Keeping your puppy busy (enrichment)

Here is a short video with some ideas to keep your puppies busy by themselves. This is your go to for when you want to cook, eat, have a shower, go to work...all the boring stuff we humans prefer to do without help. It provides mental stimulation and a chance for your puppy to perform natural behaviours. That is a key part of getting good behaviour from animals who can no longer spend their days hunting and foraging for themselves. Below the video you can read an example of how to include enrichment in a strategy to solve a common puppy problem.

We can use enrichment to redirect unwanted natural behaviours. For example, digging up your garden: I take a two-pronged attack on digging, that is if you don't want it - dogs are perfectly happy doing it. Remember we want to teach our puppies the right way to do what they need to do, so they can choose that option even when we aren’t there. Try this:

(1) Dog & cat deterrent pellets of some kind from pet shop sprinkled in illegal areas and/or a physical barrier (I use a few bricks or star pickets around new plantings until they settle in, or you can use chicken wire, temp fence or pavers). But secret sauce is…

(2) a LEGAL digging pit e.g. fill a clam shell paddling pool with sand (or whatever you prefer) and bury toys, stuffed Kongs etc in there to encourage digging there. Now your legal spot is far more reinforcing than other areas.

What was your breed originally used for? Based on that, what do you think their instincts tell them to do, and what would they find interesting, fun or satisfying? Try to come up with some enrichment ideas to give your puppy a legal outlet for their natural behaviours. If you post your breed and their history below, we can all come up with fun ideas together. Or if you want to video your puppy doing something fun, you can share that in the Facebook forum.