What is Enrichment and How Can it Address Your Dog's Behavioral Challenges
Enrichment has become a bit of a buzzword over the past few years. But what exactly is enrichment, why is it important for your dog, and how can it help with their behavioral issues?
The Pet Harmony team of behavior consultants (and my mentors) have put together the 14 categories of pet enrichment:
- Health/Veterinary Care
- Hygiene
- Nutrition
- Physical Exercise
- Sensory Stimulation
- Safety
- Security
- Species Typical Behaviors
- Foraging
- Social Interaction
- Mental Stimulation
- Calming
- Independence
- Environment
This list may surprise you (or maybe not!). Let’s explore how these categories can play out in training.
Understanding Behaviour Through Enrichment
Behavior is driven by a dog’s needs. When a dog performs a behavior that humans find annoying, upsetting, or worrisome, it’s often because the behavior meets a specific need for the dog. Here’s a basic breakdown:
- The environment cues the dog to perform a behavior.
- That behavior serves a need, so the dog continues to perform it when the cue appears.
For example, consider a dog that jumps on their human when they come home:
- Cue: The human opening the door.
- Behavior: The dog runs and jumps on the human.
- Outcome: The dog makes physical contact (paws on the person, sniffing/tasting their mouth) and may even get reinforcement through attention (talking, touching).
If the need driving this behavior is social interaction, the dog repeats it because it’s effective. Even shouting or pushing can inadvertently reinforce the behavior if the dog perceives it as attention. Instead, we can use enrichment to meet the dog’s needs in more appropriate ways.
Practical Example: Managing Jumping
Instead of reinforcing jumping, you can:
- Offer a tug toy when returning home to redirect their need for social interaction into a game.
- Toss food on the floor to reward all four paws on the ground as you enter.
- Reinforce behaviors you like before jumping occurs, such as sitting or standing (check out my post "The Art of Lazy Dog Training: Easy Tips for Success").
The key is identifying the underlying need and finding creative ways to fulfill it.
Addressing Common Behaviours Through Enrichment
Digging is another behavior that often frustrates dog parents. Dogs dig for many reasons, including:
- Innate breed traits (e.g., terriers)
- Hunting
- Boredom
- Temperature regulation
- Escape
- Burying or retrieving items
- Simply for fun!
Solution: Give them a legal place to dig! By providing a designated digging area, such as a sandbox or specific spot in the yard, you can redirect this natural behavior in a way that works for both you and your dog.
The Power of the Snuffle Box
One of my favorite enrichment activities is the snuffle box. It’s affordable, versatile, and engages multiple enrichment categories:
- Physical Exercise: Dogs use their paws, legs, and mouths to pull and tear items.
- Sensory Stimulation: They sniff for food, touch and lick different textures, and hear sounds like crinkling paper or plastic containers.
- Species Typical Behaviors: Digging, ripping, and tearing are natural behaviors.
- Foraging: They search for food hidden within the box.
- Social Interaction: Your dog may enjoy watching you prepare the box.
- Mental Stimulation: Problem-solving to access food in various containers.
- Calming: Many dogs find this activity soothing and settle afterward.
Independence: While you supervise, your dog works independently to solve the puzzle.
I use a variety of materials to create snuffle boxes for my dogs, including cardboard containers of different sizes, brown paper bags, kitchen towel tubes, and paper packing. I take a portion of their daily kibble and hide the food inside the individual containers. Then, I place these filled containers into a brown paper bag, filling any gaps with additional brown paper and a sprinkle of kibble.
Here’s a video of me Prepping a snuffle box
And here’s Rory engaging with snuffle box
Observing Your Dog's Response
It’s important to observe how your dog engages in enrichment activities and adjust based on their preferences and reactions:
- Some dogs settle after activities like eating from a Kong Wobbler, while others may become overstimulated and need help to disengage.
- Dogs often have preferences for certain materials (e.g., cardboard over plastic).
- Duration matters: A five-minute game of tug might leave one dog wanting more, while another becomes over-aroused if it lasts longer than 10 minutes.
By tailoring enrichment activities to your dog’s needs, you can better support their behavioral health while reducing frustration for both of you.
Seeking Professional Help
A kiddy pool filled with sand, towels or balls can make a great digging spot for your dog. You can bury toys or treats (if using sand stick to toys and large chews vs small treats to avoid them ingesting the sand).
Upcycled tires can make fun digging pits! Plastic or rubber balls can be used to dig through (be sure always to monitor your dog and choose the digging material based on their preference and safety)
While enrichment is a powerful tool, every dog is unique, and some behavioral concerns require professional guidance. As a certified force-free trainer, I’m here to help you uncover the best solutions for your dog. If you’re struggling with your dog’s behavior, book an initial consultation with me here.
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