Canine Enrichment - that sounds complicated! The good news is, it actually is very simple. It can also be known as dog games, dog brain puzzles, dog activities, or just plain dog stuff that makes their day better! Anything that gets your pup using their brain and natural senses is enrichment to their lives.
In this blog I want to talk about the enrichment tool of
SNUFFLE MATS!
Dogs love to put their noses to use. Your dog's nose can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than your human nose, the amount varies depending on your specific pup. That is a HUGE difference in smelling abilities. Pregnant human women tend to have heightened senses of smell. If you have ever been around (or were!) a pregnant woman who was affected by this, you would have seen that it can make a major difference in their daily lives. The same is true for our dogs, except it is a constant for their entire lives!
This all plays into our dogs smelling our emotions - yes that is true! Dogs smell our hormone secretions, so they often can pick up on our emotions through our changes in scent, so cool!
All that being said about our dogs amazing noses leads to the importance of giving them opportunities to use them! Snuffle Mats tap into your dogs natural foraging skills. Foraging is the act of searching for food to eat. In the wild dogs survive without humans by both hunting and gathering (foraging). Finding food by using their noses is extremally satisfying to our pups, and in turn gives them the opportunity to tire themselves out in a healthy way.
Snuffle mats are very easy and convenient to use. All you do is sprinkle/hide treats or their meal in them and set them down! A lot of options are also machine washable for the extra slobbery pups, haha! After your pup walks away (or if you get the feeling they are searching but there is nothing left) pick the mat up to store it in a safe place to prevent it from becoming a chew toy.
Snuffle Mats can be easily found online by searching for just that! If you would like, I have put links below to some of my favorite options on Amazon.
Full disclosure - these links do give me commission (at no additional cost to you)
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