Welcome to Day 38 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.
Mindfulness is all the rage at the moment, and here we will apply it to just being with our dogs, really being with them.
On Day 4, we talked about just being; a challenge for both pets and their people. In our modern go-go-go world, spending some time appreciating the here and now can be difficult.
And on Day 3 and Day 24, we looked at the types of handling and touch our dogs might enjoy, or not.
Today’s challenge will combine these experiences but don’t worry if you are just joining us now, review previous days for background or start today, bearing consent in mind.
There are no big plans or training exercises today. We are going to dial is way back and be.
Learning to just be is not necessarily a skill that comes to most pet dogs easily, and indeed to many people. Just being is a lost art; in the age of smart phones and on-demand entertainment, we don’t have to be very often or for very long.
But, this is such an important skill for companion animals, who, at the whim of their humans, must be able to be in environments that don’t always cater for their natural tendencies.
Can dogs be mindful?
Well, we don’t have evidence for that and even if they could, I’m not sure we would know about it! But that doesn’t mean we can’t facilitate them developing some of the benefits experienced by humans who practice mindfulness.
Breathing deeply, feeling secure and safe, choosing to consent or not, and just being, bring lots of wonderful benefits in stress busting and relationship boosting, for both ends of the leash.
Being mindful, with your dog presents benefits for you too and together.
Be; really be
Where can both you and your dog be? Practice there.
When can both you and your dog be? Choose times when your dog is already calm and have had all their needs met. When the house is quiet and when you can be calm.
Don’t introduce toys, treats or other signals that might suggest that this is a training exercise. So, practice in a different location, wear different clothes, practice at times that are not associated with training sessions, activity or play.
Set up so you are comfy and so that your dog can relax in their favoured position – this helps to reduce shifting and fidgeting. You moving might cause your dog to be on alert, thinking that you are going to leave or going to engage your dog in some activity.
Put your phone away. Turn off the TV or radio.
Settle close together. Although ‘massage’ is in the title, you don’t have to touch, if that’s not your dog’s thing.
Breathe slowly, calmly and steadily. Match your dog’s breaths.
Sigh. Sigh deeply.
Ask your dog. Do they consent to being touched?
Touch your dog in a favourite spot. If your dog moves away, moves any part of their body away, starts to lick at your face or hand, or if your dog gets active or goes very still, stop touching.
Touch for a three count and withdraw. Ask them. Listen to them.
Massage your dog gently. Trace their muscles and bones, gently. Move slowly enough so that you can feel what’s happening under their skin.
We have talked about using some touch based aspects of T-touch here.
Think about your dog’s breathing. Think about the feeling of the lay of their coat. Think about your dog and how they bring light to your life. Think about your relationship with your dog. Think about just being, with your dog.
When you first start with this, a massage might just last a few seconds. That’s ok. This isn’t a race.
We practice this in Crazy2Calm class, as part of learning about relaxation, breathing and self-calming.
Dogs and other companion animals must learn how to be around people and people-goings-on. Dogs gain these skills by being around people, especially when they are young.
Spending time isolated from opportunities to be around people is detrimental to behavioural and social development. Dogs who are alone for large portions of the day, especially young dogs, may be at risk of suffering negative effects.
To help these dogs, we are tempted to spend the little available time with them go, go going. We think we are making up for lost time by providing the dog with activity, exertion and excitement. While all that stuff may be a good addition, consider just being as just as important a skill and a vital part of helping and supporting them, when you can spend time with them.
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 – just be!
Welcome to Day 37 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.
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 different challenges for their pets.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets.
prep will probably take you 5-10 minutes – you can store lots of these in the freezer too, so there will always be a puzzle ready to go
What do you need?
stuffable toys, such as Kongs, K9Connectables, Zogoflex
paper plate, frisbee, biscuit/sweets insert
pyramid mat, Lickey mat
muffin pan, non-slip dog bowl, ice cube tray
a range of food types
a dog lead (a shoe lace or a length of rope or cord will do too)
That rhythmic lapping is relaxing and calming. (Link)
Because of the home made nature and variable materials used in today’s puzzles, it’s best to supervise your pet carefully when they have access to these.
Know your dog! If you have an ingester, some of these puzzles 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 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 fasteners, small pieces and plastic pieces. Play safe!
Enrichment Goals:
to encourage lapping and licking – these behaviours are relaxing for dogs and can help them recover from stress (including excitement)
to slow eating
to help dogs settle themselves and soothe themselves
We teach pet owners how to Park their Pups! This can be a great way of helping puppies, new or active dogs learn to chill when everyone else is relaxed and for bringing your pet places such as outdoor cafes (set up clip here).
to slow down and choose calming, quiet lapping and licking behaviours, rather than all-out destruction
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 clean out the puzzle and developing dexterous skills in manipulating the it are examples of cognitive challenge.
Sniffing out, tasting and lapping different foods, from different substrates, all offer sensory pay off, but so does finding each puzzle, determining its value, and engaging in the puzzle of getting to the good stuff.
Puzzles encourage pets to interact with their environment – just the very interaction with the puzzle is encouraging the pet to manipulate their surroundings, to get the things they like.
What goals can you add to this list for your pets?
Something lappable after an outing is the perfect way to come back down from the excitement and exertion, and relax. (Link)
How can we achieve these goals?
provide a comfy safe space for working on the puzzle – this means that your pet won’t be approached or fussed with when there so that they can work away on their puzzle without too much pressure
use foods that encourage lapping and licking
if the pet is new to these puzzles, use HIGH value foods to motivate exploration and experimentation and make it VERY easy to get the food (no frustration and no destruction!)
if your pet is a novice, give these when they are calm and chilled and when the house and humans/other pets are calm and quiet – this will help them to associate calm with this context, which in turns helps to calm them further
although Lickimats and similar are very popular, some of the designs appear to cause lots of dogs serious frustration. Dogs might bite at it, attempt to turn or lift the mat, or even give up on it, all of which might indicate that it’s too difficult and frustrating (and not enriching). Take care and as always, carefully analyse whether an activity is really enriching for the individual.
What adjustments will you make for your pets?
Applications of lappables & lickables:
Once the pet’s use of lappables & lickables is established and they get the game, we can begin to use them in their day to day lives to achieve our enrichment goals.
make lappables and lickables available after stress or excitement
It’s great to have them ready for after walks, games, training sessions, after people come home or after a more stressful event such as getting a fright, after barking and so on.
use them to manage and redirect behaviour
Have them ready when guests come in, to keep your pet busy in another room while guests settle and to give to your pet so that they are busy when guests are present.
Smear a lappable like cream cheese or pate on the walls of a travel crate to help make travel more comfortable for puppies.
help to keep them entertained, busy and to settle
Lappables & licakables can be great to give when you need them to entertain themselves and to settle themselves.
sometimes stuffables can be comforting to a confined or alone pet
These are an excellent addition for pets that are on restricted exercise, crate rest or living in kennel confinement. Check out some of the suspended behind-bars options to help keep confined pets happy, safe and busy.
