Rethinking Enrichment
I’m dating myself that as a tiny tot my parents used to take me to visit Bobo, the gorilla at the Woodland Park Zoo. Sadly in the ‘60s his captivity was marked by a concrete habitat with not a lot of opportunities to be a gorilla. I remember the orangutans who naturally live most of their lives up in trees, also sitting around in a concrete cell.
Around that time and into the ‘70’s, Hal Markowitz and others began shifting how captive animals were cared for and creating environments and practices that encouraged species-typical behaviors. Enrichment was not about a food puzzle but a concept more broadly defined that encompasses the means to empower an animal with choice, change, challenge, and control. In other words, creating an environment in which orangutans could live off the ground, make nests, access objects that can be used as tools, and possibly have opportunities to socialize among females.
I don’t think zoo keepers who brainstormed these practices were branded as individuals who were “spoiling” their captive charges but rather staff were doing what they could to improve conditions for captive animals to improve their welfare.
So why do I often hear “oh I know this is spoiling my dog” when a pet parent gives them an opportunity for choice or control? We often don’t reflect on how much we actually control the lives of our pets. It seems a little crazy to me as I’m not a proponent of zoos but I think we pet parents and the critters in our care would benefit if we adopted Hal’s and others' thinking and reframed how we think about the welfare and care of our pets. Enrichment is about meeting the physical, social, and emotional needs of the animal and providing opportunities to perform species-typical behavior.
So what does that mean for a dog? One place to start is much less room service. LOL that’s what I call providing a meal in a bowl for your dog. Let’s think about how a dog gets food if they were free roaming or a village dog. They’d be using their nose to sniff out and forage for their meal so I’d ask, are there ways we can emulate that process in our homes or yard?
Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to about 6 million in us humans. Moreover, the part of a dog's brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is about 40 times greater than ours. Providing nosework opps for 15-20 mins daily can significantly impact pent up energy and or anxiety.
Foraging with kibble or treat-search in your yard or out on a walk
Begin by tossing their kibble in a small area, e.g. 2x2 foot part of your yard. Initially you may need to include higher value treats along with their kibble to kick start the process. Eventually increase the area where you toss the food and decrease the proportion of treats to kibble. This process can be done while also teaching your dog a Find It cue (see Tracy’s Top 5 Behaviors to Put on Cue).
If your yard isn’t fenced you can use a long line/leash
If you don’t have grass, dogs can forage in bark, moss, gravel as long as your dog isn’t one that eats objects like bark and rocks
Foraging with recycled, shreddable items – ie Recycling is your friend
We have a few friends who help collect shred-ables for our pooch; stuff like cardboard boxes of all sizes, toilet paper rolls, paper bags, and packing paper are awesome for dogs who like to shred and destroy. Your dog will be happy to help you “break down your recycling” before you take it up to the curb!
See https://youtu.be/F_5jJzlnbes for stationary shredding option (boxes and bags in a box) or pic below where SeeKao forages in boxes and through scattered torn paper.
Cheers and I hope happy foraging,
Tracy
