A Guide to Using Food Puzzle Toys With Your Dog
Food puzzle toys are a great way to provide enrichment for your dog. If you want to get started—or add some different food toys to your dog’s repertoire—this guide will help.
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Enrichment for Dogs and Cats 101
For cats and dogs to thrive they need what’s called enrichment: physical, exploratory, and social activities. Pets who do not have opportunities for physical play and mental stimulation can become apathetic and unhappy. Enrichment might sound expensive or time-consuming, but simple, everyday activities are all your pet needs for an enhanced life and more powerful relationship with you.
Using Predictability, Scheduling, and Enrichment to Train Your Dog
The Influence of Environmental Change On The Behaviour of Sheltered Dogs
One hundred and twenty dogs sheltered by the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were studied over a 4-h period. The dogs’ position in the cage, vocalisation, and activity were investigated in response to increased human social stimulation, moving the dog’s bed to the front of the cage, or suspending a toy from the front of the dog’s cage.
Maximizing the Effectiveness of Environmental Enrichment: Suggestions From the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Environmental enrichment programs provide benefits to both captive animals and the facilities that house them, but cost time and resources to design, implement, and maintain. As yet, there have been few theoretically based guidelines to assist animal care staff in establishing cost-efficient enrichment methods that both elicit the desired behavioral changes and maintain their success over time. We describe several well-studied principles from the field of experimental analysis of behavior, including intrinsic reinforcement, extrinsic reinforcement, habituation, extinction, and schedules of reinforcement that could be very useful for evaluating the short- and long-term effectiveness of enrichment.
Behavioral Effects of Auditory Stimulation on Kenneled Dogs
One growing area of research pertaining to the welfare of kenneled dogs is environmental enrichment, including auditory stimulation. The current study investigated the impact of music (classical, heavy metal, and specifically designed/altered classical) on activity level, vocalization, and body shaking of 117 kenneled dogs.