On Day 17, we talked about lots of ways we could use lappables and lickables to help distract and manage a pet’s behaviour during grooming and other husbandry procedures.
use a spatula, dipped in something irresistible like pate, cable tied to the leg of a chair or table so it’s easy to fit and remove for regular use
Stick a dipped wooden spoon into the plug hole of the bath or shower for your dog to work on while you bathe them:
line or stuff a Kong toy or other stuffable and wedge in between the sofa cushions; this will be at head height for a lot of medium and large sized dogs
Use a stuffed or lined stuffable between your knees to carry out husbandry procedures, such as eye cleaning:
smear the sides of the bath or the walls around a grooming table so that your dog can lap, while you groom and bathe
I found this vegetable cleaner, with a little suction cup, in a home wares store for €1.50 and it’s been really effective for keeping dogs occupied and happy for grooming and bathing. I jam in some pate and freeze it; there are two sides to keep them interested:
You can also buy stuffable toys with suction cups for dogs like the Chase n’ Chomp Sticky Bone or Licky Mats, and there are lots of other types and designs. The suction cup is handy for in the bath and most will connect readily to slick walls or doors.
A Snuffle Mat or similar feeder can be placed on a stool or chair for the dog to work on while you groom them too.
Enrichment Options
Lappables & lickables are pretty versatile. Choose ingredients to encourage lapping and licking.
When using people-suitable ingredients, please check labels for substances that can be harmful to dogs such as xylitol, oninon or garlic powder, raisins or grapes and so on.
Ingredient ideas
Spreadables:
pates, meat or fish pastes
cream cheese, soft/spreadable cheese, cottage cheese, yoghurt, butter or spreads
peanut butter or other nut butters
coconut oil
kibble mash (soak kibble in warm water (or flavouring like a gravy) and mash with a fork)
cooked and mashed potato, carrot, sweet potato, squashes, apple
mashed banana
baby food
commercial wet food, such as good quality tinned foods
Marmite
scrambled egg
Gravies and flavourings
To entice your pet and to make some of today’s options better for freezing, mixing the contents with something yummy is usually a winner!
yoghurt, soft and spreadable cheeses
water/ice
low-sodium stock
gelatin (small amounts as it causes flatulence)
mash wet foods into pastes, add water to thin if required. to make a ‘gravy’
meat or vegetable juices/water (allow it to sit so that the fat can be skimmed and removed)
baby foods
Your dog’s regular diet
Some of the options allow for the use of any and all food types, including kibble, wet foods and fresh and raw foods too so all the bases are covered today.
Option 1 Spread it!
Spread your spreadable on something for your dog to lick and lap:
paper plate
plastic frisbee
biscuit/chocolate/sweets inserts, right side up
biscuit/chocolate/sweets inserts, upside down
pyramid mat
Muffin pan or ice cube tray, upside down
Non-slip dog bowl, upside down
Stuffable toys like Kongs or K9Connectables or chews like Nylabones – line it on the inside or spread it on the outside
Commercially available toys like Chase n’ Chomp Sticky Bone or Licky Mats
This option might be particularly useful for dogs who are likely to ingest toys and enrichment devices, and when they can’t be supervised.
Because we are using ice, essentially, this may only be suitable in warm, comfortable temperatures. Don’t give dogs ice cold things to eat if they are very hot or after exerting exercise – allow them to cool a little first.
Line a lunchbox or tub with a freezer bag (or just use the bag) and add water or low-sodium stock. Add some kibble, regular food, treats, meats, vegetables.
Close the bag and freeze for a couple of hours.
Remove the frozen mix from the tub and peel away the bag (reuse it for the next one!)
Give to your pet to work on.
Use any freezable containers, such as :
lunchboxes or bowls
upturned non-slip dog bowls
Line the underside of the bowl and add food, treats and water. Freeze and then pull the ring out. This can make a great suspended puzzle by hanging the ice-ring up with a dog lead.
muffin pans or similar baking trays
ice cube trays, which are available in lots of different sizes
pyramid baking mats
Smear spreadable yummies and add add treats or food to each space. Freeze and then turn out.
Fill each gap with a variety of possibilities; scroll down to our list of ingredients for Stuffables that can be used. We talk about Pupsicles there too.
Load each gap in a muffin tray or ice cube tray with a mix of your dog’s favourites and add a stick-like chew, such as a pizzle to each mix. Freeze and your will have pupsicles with sticks, just like a human ice-cream!
Make a gravy out of wet dog food or spreadables by mixing with a little water. Pour the mixture into the container, freeze and have different sized treats ready for training, for stuffing in toys and for enjoying.
Using a pyramid tray makes small sized, handy treats and there are lots of recipes on line for baked treats too.
Add treats to each space and freeze or add smaller amounts of food, topped up with water, to make lighter snacks.
Freeze meat, wet dog food, or even a kibble mash and give the block to the dog to chew.
For dogs on more restricted diets, just adding their regular kibble or food to some water and freezing in a container can present a novelty that might be attractive to them.
Freeze fruits or vegetables in a tray or whole. If your dog needs enticement, dip the fruit or veg in some meat juices and freeze that. This is a great way to add low calorie, but very tasty treats, to a fat restricted diet.
Always allow meat juices to cool and skim the fat first, before use.
You can also use gravies, yogurt or cream cheese instead of or mixed with the water.
Lay a cord or dog lead in the mix before freezing and you will have a ready made puzzle-on-a-rope for suspended puzzling fun!
Option 3 Suspend it!
Suspending any puzzle provides entirely new challenges and sensory experiences for animals. Not only does it look and act differently, they now need to develop new strategies for figuring it out!
In this clip, the stuffable toys used are stuffed with baby food and frozen, to encourage lots of lapping & licking.
I love using these lappables for crate confinement for dogs on rest, for example. It’s an extra challenge for them without giving them access to something they might ingest. I tend to use paper plates and cable ties, with the excess to the outside away from the dog.
Option 4 Lickables
We can slow dogs down, encouraging them to use their tongue to eat, rather than just inhale food. These are essentially slow-feeder bowls.
And even if your dog doesn’t wolf their food down, these challenges can offer new sensory and cognitive experiences.
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!
Welcome to Day 36 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.
providing dogs with a choice of rewards based on their preferences
social, cognitive and sensory based enrichment
understanding reinforcers, rewards, and things your pet likes is crucial in providing for them, teaching them, loving them
get the family involved in this one – while a lot of this enrichment challenge is observation based, there are some simple training exercises that children might enjoy participating in
sit back, do some observation; move some beds about or engage in some simple training exercises…most of which require you to just sit about!
What do you need?
different rewards…rewards are more than just food and toys
Enrichment Goals:
to provide a choice reinfrocers
to encourage dogs to choose and introduce choice into their day to day life
to teach the dog that their human will ask for behaviour and will make sure reinforcement is available – this reduces stress by improving predictability and controlability
to build that bond between dog and human
to learn about learning – this is just another puzzle to your dog…”how do I train the human to make rewards available?!“…it’s all human training, for dogs!
Rewards, reinforcers and things your dog likes are not necessarily the same things. Reinforcers are very specific; access to reinforcers strengthens behaviour. This means that animals will carry out behaviour to access reinforcers; they will work for reinforcers.
