The purpose of enrichment is to reduce stress in dogs and to reinforce
socialization practices. Providing a dog with enrichment allows the animal to
have a sense of control over their environment, which can help to reduce and
avoid stress. There are 5 types of enrichment possible for dogs:
Social, nutritional, occupational, sensory, and physical.
Social enrichment is the practice of promoting contact with dogs and other species. This can be accomplished by:
• Having supervised play groups
• Using group housing for compatible dogs
• Social living provides mental stimulation
• Taking dogs on walks, and creating positive interactions including play, praise, and petting.
A well-socialized dog will not become fearful, overstimulated, or aggressive when exposed to new people, dogs, places, or objects.
Nutritional enrichment encourages animals to use natural foraging/feeding behaviors to earn food. This can be accomplished by:
• Using puzzle feeders
• Hiding food to challenge the dog and encourage them to search for food
• Alternating feeds, treats, and chewable items
Increased foraging behavior may decrease unwanted behaviors such as excessive barking. It may also help increase physical activity, benefiting the animal’s overall condition.
Occupational enrichment challenges dogs by giving them a “job” that encourages physical and mental stimulation. This can be accomplished by:
• Playing sports, such as agility or fetch
• Practicing positive training regularly
• Use treats to teach behaviors such as “sit” and walking on lead, or tricks like “shake”
• Providing food puzzles
• These require the dog to “work” to get the food/treat out
Occupational enrichment helps keep dogs mentally stimulated, which combats boredom while also allowing them to release excess energy.
Sensory enrichment can be used to stimulate the different sense of dogs, such as sight, sound, or smell. This can be accomplished by:
• Placing visually stimulating objects outside a dog’s run
• Allowing visual access to the kennel environment
• Including auditory enrichment, such as music
• Select soothing music, keep the volume low, and the sound should not be on all the time.
• Adding interesting scents such as herbs (e.g lavender, chamomile), spices (e.g vanilla, coconut, ginger) or commercially available animal scents (e.g. rabbit). Place scents inside a piece of PVC pipe with additional drilled holes so that it can be easily
added/ removed from the dog’s pen
Effective sensory enrichment with herbs and spices can have a calming effect on animals, reducing barking and increasing resting.
Physical enrichment includes altering the quality and complexity of the dog’s living space. This can be accomplished by:
• Providing safe toys, and having a rotation to maintain the enriching effect of the toys
• Adding physical features to a pen, run or kennel
• These can include a bed, raised platform, ramp/steps or a door to allow access to the outside
Physical enrichments should provide outlets for positive expression of natural behaviors, and provide dogs with more control over their social and physical environment.
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