Welcome to Day 16 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!
Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.
Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!
Tubs
At a glance:
- plastic tubs that are the puzzle or have fun and puzzles inside
- food based enrichment
- add food, add the lid, add packing, stick in a busy box, stack in another tub
- get the family involved in this one – kids love making puzzles for pets and these challenges offer lots of opportunities for children to use their imagination to come up with the best tub puzzles for their pets.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets. - prepping tub puzzles will take 5-10 minutes and you can use lots of the bits and pieces we use in other puzzles
Because of the home made nature and variable materials used in tub puzzles, it’s best to supervise your pet carefully when they have access to this puzzle.
Know your dog! If you have an ingester or a cruncher, tub puzzles may not work for you and at the very least, careful supervision will be required. Although they might still eat the plastic in a tub puzzle, it will just take them longer.
If you are concerned about your dog ingesting non-food items during puzzling, have a pocketful of HIGH value treats in your pocket and be ready to toss a couple toward your dog, across their eyeline, if you think they are thinking about eating the paper.
Making sure the challenge is very doable and they can get to the hidden food rewards quickly is key to modifying their behaviour and expectations during puzzling.
Check all your equipment for this challenge carefully and make sure to remove tape, staples, other fastners, small pieces and plastic pieces. Play safe!
Enrichment Options
Today’s Tub Puzzle challenge will bring you and your pet through several levels. Even if you are both experienced puzzlers, start with the lower levels to see how wide a range of behaviours your dog offers, to solve the puzzle.
Do they just barrel in, in full-on destruction mode?
Do they try different behaviours for different challenges?
What range of exploratory and foraging behaviours can you observe?
Option 1: Close the lid
This is your starting point and it builds on puzzling challenges like Busy Boxes.
Beginners:
- add food to the tub
- loosely place the lid on the tub and give it to the dog
This might be important to help build confidence in the process and reduce frustration and blind-destruction.
Intermediate:
- add food to the tub
- close the lid
If the tub is from a suitable food, like cream cheese or butter, closing the lid and allowing the dog to clean the tub is even less work for you!
If your dog has difficulty with the lid (frustrated, vocalising, bites or chews at it intensely, gives up), try this adjustment to help them learn about lids:
Holding the tub for them and letting them snuffle under the loose lid can help them to develop lid-busting behaviours.
Advanced:
- stuff it!
- wrap treats into paper, such as newspaper, kitchen roll or packing paper
- add to the tub and close the lid
No lid? No worries
Pop a treat under an upturned tub and let your dog work out this brain teaser!
Even licking sticky treats from a slick plastic tub, offers lots of engagement and work!
Option 2 Wrap It!
Add paper on the outside to bring a new dimension to the challenge!
Beginners:
- add food to the tub
- don’t put the lid on and just wrap the tub in paper
- use a large enough piece of paper that you can make a Christmas cracker shape – scrunch and twist the two ends to secure everything inside
Intermediate:
- add the food, close the lid
- wrap it!
Advanced:
- stuff the tub with food in paper
- close the lid
- wrap it!
Option 3 Add to a Busy Box
Add Tub Puzzles to Busy Boxes to make a compound puzzle; a puzzle in a puzzle in a puzzle!
Beginners:
- add a closed tub puzzle to a box
- if you like, add packing or other items to the box like egg boxes or balls
Intermediate:
- add a stuffed tub puzzle to a box
- if you like, add packing or other items to the box like egg boxes or balls
Advanced:
- add a wrapped tub puzzle to a box
- if you like, add packing or other items to the box like egg boxes or balls
Option 4 Tube in a Tub
Stuffing a tub is one thing, but you can expand the challenge by adding a tube, such as toilet roll tube, to a closed tub.
Beginners:
- stuff a tube
- add to a tub and close the lid
Intermediate:
- add treats to a tube or paper cup
- fold down the openings to make a treat parcel
- add to a tub and close the lid
Advanced:
- add a stuffed tube or a treat parcel to a tub
- close the lid
- wrap it!
Option 5 Stacked Tubs
Stacking open tubs brings a whole new set of challenges for the dog. This works well if you can’t find or don’t have lids for your tubs.
Beginners:
- take two tubs that can stack
- add lots of paper, with treats, to one tub
- stack the other tub on top
Intermediate:
- add more layers
Advanced:
- use less stuffing in each layer so that it’s more difficult to split the stacked tubs
As for all our puzzles, monitor for frustration closely. Step in and safely adjust the puzzle so that your dog gets a quick win to keep them engaged.
Your challenge
Now it’s your turn. Show us what you and your pets, of any species, can do with these challenges!
Post to your social media accounts, using the #100daysofenrichment so that we can find you and join our Facebook group to share your experiences, ideas and fun!
You can comment right here too 🙂
We look forward to hearing from you and your pets – have fun & brain games!
AniEd Ireland 