What is Canine Enrichment and Why Does it Matter?
Canine enrichment should be a regular part of every dog’s life. This blog post will tell you what it is and why it is important.
What is Canine Enrichment?
Canine enrichment is offering different ways to stimulate your dog and get their senses and brain working.
It can be something simple, like taking your dog somewhere new for a walk or getting your dog to sniff for treats in the garden. Or it can be a bigger commitment, like teaching your dog a new trick or taking them to a doggy sport such as agility.
Why Does it Matter?
Canine Enrichment is important for lots of reasons!
1. It gives your dog a better quality of life.
Dogs who are given more stimulation are going to be happier than those who are bored!
2. Can reduce problem behaviours.
Some problem behaviours, such as barking, destruction or attention seeking, are caused by boredom. Offering canine enrichment will help reduce boredom and so can also reduce these problem behaviours.
3. Encourages natural behaviours.
It is important dogs get opportunities to exhibit natural behaviours. Often we restrict their lives and they don’t get to be a dog! Canine enrichment is a great way to rectify this. We can encourage them to sniff, dig, chew, explore and behave in ways that are natural to them.
4. Learn about your dog.
By offering our dogs different enriching activities, we can learn more about our dogs. For example, some dogs love sniffing out treats while others prefer to find hidden toys. Some dogs love agility while others prefer calmer activities.
5. Bond with your dog.
A good relationship with your dog is essential to both of your happiness and training success. Canine enrichment is a great, easy way to build that bond.
Look out for my next blog post on easy ways to provide canine enrichment. It doesn’t have to be difficult, expensive or time consuming!
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References
Dogs Trust: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/behaviour/enrichment-ideas-for-bored-dogs
Schipper, L.L, Vinke, C.M., Schilder, M.B. and Spruijt, B.M. 2008. ‘The effect of feeding enrichment toys on the behaviour of kennelled dogs’. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 114: 182-195.
Siwak-Tapp, C.T., Head, E., Muggenburg, B.A., Milgram, N.W. and Cotman, C.W., 2008. Region specific neuron loss in the aged canine hippocampus is reduced by enrichment. Neurobiology of aging, 29(1), pp.39-50.
