Does working my dog's senses with an enrichment game have the same benefit as going for a walk, mentally speaking?

Question

Jessica Wheatcraft · Answer

Does working with my dog's senses with an enrichment game have the same benefit as going for a walk, mentally speaking? So I'm assuming that on your box that you are allowing your dog to sniff and explore, which is obviously one of the biggest ways that you can provide more enrichment to them on walks. So in general, absolutely, I do find that doing enrichment games at home tends to have a very, very similar effect as it would if I took my dog out for a walk. And I will specifically use those enrichment games at home in a variety of ways. Sometimes if it's raining or the weather isn't really suitable to go out, I tend to do a lot of stuff at home. I find that my dogs are just as satisfied with that type of activity as they would if I took them out on a walk. However, I also tend to balance out those activities. So I will have some outings that focus a bit more on physical activity and then also at home and other activities focusing a bit more on enrichment. So yes, I would say that they're very similar.

Michael Shikashio · Answer

Does working my dog senses with an enrichment game, have the same benefit as going for a walk mentally speaking. This is such a great question because I love the focus on the importance of enrichment for dogs. I'm going to drop a link to a study actually on all Factory benefits and enrichment. And that's what I actually really love for dogs is anything that includes using their nose. So, if we're talking about a walk here, I opted for allowing dogs too stiff, bringing them to areas in which they enjoy sniffing, and they can have a lot of sense, not any kind of Well, structured walk, I mean, sure, there's places for those kind of things, but we want to allow them to benefit of. Hey, I can go use my all Factory senses get this in Richmond by sniffing new areas. So for those walks definitely include a lot of sniffing activities, you can even up the game by bringing your own sense out there. I can be kibble Scrat scattered, in the grass treats and things like that or you might even bring in different scents. Like go out and buy dear said, you can order that on Amazon or different sense that you can spray around in the grass because that novelty Really can be enriching like, hey, this is all this new cool stuff. So I am a big advocate for that. You can do that even your own backyard. If you have issues with going to certain areas or it's a tight City environment, the one caveat is that, for some dogs sniffing can be a displacement Behavior, so maybe they're in such a stressful environment. They're actually not enjoying the walk and so they're sniffing as a way to say. Hey, I didn't kind of trying to avoid all of these scary things. So just be mindful of that, but most of the time, most dogs are going to do really well. Well, a lot, having that opportunity to go explore the world or even if you doing it in your own house, or even backyard. I'm a big advocate for that.

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"Does working my dog's senses with an enrichment game have the same benefit as going for a walk, mentally speaking?"