Welcome to Day 67 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!
Suspended Puzzles
At a glance:
- taking puzzles to a new height, literally, changes the challenge greatly
- you really can suspend any puzzle, and today, we are going to build on the puzzling abilities developed on Day 53 in Part 1 – you can start there, if you like, to help your dogs gain the skills
- food and cognitive based enrichment
- 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 puzzle for their pets.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets. - Suspended puzzle prep will probably take you about 5-10 minutes – having a collection of puzzle stuff is a good idea…it will resemble a pile of rubbish or recycling!
What do you need?
- a range of food rewards
- a toy or toys that your dog loves
- dog lead, cord, show lace, rope or similar (you could even use a bamboo stick, pole, broom or similar)
- Stuffables
- balls or toys with holes – the more holes the better!
- plastic playing cones, with holes
- plastic milk cartons, with handle
- cardboard wine bottle carriers
- fabric shopping bags (make sure that the bag is fabric only and not coated in or made of plastic)
Enrichment Goals:
- to encourage a wide range of foraging and exploratory behaviours
- to do more feeding related behaviour than eating
- to encourage the development of strategies (behaviours) for getting the food out of the suspended devices
- by varying the design of suspended bottles we will facilitate carrying out a range of different behaviours, broadening the dog’s repertoire
While this challenge is certainly food based, they are also experiencing cognitive, sensory and environmental enrichment, with lots of crossover between categories.
Working out how to get to the food and developing dexterous skills in manipulating the suspended puzzles are examples of cognitive challenge.
Sniffing out, tasting and chewing food all offer sensory pay off, but so does finding their way through each food puzzle, determining its value, and engaging in the puzzle of getting to the good stuff.
Suspended puzzles encourage pets to interact with their environment – just the very interaction with the bottle is encouraging the pet to manipulate their surroundings, to get the things they like.
By carefully layering the challenge, so that they don’t give, we want to help the dog expand their range of puzzle-busting behaviours and facilitate your pet applying strategies from other puzzles to new ones; that’s a true cognitive gift and is growing your dog’s brain!
What goals can you add to this list for your pets?
How can we achieve these goals?
- give your pet plenty of space for working on suspended puzzles and bear in mind there will be mess, so think about spaces that are easier for clean up
- the more difficult you have made the challenge, the higher the value the reward must be so use HIGH value foods to motivate exploration and experimentation and make it VERY easy to get the food (no frustration!)
- if your dog just dives in, in full on destruction mode, that might also be an indicator that they need an easier challenge so they get to experiment with a broader range of behaviours
What adjustments will you make for your pets?
Applications of Suspended Puzzles:
Suspended puzzles are a great way to expand your puzzling-arsenal and carefully increasing the challenge will really stretch the dog’s puzzling abilities.
These puzzles offer lots of different possibilities for expanding the dog’s behavioural range, truly engaging them cognitively.
Suspended puzzles are truly adaptable – there really is no limit to how they can be adapted to suit different puzzling levels.
What I tend to see, though, when puzzles are given to dogs, is that well-meaning owners go waaaaay over board, coming up with the most elaborate designs to really challenge their pet.
Suspending puzzles can be quite a change for many dogs so taking it easy and increasing challenge very gradually is more worthwhile.
While it’s great to go for challenge, it’s important that enrichment remain enriching. That means that the challenge must be made appropriate and doable for the individual puzzler.
Our job is to adjust the puzzle difficulty so that our dog uses a range of behaviour and gets to the goal pretty quickly.
This is the true way to improve the dog’s confidence in puzzling (and in life) and help them expand their behavioural repertoire.
Because of the home made nature and variable materials used in suspended puzzles, it’s best to supervise your pet carefully when they have access to this puzzle.
Know your dog! If you have an ingester, these may not work.
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 bottle.
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. With bottles, remove the lid and plastic ring before giving to your pet. Play safe!
Enrichment Options
Suspending puzzles increases challenge suddenly and drastically. It’s important to work incrementally to help your dog develop skills (behaviours) to solve these puzzles.
Increase or decrease difficulty by lowering and loosening the line, and by working against a wall or surface or have the puzzles freestanding.
Beginners:
- puzzle is suspended at or lower than your pet’s chin height
- the line is looser
- puzzle is suspended against a wall or surface
Intermediate:
- puzzle is suspended at or slightly above your pet’s chin height
- the line is tighter
- puzzle is suspended against a walk or surface
Advanced:
- puzzle is suspended at or slightly above your pet’s chin height
- the line is tighter
- puzzle is freestanding
Option 1 Holey Balls
Balls or toys with holes are great for suspended puzzles as they allow treats to fall out the more the dog manipulates them.
Easier:
Suspend the puzzle against a wall, piece of furniture or other surface. This makes it a little easier for the dog to spin and win!
Make sure to use treats or food rewards that easily fit out the holes in the toy used otherwise your dog will try to bite and tug at the ball or toy.
Work through the beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
More challenging:
Suspend your puzzle freestanding!
Option 2 Suspended Cones
Be on the look out for anything with holes, grids or gaps in, as they can make great props for suspended puzzles. These kids sports cones are a great addition to your puzzle equipment and are available in toy and sports stores.
Easier:
Suspend the puzzle against a wall, piece of furniture or other surface. This makes it a little easier for the dog to spin and win!
Make sure to use treats or food rewards that easily fit out the holes in the cone or item used otherwise your dog will try to bite and tug at it. Frustration isn’t enriching!
Work through the beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
More challenging:
Suspend your puzzle freestanding!
Option 3 Suspended Milk Cartons
Plastic milk cartons make really challenging puzzles, especially when suspended by their handle.
The smaller cartons are easier for dogs to solve, especially when full or almost full. A larger carton is more difficult and will require more skill and problem solving.
Easier:
Suspend the puzzle against a wall, piece of furniture or other surface. This makes it a little easier for the dog to spin and win!
Use a smaller carton with more food that fits easily out of the opening to prevent your dog biting and tugging at the carton too much. Frustration isn’t enriching!
Work through the beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
We have added various challenges to this puzzle here by suspending multiple cartons, of different sizes and suspended in different ways with one hanging from a dog collar.
More challenging:
Suspend your puzzle freestanding or from the back of a chair for a little extra challenge.
Option 4 Suspended Winebox
Wine bottle carriers make great puzzles and we will be using them again, later over the #100days. Today, we are going to suspend ’em!
This puzzle is best left hanging and freestanding. Here, I’ve hung it using a dog lead from a table.
You can add food, toys or stuffables to the winebox and the different partitions make it trickier to reach the goal. I have added a silicone muffin pan, upside down, with treats on top. Puzzle in a puzzle!
Lots of challenge with this one!
Option 5 Suspended Bag
Using a fabric shopping bag can really add to the challenge of suspended puzzles. Because they are floppier, unlike the winebox, they are little more difficult to manipulate and get their head in and out of.
Like our suspended basket puzzle on Day 53, this is a great one for dogs who have a favourite toy that they really like to work for; using a fabric bag is trickier. But you can add a stuffable or another puzzle with food rewards – versatile and challenging!
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 