Reinforcement is the stuff that ensures you get behaviour you want. But, reinforcers are available to your dog ALL the time so your reinforcers must compete in order for your dog to choose behaviours you would prefer. (A big part of #100daysofenrichment is that you are providing lots and lots of access to reinforcers that your dog chooses…)
Decker is a compulsive greeter to all who visit. But, although that is clearly very reinforcing behaviour it doesn’t seem to compete with getting a gift of a new treat, a trachea chew. While he clearly likes the idea of saying hello, a novel chew is higher value at the moment. The people will still be there to charm, even when his chew is gone!
Sometimes we can’t do much about our dogs’ exposure to reinforcers. More traditional training approaches have typically invested in control and controlling, deprivation, and even in attempting to find stronger reinforcers.
Instead, I prefer to establish choice, and choice in engagement; that’s what Day 34 was all about. Teach the dog that they can choose; they can choose sniffing and they can choose you. By offering choice, you become a better, more likely choice.
Getting behaviour and keeping behaviour is all about reinforcement history. How much value have you built into a behaviour? How healthy is the reinforcement account for that behaviour?
But, reinforcers are only reinforcing if the dog is willing to work (demonstrate behaviour) to gain access to them. Are the rewards you are using really reinforcing? How would you know?
Choice & Choosing
Throughout their day, dogs must make choices about which behaviours to demonstrate. For the most part, dogs would choose behaviours that we would probably not like so we ‘train’ in the hope that the dog will choose behaviours we prefer. This is why #100daysofenrichment is so important for dogs.
No matter what approach or attitude to teaching your dog you take, we are training the dog to choose our preference rather than theirs. We teach dogs to be less dog, so we can live with them. Getting to be more dog is the central tenet of #100daysofenrichment!
Reinforcing behaviours makes them happen more often so the dog is more likely to choose behaviours with a good reinforcement history. Punishing behaviours makes them happen less often so dogs learn to avoid choosing those behaviours.
Our dogs are learning to train their environment, including us humans. How easily trained are you?
Does your dog know how to get you to provide things he likes? Do you make it really easy for him to do that? He chooses behaviours that get you producing reinforcers.
Why we want to maximise reinforcement based approaches is so that our dog isn’t learning to avoid situations that produce punishers because that might include avoiding us.
I want dogs to enjoy choosing behaviours I like…it’s the least I can do, given they might actually prefer to do something else.
Life can’t offer free or even abundant choice; too much choice isn’t beneficial at all! But, where we can, I believe we owe it to dogs, who get so little choice about everything in their lives, to allow them to make some choices, learn that their behaviour makes a difference, and get to be more dog.
We have many Choice & Choosing challenges over the 100 days so this will be a theme you will visit throughout.
We have more Choice & Choosing challenges over the 100 days so this will be a theme we revisit.
Dogs and more so the choices they make is a central tenet of #100daysofenrichment – for enrichment to be enriching, the animal’s choices are prioritised and realised. Examples of how our challenges can be applied in choice provision, here: Forks in the road.
I have battled with and rambled on about choice in dog training before and continue to investigate the best ways to empower pets and other animals with whom we are in contact. Susan Friedman has been talking about choice in animal teaching forever; choice is a primary reinforcer, she teaches, and that means that animals will naturally seek out situations where choice is available. If it’s evolved as a primary reinforcer (nature selects for this tendency) it’s pretty vitally important to animals, just as food, water, shelter and sex are.
The options they choose don’t necessarily need to make sense to us; Decker chooses a tennis ball…
What goals can you add to this list for your pets?
How can we achieve these goals?
think about the sorts of decisions your dog has to make in living in the human world; what are they basing those decisions on (what’s reinforcing the chosen option, what’s punishing the rejected options?)
to make observations about reinforcers, you first need to be able to identify them.
Start by watching your dog’s behaviour. Ask what they are getting out of that behaviour? What’s the thing likely causing them to repeat that behaviour? Those things are the reinforcers.
observe the decisions your pet makes about reinforcers – what behaviours do they choose?
based on those observations, how can we provide them with better choices for rewards?
we presume we are using rewards that reinforce behaviour but if you have been along this journey with us for any length of time, you are beginning to understand that what we primates think our dogs should enjoy, is often not what dogs really want at all
What adjustments will you make for your pets?
Applications of choice in reinforcement:
Whether you never intentionally reinforce (i.e. train) your dog’s behaviour, they will still learn and will still carry out behaviour that works to gain access to reinforcers. The environment is always reinforcing (and punishing) behaviour. With or without you and your direct intervention.
Animals have evolved to behave. And behaviour has evolved to allow animals gain control over what happens to them (i.e. to gain access to things we want, and avoid exposure to things we don’t).
Your pets will need behaviours to survive, and to survive in the human world. Generally, these are behaviours that are within the animal’s natural range, but they might just need them in specific conditions, such as when something in the environment tells them they will need this behaviour.
The environment tells the animal they need a behaviour, and doing that behaviour will result in access to reinforcers or help them avoid punishers.
When those behaviours are not within their natural range, they might need a little more guidance and teaching.
Rather than thinking how we make our dogs do a certain behaviour, instead, think how you can set up the environment so your dog chooses to do behaviour.
Rather than thinking how we stop a behaviour we don’t like, instead, think how you can set up the environment so your dog chooses to do behaviour you prefer.
To teach, you must understand reinforcement. Reinforcers are in the eye of the beholder; that means your individual dog, in a specific circumstance, decides what is reinforcing or not. And we can only conclude that something is reinforcing, if behaviour is strengthened.
Teaching animals how to use behaviour to gain access to reinforcement gives them control over what happens to them. Training through choice is about giving them control, rather than us taking control.
Dogs who know their choices count, can use behaviour to ask for relief, they can ask for things they need.
They don’t need to badger and they don’t need to aggress. Choices allow dogs to navigate the human world with confidence because they can control what happens to them.
That’s what appropriate choice does – it busts stress and boosts confidence.
Enrichment Options
We often presume that our pets experience a good standard of welfare because they live a life similar to ours, in the human world. This is especially the case for pet dogs.
But, what would our dogs choose, if they had the choice?
What gets them going? What drives their behaviour?
What’s driving your dog’s behaviour? HINT: it begins and ends with R…(reinforcers)
I have no doubt, if you are joining in on our project, you are doing a wonderful job at providing the best dog-life for your dog.
We can’t possibly offer our dogs all the choices, or indeed many options they would prefer, despite our best intentions. But we can certainly offer them better choices – two crappy options are no better than no choice at all.
So, today, our mission is to find our dogs better choices by asking them. Giving them the option to choose, and making sure their choices are meaningful. Their behaviour matters. Today, we ask the dog.
Enrichment Options
Step 1: What reinforcers are reinforcing?
1.1 List the things that your dog will work for.
I want you to think carefully about this. Reinforcers are behaviours. Instead of a reinforcer being the treat, it’s actually eating the treat. Instead of a reinforcer being a tennis ball, it’s actually the game that’s played with the tennis ball, the interaction, the possession, the destruction, the squeezing.
