Enrichment for your senior dog
Quality of life is essential for all older creatures, dogs and people alike.
What is enrichment?
Trainers like me call “enrichment” any and all activities that let your dog be a dog. They’re typically activities that tap into what your dog was born to do: Source food, practice play skills, interact with other dogs, sniff, dig, chase, tug, and so on, all the while working their brains and bodies.
Have a younger dog? Check out last week’s blog on enrichment for puppies and non-senior dogs.
Our dearly missed Winifred Tigerlily was 14 in this photo, and enjoyed just laying in the grass and sniffing the air in our backyard.
Why all dogs need it
Enrichment activities burn off physical and mental energy and are stress- relievers and boredom busters for dogs.
Studies show that enrichment activities, along with adequate exercise, can prevent a host of unwanted behaviors in our dogs.
These are especially good for dogs who may have reduced mobility.
How enrichment benefits senior dogs
Quality of life is essential for all older creatures, dogs and people alike.
Often, guardians with the best intentions let enrichment and training slide with their older dogs, figuring the dog mostly snoozes, so she doesn’t need training or enrichment, right? Not so!
Try some simple training fun
My colleague Kelly Lee, owner of DogKind LLC, suggests training games that are easy on the body (for instance, not puppy push-ups) such as trick training or hand-targeting. She also recommends “bringing the outdoors in:” Put some leaves, sticks, lawn clippings, etc. into the house in a box, for your dog to explore and scent.
Easy food toys
Sourcing food is a primary activity of all animals, and most dogs enjoy engaging with food toys. Kongs can be stuffed with moistened kibble that’s been mixed with pumpkin or yogurt, and dogs can spend a long time extracting the goodies. Below is my super easy method of stuffing Kongs.
If your dog has a hard time chewing, you can spread the mixture on silicone lick mats or lick bowls. Freezing them will make them last longer.
Other enrichment ideas
Get out of a toy rut! I know my own older dogs have enjoyed the same types of stuffies for years, but every so often I’ll bring home a big yard-sale stuffed toy for them to snuggle with, then shred if they want to (under supervision).
Silicon lick mats can be spread with canned food and placed near an older dog’s resting spot to allow him to gently lick off the goodies.
Kibble hunts in the yard (toss handfuls of your dog’s daily ration in the yard and tell them to find it) are gentle brain and body workouts.
Hanging out with other dogs. Dogs are social creatures and if your older dog still enjoys the company of other dogs, let them have interactions while on walks, invite a friend to your backyard, or just let them have a sniff and then sit together quietly in a park.
Dog park visits when the park is empty can give your older pup’s brain an intense sniffing workout.
My colleague Oleg Sobol of KinDog Behavior and Training suggests car rides with open windows to new places, sitting outside and doing nothing but sniffing, nosework with boxes on carpeted surfaces (toss in kibble and some paper towel or toilet paper cardboard rolls to give your dog something to nose through), and trying new foods.
Slow walks with a long leash so your pal has room to explore all the sniffs and you can enjoy your time together.
Chilling out and processing their world
Dogs explore their world primarily with their noses. A dog's sense of smell is estimated to be 10,000 to 100,000 times better than that of a human. In large part, this is due to staggering differences in odor processing in humans and dogs. While we have about 6 million olfactory receptors, dogs have an estimated 300 million.
Below, Oleg's older dog Sadie is working her nose and brain just by hanging out in the yard. If you observe your dog closely, you may notice her nose is rarely still.
Their time is fleeting … enjoy it together at a slower pace
I often sit on the back porch with our dogs Daisy and Petey and just watch their noses twitch and sniff.
As in the photo above, our 14-year-old Corgi, Winnie, loved just laying in the grass and sniffing. It also gave us a great deal of pleasure just to see her enjoy life this way!