Canine enrichment or free work course
Canine enrichment is a fun way to train and tire your dog, when at its best it uses your dogs nose and brains to figure out how it can get the food set up in it.
Canine enrichment can be as simple of scattering your dogs dinner in your garden for them to sniff out. A stuffed Kong is also a form of canine enrichment. Dog sports can be a way of enriching the dog’s life.
Canine enrichment can help to build a dogs confidence and promote grit, it can also be used to calm an excited dog down, some excitement problems can be exaggerated by a dog being under stimulated, this is a wonderful cheep and quick way to exercise the dogs mind.
There are a lot of canine enrichment products on the market, like lick mats, slow feeders, and puzzle feeders, but there is a lot of things you can do for free, take a look in your recycling bin are there items there you could scatter food in or on, how about rolling some of your dogs kibble in an old towel for them to snuffle out.
Please never leave your dog alone with a an enrichment feeding toy, either homemade or purchased.
“Free Work was invented as groundwork for dogs as a novel concept when TTouch training for companion animals was first developed.
Free Work can help dogs to settle and calm and has been beneficial for some dog with noise sensitivity as they focus more on what they smell, eat and feel rather than focusing purely on what they hear; a dog that is more relaxed through the body will be more relaxed on an emotional level too.
Using a blend of different textures, scents and tastes helps to engage the sensory part of the nervous system. Placing treats on objects of varying heights can help to improve posture and release tension in the neck, back and hindquarters.” Sarah Fisher, Animal Centred Education, www.tilleyfarm.org.uk
In this short video we see three dogs enjoying an enrichment Free Work course, they are all experienced in being fed through enrichment, see how confident they all are to put their head in a strange box full of toilet roll inserts.
The course has many different surfaces for the dogs to walk over and explore at their own pace, if any dog was uncomfortable with any of the objects or surfaces we would stand back, if they didn’t want to engage we wouldn’t force them.
I love to set up a canine enrichment courses especially in my workshops, this gives the dogs a breather from the exercises we are training this is very useful if we have spent our time doing exercises that involve a lot of self-control. This break also helps cement the learning of the exercises by giving the dog time to process.