Decker tugs to get to shake the Jolly ball. Behaviour reinforces behaviour.
You don’t have to list things that are for training, you can list anything that your dog will demonstrate behaviour in order to gain access. These behaviours might even be unwanted by you…
I haven’t found anything that is more reinforcing for Decker’s behaviour than access to swimming. Nothing. A bitch in heat…nah…SWIMMING! (True story)
Swimming is reinforcing and therefore might, in some contexts, be considered a distraction. Distractions are often reinforcers that are higher ranking than what you have to offer.
That’s why understanding this is important as is our work on teaching our dogs to choose engagement (Day 34).
1.2 Rank the reinforcers.
Put them in order of higher value to lower value.
What are the things that make your dog go bonkers for?
What’s more distracting?
What are the things that your dog is willing to carry out only simple, easy behaviours in low-distraction situations?
In the clip above, shaking the Jolly ball is higher in value to tugging.
1.3 Reinforcement is contextual
When I asked you to do 1.2, you might have found yourself saying that a particular reinforcer is higher or lower in value, dependent on the situation in which it’s available or presented.
Run through your ranking list. In which situations are the higher and lower value more or less reinforcing?
Your dog might go ga-ga for chicken…but not when there are squirrels within 50 metres, for example.
Step 2 Evaluate reinforcement
2.1 Preference tests
Now, we don’t have to get too scientific here, but let’s test your conclusions about your dog’s reinforcement ranking.
set up with two potential reinforcers
ask your dog for a simple behaviour
release them to get the reinforcer they choose
remove the other option quickly, before they can get to it
switch the position of each reinforcer each time so that there isn’t a side or position bias misleading our results
record multiple trials
One of Decker’s preference tests: kibble, meaty treats, pepperoni, hollee roller tug, Jolly Ball:
Test the different reinforcers in different situations. Remember to consider the power of ‘distractions’ too.
2.2 What’s really reinforcing about reinforcement?
The behaviours that are reinforcing are what’s reinforcing, but which behaviours really act as the reinforcement for your dog.
Eating isn’t just eating. Tossing food to be caught, rolling it along the floor to be chased, or handing it straight into the dog’s mouth are all very different in terms of behaviours that may act as reinforcement.
Playing Fun with Food games may reveal which food-related behaviours are more reinforcing for your dog in different situations.
Sniffing, we talk a lot about, and it’s clearly a reinforcing behaviour. But sniffing isn’t just sniffing. Sniffing is affected by temperature, humidity, time of day, the available smells, the weather; each making the activity more or less reinforcing.
Check out Sniffing Saturdays for more on the sensory enrichment available on sniffathons and adventures.
Play with a toy might involve many different reinforcing behaviours. Maybe your dog likes to chase a ball, maybe he likes to bite a rubber toy, maybe he likes to lie down and dissect the toy, maybe he likes to squeeze it in his mouth.
(Follows videos with squeaky toys squeaking….adjust volume accordingly)
Each item and activity allows the dog choose from a range of reinforcing behaviours. This an important part of enrichment – providing the animal with access to a range of potential activities and then letting them find fun and reinforcing ways of interacting with their world.
I won’t bore you with all of the videos of Decker interacting with his world, seeking enrichment, trying out new behaviours, rehearsing established reinforcing activities.
Now it’s your turn with your pet – carefully look at his or her interactions with their world and evaluate the value of reinforcing activities.
What behaviours is your pet carrying out? What part of reinforcement is reinforcing?
Step 3 What dogs want
Letting animals choose sounds straight forward. But assessing whether the animal is actually making a choice or being affected by some other variable is tricky to narrow down.
Present choices
Make sure that you provide choices where it’s possible; we’ve talked about providing a choice of bedding, and most importantly in giving them choice in interactions by helping them consent to touching, for example.
While deconstructed-dog-food games provide different sensory pay-offs, it might also help us in assessing and providing choice.
Have a range of toys available and, for play-time, allow your dog to choose the toy. It’s their play-time, after all!
We just need to present the options and allow the dog to choose. If you have done diligent observation, you might be able to predict your dog’s choices in different situations.
Provide your dog with access to lots of different games, so he has a range from which to choose and play-time is healthier and happier.
Reinforcer value may be affected by reinforcement history, novelty and deprivation, so it’s difficult to tell, just from these little tests, that the dog is actually making a considered choice about whether he would like to play a particular game.
I have tried to be consistent in these contexts, that a particular toy means a particular game will happen, but sometimes he has other ideas. Choice.
I have tried to formalise it by him carrying out specific behaviours or go to specific stations/targets for particular games but again this may be affected by various other effects, that can be difficult to narrow down.
I know which toy he will pick in each context…well, in the first test, he technically chooses both so…
This is the latest one we are working on. He picks the toy and I offer two options for games; in this case, to roll along the floor for chasing or to toss in the air for catching.
He gets the game in this context and tests the available games at the start.
You will also see him ask me to play the gimme-dat-monster and chase him. To facilitate choice, we have lots of cues (from him to me, and from me to him) to ask.
I ask what game he wants and he lets me know. Well, he really offers a behaviour which happens to get him the result he wants (the behaviour is reinforced) and this has been clear, because we have a good foundation of communication to build upon.
Sometimes he wants me to throw, sometimes he wants me to tug. I ask and listen to his response. That’s the deal. That’s how you get clear cut communication, improving welfare and confidence. Choice is powerful.
The animal gets to decide if they participate, what they do, how they participate and how much they engage. Enrichment provides choice.
Your job is to make sure they are safe to choose and that their choices are safe.
In this clip, Decker has a ball stuffed with Husky hair that we use in Sniffaris for olfactory enrichment. Or certainly, we intend that the dog will find it enriching from an olfactory point of view but as you can see, Decker comes up with all sorts of other forms of entertainment!
While Billie was originally working her way through this brain-teaser puzzle, there are food rewards hidden in there and she does engage in sniffing and hunting for them, she also finds chasing the loose balls as just as if not more entertaining, as shown in the following clip.
We can stand back and allow the dog to choose their own enrichment, their own route to solving the puzzles, the behaviours that reinforce.
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!
Welcome to Day 35 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.
Every Sunday during #100daysofenrichment is Sunday Funday! This means you and your pet repeat your favourite challenge or challenges from the week.
You can do it exactly as you did first time round, you can try a different option, build on your progress already established, reinvent and rejig it…what ever you want to do with the last week of challenges!
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!
Welcome to Day 34 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.
Saturdays during #100daysofenrichment are all about emphasising the dog in all our dogs; all about sniffing and doing dog things.
And today we are going to add something further to that; today we will be adding engagement to sniffing to engagement to sniffing…
Sniffing isn’t a problem behaviour but distractions, like irresistible smells, are often viewed as the enemy to training and attention. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Sniffing doesn’t need to be a distraction; we won’t make it a distraction because we won’t be stopping the dog from doing it.
We can allow dogs sniff, make sure they get their jollies while not having to nag them…and still have them choose us!
What is this black magic?, I hear you ask. It’s engagement!
Engagement…what is it good for?
Like all buzz words that are the talk of training-town, engagement is difficult to define. We know it when we see it, and we certainly know when we don’t have it.
