Want to enrich your dog without spending too much money?

DIY ENRICHMENT

Here are a few suggestions to get you going with activities, DIY style.

The Ball Pit

Fill an appropriate sized container or wooden box with a bunch of balls or even toilet roll holders. Scatter some treats in there to encourage your dog to rummage around.

Bobbing for fruit (wet)

Fill a container or bowl that your dog can reach into with water. Add small pieces of dog-safe fruit (and/or vegetables).

Play with Temperature

Prepare a heat or ice pack and put it under a towel to step on, under a bowl or on a lickmat. Amazingly enough, our dogs' noses can detect heat at close range, so this may provide an interesting experience for them. Always make sure it’s a safe temperature first!

The Roller (dry)

Place a towel flat on your bench. Shake your dog’s kibble over the towel, more towards one end. From the end that has the most kibble, roll the towel up so it is in a tube. Pop on the floor and let your dog figure out how to get to their food.

The Old Shirt (dry)

Lay out an old piece of fabric that is destined for destruction on your bench. Scatter kibble over the fabric before rolling the fabric into a tube. Tie the fabric at each end so the kibble doesn’t fall out. Let your dog go wild trying to untie the fabric – warning, they may make a bit of a mess!

The Cupcake Tin (wet)

Allocate a cupcake tin just for your dog. Using their food, smear every other cupcake hole. In the remaining spaces, you can smear small amounts of peanut butter (check it does not contain xylitol), yogurt, or any other palatable safe food for your dog. Your dog will have a cacophony of smelly goodness filling up their noses while they try to decipher where each is coming from.

The Frozens (wet/dry)

Make your puppy some frozen treats with their food using a slow feeder, suitable toys, a cupcake tin, or even their usual food bowl. If they are on dry food, you can use water or watered down broth as a medium for the kibble to freeze in.

Textures

Put down door mats, different kinds of floor mats or materials like bubble wrap for instance. Anything that exposes your dog to safe, novel textures will provide them with tactile enrichment.

Playing with heights

If you have a stable wooden box, put a few treats or a lickmat on top to encourage movement up and down differing heights. You can utilise anything that is safe that you are happy with your dog to interact with - tables are not the best idea, as we don’t want to teach our dogs to search for food where we eat!

Playing with scents

Put some different dog-safe plants and other scents under cones, cups, or in toilet paper tubes, engaging your dog's nose with lots of interesting information.

And of course, if you have any wonderful interactive toys for your dog, throw them in the mix as well!