slide pieces across, open flaps, push buttons and so on. You can also do simple at home versions too. Try letting your dog watch as you put a treat under an upturned plastic bowl or cake tin and encouraging them to work out how to get it.
If your dog isn’t keen on having to work for their food, you can use their favourite toy instead.
If they need help that’s fine. Dogs and humans are great at collaborating. Did you know dogs are one of the few species who will look to where their human points, and might even follow your gaze to see what you are looking at?