‘To engage’ is defined as participating, to attract someone’s attention, and the one I particularly like, to establish meaningful contact or connection.
The important things to note here is that the dog chooses to engage, that they are working to attract your attention, and that you’re (both) developing a meaningful connection.
Engagement, for me and the dogs I work with, including my own, is about the dog choosing to engage, wanting to engage, finding me the most rewarding, over all the other things.
And that’s the key; the dog wants to be involved and to participate.
You can easily see the value of engagement…it gets you great recall, it gets you nice loose leash walking, it gets you working around distractions.
All while providing the dog with choice. The choice to engage.
When engagement happens, the dog is fighting to engage regardless of the presence of distractions and triggers and regardless of whether you have treats or toys.
Attention and focus and engagement…oh my!
Is engagement the same as attention and focus?
Well, yes and no. Great engagement will get you attention and focus, that’s for sure.
Attention probably means eye contact or something close to that. While focus may not necessarily require that the dog focus on you, perhaps on something specific in the environment.
We might teach these skills as part of working on engagement.
How ever you define it, engagement is chosen by the dog, rather than cued; engagement is not contingent on you having food rewards or toys.
The key to engagement is that you are not trying to get it, you are worthy of engagement and your dog fights to engage!
You can see that engagement is the foundation to teaching all the other behaviours; it’s what we build our relationship, with our dog, on and with.
Engagement is a two-way street
Making engagement happen starts with the human. If we want our dog to choose us, regardless of what else is going on and regardless of whether you have treats or toys, we have to work to prove that engaging with us is the best!
When the dog is engaged, choosing you regardless, he pushes into the learning and interacting process; he is more than meeting you halfway.
Here’s a clip of Decker and I, in a play-group situation with dogs of mixed age, sex, and neuter status. Decker is an entire male Am Staff (a type of “pit bull”). I have no treats, food or toys – he fights to engage regardless of the distraction level.
Link (Disclaimer: this was not intended to stress out any dog, but more so to demonstrate the ability to develop such owner-focus and engagement without the use of aversives.)
Spot the fighting to engage?!
We certainly want our dogs to be dogs, and we also need them to learn to choose us, for safety and for relationship building. Don’t think of this as an ‘obedience’ exercise or for control. This is about you both developing a connection in the real world, where distractions and worries may be difficult to avoid or control.
Choosing you keeps your dog safe, allows him to ask for guidance, and seek out relief.
Reinforce engagement
Reinforcement strengthens behaviour, so your dog’s disengagement is information telling you that you are not making sufficient reinforcement available for engagement.
We tend to pile on the encouragement, excitement, food and toys trying to get our dogs to engage. When their attention wanes, we attempt to get it back by offering access to reinforcers. Ask yourself, what behaviour are you really reinforcing?
Engagement makes good things happens. Engagement means that the dog accesses behaviour they like to do. Reinforce behaviour with behaviour.
We start by teaching the dog to disengage, and when they engage they get to go away again. Because we never become associated with stopping the fun, the dog will want to choose us over and over.
It’s never too late to start and it’s always worth it. But, it doesn’t happen over night – engagement is a journey, rather than a destination.
Level 1 Go Sniff! & Engagement
On Day 20, we started to work on sniffing on cue: Go Sniff!
Beginners:
If you haven’t worked on Go Sniff! just yet, start with that.
Intermediate:
set up using a SnuffleMat or similar, on grass or even just the floor
take three treats
distribute them so you know where they are, roughly
cue the dog to Go Sniff! and allow them to eat the treats
wait neutrally – don’t talk to the dog, don’t make eye contact, just wait
wait for your dog to engage – they might look toward you, move toward you, make eye contact
as soon as they do you can mark (with a YES! or click, if you do that) or just cue them to Go Sniff! again and distribute three treats as before
Advanced:
bring your dog to a smelly area, somewhere they usually sniff and investigate
allow them to sniff and sniff
remain neutral
if the dog is on lead, follow them to allow them to sniff about and explore
wait for engagement
as soon as they engage, cue them to Go Sniff! again and bring them back to the smelly place to allow them to sniff
you can use food as in the Intermediate exercise if you like, but you don’t have to unless the dog won’t sniff
Practicing this exercise in relatively controlled conditions, and practicing A LOT, helps establish the idea that sniffing is not a treat or a forbidden activity in a training context. Sniffing is the behaviour that gets the fun happening, via engagement.
Level 2 Engagement in the Real World
Work on Level 1 exercises first. A lot. In lots of places around the house and garden, or other controllable situations.
If your dog finds it quick and easy to engage, and you can make that really rewarding, try out Level 2.
Bring your dog out for a Sniffathon. Let your dog sniff and roam and do doggie things.
Wait for them to engage. Just wait.
As soon as your dog engages, come to life. Reward them with five food rewards in a row, one after another. Have some fun with food.
Tell your dog to Go Sniff! and release them to be a dog again. Show them your empty hands and move away. Allow your dog to sniff and explore again. Repeat.
Time how long it takes for them to engage – over time, we should be seeing a reduction in that time, with lots of practice.
Play safe!
If you are working in a non-secure public area, please make sure your dog is safe. Use a long line and follow them, allowing them to explore without pressure.
Ask the dog!
Engagement exercises are the perfect way of asking your dog is they are ready and able to work, interact, play or focus.
Rather than nagging them with cues or trying to drag their attention back to you, let them fully engage with their world, gather information, assess safety. Your dog will learn to tell you when they are ready and able.
Practicing this in all sorts of environments and amidst all sorts of distractions will help to establish this as a way of life for you and your dog.
To make sure this is fun and pleasant for all, take care with distractions and triggers. Work at such a distance that your dog is able to engage with you; if they are super focused on other dogs, people or goings on, then increase distance. Work in more controllable situations.
Playing Fun with Food games helps to boost the value of rewards and makes sure that there is a fun behaviour reinforcing engagement, not just eating.
Here’s my engagement monster and I play/train right beside wild deer (in the Phoenix Park). I make flirt pole and fun happen near distractions so engaging with me is a really easy choice!
And here we are surprised by a deer, who came running out of cover, apparently curious about our activity (a lot of people feed these deer here).
Rather than chasing a deer tens of metres away, he chooses to engage.
The deer follows us for a bit so I have his lead on, just hanging, just in case. Safety first, always.
But, regardless, he chooses engagement.
Ideally, we would like our dogs to be sniffing out their regular meals, as much as possible. But, some dogs will need a little help to get them going and we can have our dog sniffing for treats too!
Kibble is a pretty versatile food type for enrichment type feeding, and works well for this exercise.
You can add kibble in with other yummier treats and toss those. Or you can make a Training Mix so that kibble smells and tastes yummier, but without having to add extra calories or other foods, should the dog be sensitive or restricted.
You can improve the smell/taste of kibble by grilling it a little, so that it becomes crunchier and oilier. You might also soak it in stock or other flavouring.
Wet and fresh foods can be a little more challenging:
Fresh meats and meat mixes (e.g. raw and home prepared diets) – cut up into small pieces, boiled or baked, frozen in small ice cube trays or pyramid baking mats for small individual treats.
Alternatively, you could use dried or semi-moist meats and cut them into small pieces for tossing. (Note that you feed a smaller volume of dried or dehydrated foods as they are more concentrated.)
Wet feeds (e.g. canned foods) – frozen in small ice cube trays or pyramid baking mats for small, individual treats.
Don’t forget fruit and vegetables too, if you’re dog likes them. Frozen peas are one of Decker’s favourite for sniffing!
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!
Welcome to Day 33 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.
Now it’s your turn to get creative! Every Friday is Freestyle Friday. We’ll give you the ingredients for a puzzle or enrichment device and you build it.
Rules:
you must use all the ingredients
you can add anything else you like, or nothing at all
cardboard tubes, toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes, Pringles tubes and similar
You can add food or toys or anything else appropriate, if you like. Or you can use this as it is.
We can’t wait to see what fun and brain games you and your pet get up to with this one!
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!
Welcome to Day 32 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.
play is the ultimate in relationship boosting, stress busting fun
games that start with making food fun and then using that to generate the fun in the interaction and engagement
social, cognitive and food based enrichment
play and engagement form the foundation of relationships and successful training
lots of these exercises can get pretty exciting, so it might be better that smaller children not take part but help in preparing training rewards.
Children can be great dog trainers but require lots of guidance and support.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets.
we are going to be strict with the duration of sessions for these challenges; each session should be no longer than one minute – set your alarm and time it!
Have as many sessions as you can today.
What do you need?
food rewards – you can use your dog’s regular food, a training mix, commercial treats, home prepared treats such as cut up meats, cheese, vegetables or homemade treats such as liver or tuna cake
We will talk about human-dog play throughout this program, and this is our foundation starting point.
Enrichment Goals:
to have fun with food
to make the fun about the engagement and interaction, and not just the food
to build engagement between dog and human
to build that bond between dog and human
to have a fun and rewarding experience in social situations, between dogs and humans
We are not working on training exercises today but I do want to make sure that we understand that all behaviour is reinforced or punished. Reinforcers increase behaviour, punisher decrease it.
So, if behaviour is happening something is reinforcing it, and if it’s not happening, something is punishing it.
Play is no different. Just like cueing behaviour and your dog responding is a dance of communication, play is too. Perhaps, even more so.
You do behaviour, your dog responds, you respond, your dog responds, you respond and so on and on.
This allows for a wonderfully complex level of communication between two species, forging a most health relationship between our two species.
This is a level of social and cognitive enrichment that’s tricky to replicate.
What goals can you add to this list for your pets?
How can we achieve these goals?
keep it really simple today – get a good understanding of inter-species play, and how we humans often get it pretty wrong
take your time and work in many short sessions
try for 30-60 seconds at a time, 5-10 rewards each session, and then take a break
it’s a good idea to film yourself and review the footage (you don’t need to share)
portion out your dog’s daily food and allot some for these exercises – these games are excellent for boosting the value of food so your dog wants to work for every day food, because we’ve made it so much fun
make a training mix by adding in something yummier and leaving it all to ‘cook’ together in the fridge; the smells will mingle, harder foods will soften a little, and everything will become more valuable
remember to adjust your pet’s diet accordingly to accommodate the extra calories from treats added, where relevant
split your food rewards into little bowls with just the right number of rewards in each bowl for each session, so that you are ready to go
If you are feeding wet or fresh foods, cut up small or mash to a paste and present on a wooden spoon or spatula. Alternatively you can freeze in small ice cube trays or a pyramid baking tray so that you can use small portions and individual treats.
What adjustments will you make for your pets?
Applications of Fun with Food games:
Play is a tricky thing that we think we would recognise if we see it, but might not be able to adequately define it. And that’s the case in the literature too.
We think that animals play, but we’re not really sure why. The play research suggests we start by defining play so here’s a simple run down…
play for play’s sake, because you choose to play
play is fun, and that’s enough
play feels good and we want to engage in play (you don’t have to play)
play can sometimes look serious, but there are important differences; the serious parts happen out of order or in the absence of normal triggers relative to the serious stuff
play is creative, spontaneous and improvised
play happens when we feel safe – time should fly, you should feel less self-conscious
And although there might be some agreement on how we might define play, when it comes to deciphering the functions of play, there are lots of differences.
Play probably helps animals prepare for swings in emotion, gets them ready and honed for life and let’s not forget, play is fun! Having fun is a viable function of behaviour.
Dogs and humans play differently and dog-dog play differs from dog-human play (and differs from human-human play). But, like in so many areas, dogs and humans share tons of the basic rules of social interactions.
As is so often typical of us humans, we often approach play in the way we think the dog should play or in the way we think the dog should enjoy playing. And this so often turns the dog off play, changes the nature of games and ultimately causes break downs in communication and relationship.
We even have research that looks at how people play with their dogs and how our play behaviours overwhelm our play partner, yet we continue to push, presumably believing that this is fun and this is how it should be done.
I spend a lot of time working on improving relationships between pets and their people; that’s what this entire project is about too. I also spend a lot of that time helping people play with their dogs (certainly not the worst job in the world!).
I incorporate play in almost every training and behaviour program I design. My most common problem is that people don’t appear to know how to play with their dogs and sometimes don’t value play’s importance, whether that be toy based games, or just silly, playing interactions.
Our trainers will tell you that that is something that causes me great stress and concern – I take play very seriously, playfully serious!
I believe that play is life, and play is a way of dealing with life. Improving your play with your dog does so much more than just fun with food.
Just because you (think you) utilise reward based training, R+, “force-free” or whatever “positive” label, doesn’t mean it’s a happy, playful learning experience. Teaching playful behaviour isn’t the same as playing.
The beauty of establishing these foundations is that the more you play together, the more you will each shape one another’s behaviour. Your behaviour will evolve, adapt and adjust to your player.
The ultimate goal in play is to get really nice play-interactions, without treats or toys. The two players, dog and human, are participating for the pure joy.
Play starts with an invitation and consent, the players make eye contact and ask if they want to keep the game going; play is cooperative so we ask and answer. Play involves mirroring of behaviour and balanced participation.
Today, we start on the road to wonderful, consent-full, choice-led, partnership based play between dog and human. What could be better than that?
Enrichment Options
Option 1: Play with your food
Everything can be fun and playful, even boring food. Start by introducing these games into your repertoire – food and toy play are gateways to wonderful, playful and engaging interactions.
I love these games for dogs who are OTT about food and for those who are little less enthusiastic about food.
Play with the most boring food that your dog will work for – you can always increase value, if needed.
Play with your Food Games:
Which Hand? – great just for fun and to keep your dog occupied if you are waiting around
Catch! and Catch on the Move – fun for talented catchers to keep them focused and responsive to you, even around distractions
Goal Keeping and Kibble Chasing – fantastic rainy day game and to keep your dog occupied and focused
Go Geddit! – another great rainy day game
Find It! games – hide under a blanket (Day 29) and get them snuffling, put it on cue so you can use it any place, any time (Day 20) – wonderful to divert their attention, help them calm and keep them busy
Deck and I play with kibble and these games, that we have been playing together forever, are the reason Decker will joyfully and ENTHUSIASTICALLY work/play for boring, everyday cardboard kibble in any situation.
These games are played in levels; when you get true two-sided, playful engagement at one level and you are ready for the next.
These are the starter levels that will lay a wonderful foundation in play, beyond the #100days. Practice today, tomorrow and beyond and slowly, incrementally build that all important and often elusive engagement. (More engagement and play to come over this project!)
Level 1
Take a look at the Play with your Food games.
5 pieces of kibble (or 5 food rewards), set the timer for 30 seconds (or there abouts)
a different Play with your Food game for each piece
plan your moves ahead of starting with the dog
match your dog’s enthusiasm – if they are quiet, you are quiet, if they are up there, you are up there
It’s a common mistake that pet owners (and trainers) will try to up the ante on enthusiasm to draw the dog’s excitement out and subsequently overwhelming the dog. For play, meet your dog where they’re at.
Take a break after each session but do try to have as many sessions as you can.
Here’s me playing with a novice dog, inexperienced in playing with humans and a little cautious about the world (we had also just met). Her name is Sasha and she had a pretty rotten start but is now in a wonderful, loving home and is blossoming.
It doesn’t have to be quite so nutty as with crazy-boy and I. Deck and I are experienced players and have been playing these games since we first met (over six years ago).
If your dog is in to a little moving around, add that, but your play in-between can be more static and might even just involve a couple of seconds of baby-talk or goofy faces. That’s play too!
Level 3
Now, we’re really going to challenge your ability to keep your dog engaged with you and the game.
Please don’t push this. Play should be fun, not goal oriented and rule-led. Work on Levels 1 & 2 for as long as necessary – there are no prizes for getting to Level 3. It won’t be enjoyable for your dog should you push to this before you are both ready.
5-10 kibbles or food rewards from you
a bowl of the same food rewards on the floor and accessibly
keep the dog with you
the game, with the food, is more rewarding and fun than the food for free
This isn’t a training exercise so no cues, such as leave-it or recalls. If your dog goes for the free food, so be it. Go back and work on Level 2 some more.
In this session, you can see by placing the food I toss too close to the bowl on the floor, we have some close calls. I use our engagement skills and excitement to keep him with me – I am more fun and my food is more fun than the free food (the same food).
make it too exciting when the dog is just starting to show interest
expect too much
rely on food too much
get stuck
play too long
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!
My favourite playa, whose capacity for joy, fun and play apparently knows no bounds and has me in amazement and awe (and sometimes bewilderment) every day.
Welcome to Day 31 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.
shallow, open boxes with fun and puzzles inside encouraging snuffling and foraging
food based enrichment
add food to loose items for your dog to snuffle out
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 Foraging Boxes for their pets.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets.
Foraging box prep will probably take you about five minutes – having a collection of Foraging Box stuff is a good idea…it will resemble a pile of rubbish or recycling!
What do you need?
shallower, open boxes or tubs
loose materials and items such as paper e.g. packing paper, kitchen roll, newspaper etc., eggboxes, balls, paper cups, Stuffables, and so on
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 snuffling skills in sniffing out and reaching the food 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.
Foraging boxes encourage pets to interact with their environment – just the very interaction with the box, sticking their head in, is encouraging the pet to manipulate their surroundings, to get the things they like.
By offering a variety of Foraging Box puzzles, at different difficulty levels, 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?
Dogs can get all sorts of enrichment fun out of a Foraging Box! (Link)
How can we achieve these goals?
give your pet plenty of space for working on Foraging Boxes 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?
Foraging Boxes can be a great way to recycle packing material!Link
Applications of Foraging Boxes:
Foraging Boxes are my go-to – easy to set up, easy to adjust for individuals, and totally involving for dogs…all that sniffing completely sucks them in and they engage fully with the task.
They are such a great way to help encourage dogs to interact with new and weird items, providing opportunities to boost confidence and allow the dog learn that they are safe to snuffle, and it gets them yummies!
It’s important, therefore, that we adjust the Foraging Box difficulty so that the dog can engage, snuffle and win!
Because of the home made nature and variable materials used in Foraging Boxes, it’s best to supervise your pet carefully when they have access to this puzzle.
Know your dog! If you have an ingester, Forgaing Boxes may not work and you might need to supervise them closely.
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 something they shouldn’t.
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 fasteners, small pieces and plastic pieces. For loose items, only use things with rounded corners. Play safe!
Enrichment Options
Variety is the spice of enrichment, so try different loose items in each Foraging Box, or mix ’em up for a Mixed Media Foraging Box!
Beginners:
start with just a few items to a box or tub
make sure you can see the base of the box or tub and most of the food rewards
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!
Welcome to Day 30 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.
similar to chewing and dissection in annoying pet owners
food based and sensory based enrichment
different dogs have different motivations for digging, with some digging at any opportunity, while some show little interest in digging as a past-time
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 busy boxes for their pets. There are some training exercises here too, and while children can be great dog trainers, lots of adult support and guidance are required.
Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets.
Lots of these digging puzzles will take only minutes to prepare (and some minutes to clean up after too!) and training exercises are best practiced in very short sessions of 30-60 seconds at a time; have as many sessions as you can!
access to different loose substrates such as potting soil, children’s sand, loose soil and foliage (in the real world)
loose items such as paper cups, paper, plastic bottles, balls, toilet roll tubes, Pringles tubes, stuffable toys like Kongs and so on (items with rounded or soft corners)
large, shallow tub or box
Enrichment Goals:
to facilitate digging behaviour
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 digging boxes
to teach a cute trick
to teach the dog that their human will ask for behaviour and will make sure reinforcement is available – this reduces stress by improving predictability and controlability
to build the bond between dog and human and have fun together
to learn about learning – this is just another puzzle to your dog…”how do I train the human to make rewards available?!“…it’s all human training, for dogs!
While this challenge may be food based, dogs are also experiencing cognitive, sensory and environmental enrichment, with lots of crossover between categories.
Digging behaviour is part of the in-built motor patterns all dogs come with. Many dogs will dig for the sake of digging, as a release for stress and arousal, as a displacement behaviour and apparently, just for the fun of it!
You can certainly introduce food to digging pits, adding a food based component to these challenges too.
Digging encourages pets to interact with their environment – just the very interaction with the digging substrate is encouraging the pet to manipulate their surroundings, to get the things they like.
Training exercises certainly fall into the cognitive enrichment category and can provide so much more.
Providing dogs with cues allows for a complex level of communication between two species; you are merely requesting that the dog perform behaviour (he already knows how to do the behaviour…they can already dig) and that request comes with a contract. Respond appropriately to this signal and rewards are coming your way. That’s the deal…that’s what being a good teacher is about – keeping your word and making it easy for your dog to train you.
This forges the most healthy of relationships between our two species. This is a level of social enrichment that’s tricky to replicate.
When we talk about enrichment being enriching, this is never more clear than when we start to teach behaviours intentionally. It’s the human’s job to set the dog up for success by making sure the behaviour is doable and that rewards are fast-flowing.
There’s no test at the end of this and you and your pet are not under any pressure. Learn to enjoy the time together, whether you achieve the goal behaviour or not. That’s what’s enriching here…the social and cognitive outlets such exercises provide (for both species).
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 these challenges 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!)
work with toys or other rewards that your dog enjoys – the reward for doing the behaviour must be worth it and it’s the dog that decides something is worth working for!
keep it simple and split behaviour – reward approximations toward the final behaviour, rather than hoping that your dog will offer the goal behaviour quickly
take your time and work in many short sessions
try for 30 seconds at a time, 5-10 rewards each session, and then take a break
plan each session – what behaviours are you looking for and rewarding?
portion out your dog’s daily food and allot some for training exercises
make a training mix by adding in something yummier and leaving it all to ‘cook’ together in the fridge; the smells will mingle, harder foods will soften a little, and everything will become more valuable
remember to adjust your pet’s diet accordingly to accommodate the extra calories from treats added, where relevant
split your food rewards into little bowls with just the right number of rewards in each bowl so that you are ready to go; stick bowls of rewards in places where you may need to teach and reward behaviours so that you have rewards ready to go
If you are feeding wet or fresh foods, cut up small or mash to a paste and present on a wooden spoon or spatula. Alternatively you can freeze in small ice cube trays or a pyramid baking tray so that you can use small portions and individual treats.
What adjustments will you make for your pets?
Applications of Digging:
Digging is a food related and social sensory related behaviour; dogs may dig to acquire or cache food (burying) and dogs may dig shallow sleeping pits or small dens for puppies to be born.
We have selected for digging conformation and increased digging motivation in lots of types of dogs too, who, for example, have been used to unearth quarry or go to ground after game.
Because this behaviour may be useful to the adult dog, puppies and young dogs, particularly, will practice lots and lots of digging…much to the annoyance of green-fingered owners…
But, digging will fulfill functions in dogs’ lives beyond food. And while providing food based enrichment is important for dogs, appropriate digging might be applicable in lots of ways, helping dogs experience new insights to their sensory world.
Digging is goal oriented behaviour so providing exposure to positive stress or eustress. All of the challenges through #100daysofenrichment are designed to provide dogs with lots of opportunities for eustress. The more the animal has experience with good stress, the more resilient they become.
Digging facilitates the development of dexterous skills, contributing to cognitive challenge.
Sniffing out, tasting food used offer sensory pay off, but so does finding each hidden food item, determining its value, and engaging in the puzzle of satisfying the digging goal.
While young dogs are most likely to dig a lot, dogs of any age may dig, while some dogs show no interest in digging whatsoever.
Digging is likely to be most intense as dogs mature through adolescence, with lots of dogs discovering the joys of digging at about 5-7 months of age; of course, they may have been digging before that but not been able to cause too much damage due to their size, strength, and coordination.
Lots of exploratory behaviour will be seen in adolescent dogs as they continue to experience and learn about their world.
Digging may also function as a stress releaser and a displacement behaviour. And it’s no surprise then, that dogs confined and isolated outdoors for long periods will take up digging.
You might notice that your dog digs intensively before or after defecating, during or part of “zoomies”, when alone or when frustrated at a barrier.
Dogs might use digging to stir up odour, allowing them to gather more olfactory information from a particular spot, and I have even seen dogs use digging motion in behaviour that would seemingly be used in butchering prey animals, separating skin and meat.
Because of the home made nature and variable materials used in some of today’s challenges, it’s best to supervise your pet carefully when they have access to these puzzles.
Know your dog! If you have an ingester, some of these challenges may not work for you or require adjustment.
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 something they shouldn’t.
Making sure the challenge is very doable and they can get to the 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 fasteners, small pieces, plastic pieces and so on. Play safe!
Enrichment Options
Dogs dig. And some dogs dig a lot. For many owners, this digging behaviour is a problem, possibly ruining their gardening efforts.
If digging is something you want to tackle, don’t think in terms of stopping the digging. Instead, think about offering acceptable outlets for digging.
Try the following program:
confine the dog from digging areas or prevent them digging there by supervising and/or having them on a long line in that area
some suggest to put the dog’s own poop into any existing holes to prevent them going back to continue the excavation
provide a digging pit and encourage digging there by providing a loose substrate, such as potting soil, and burying frozen stuffables or chews or food rewards there.
Make food parcels with paper or cardboard tubes and bury those.
Option 1 Digging in the Wild
If your dog loves to dig, let ’em dig.
Bring them to places that facilitates digging, allow them access to substrates that make digging enjoyable.
Link (Decker will dig for treasures in the bottoms of flooded ditches or ponds.)
Option 2 Digging Pits
If you have a die-hard digger, providing them with appropriate outlets isn’t always easy. Providing the dog with his own digging pit might allow him to get his digging jollies, without sacrificing too much of your garden.
Use a corner of the garden, and build a little boundary around it so it’s clearly defined.
Alternatively, use a child’s sand pit, paddling pool (not the inflatable type) or large shallow tub, like in this clip.
If your dog is digging in particular spots where you would prefer they wouldn’t, start by positioning the dog’s digging pit there until you get them consistently choosing their new digging pit. Then you can move it to a more convenient location.
Dogs tend to prefer to dig in fine, loose substrate such as potting soil and compost or children’s play sand.
You can prime the area by burying toys, stuffables, chews, kibble, treats or treat parcels.
Sometimes providing outdoor access isn’t always possible but we can help dogs dig indoors too.
Tomorrow, Day 31, we will be talking about Foraging Boxes, and while they are similar, there is a difference. Today’s Digging Boxes aim to encourage digging, while Foraging Boxes encourage snuffling.
To differentiate for the dog, construct a Digging Box:
use a shallow, open box or tub
layer some cloths, towels, blankets on the base over some scattered food
The difference between a Digging Box and a Foraging Box is the layering. The layering at the base may encourage the dog to use their feet because food is only distributed underneath all the stuff, rather than through it and among it, as in a Foraging Box.
But, whatever way the dog finds their enrichment is fine with me…it’s their puzzle after all!
Option 3 “Wipe Your Paws”
Teach your dog to dig on cue and apply it to this cute trick or just digging on cue!
Having behaviour, like digging, on cue means that you can ask your dog to dig when they might need a bit of a release or to have some fun!
By putting a treat just under the edge of a blanket, towel or mat, you can prompt your dog to dig and then capture that behaviour by clicking and/or rewarding it by tossing in more treats.
Decide what you would like your dog to wipe their paws on. If it’s pretty loose, then you can use that and place a treat under it. If it’s firmer, like a door mat, it’s better to use something loose over that and fade it.
In this clip I demonstrate that process, starting with a blanket, than a face cloth and then just the door mat.
To encourage the digging movement, rather than snuffling, place the treat just under the edge at the side furthest from the dog.
start with the treat under the mat
reward any foot movement toward the edge of the mat
toss food rewards where you want your dog to concentrate, onto the edge of the mat
soon your dog will offer the digging behaviour, without you need to bait under the mat
you can add your cue “wipe your paws” by saying it just before your dog digs
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 