Seeking is Fatiguing!

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I write so much about enrichment, nose work and mental games on this blog, and yet I realized after a fantastic “Creative Behavior Outlets” seminar last weekend that I am not even close to taking full advantage of how great brain work can be for Johnnie!  I had been so focused on walking the energy out of her that I lost track of how useful food puzzles and mental stimulation can be in tiring her out as well. Thank goodness I had the Your Dog’s Friend seminar to remind me of the gold mine I was missing out on!

The seminar was led by Leslie Clifton, CPDT-KA of Look What I Can Do Dog Training, and she spent lots of time explaining how to exhaust your dog without running them around for hours. She demonstrated lots of different kinds of food puzzles, as well as went over different “Find it!” games and home-made food puzzles. The best thing I came home with after that workshop was the idea that “seeking is fatiguing.” Whenever your dog is searching for how or where to get his food (an important natural canine behavior, by the way), he is working his brain. You can often see the concentration in his scrunched up forehead – a sure sign that those thinking wheels are turning.  Twenty minutes of mental games is thought to be equivalent to sixty minutes of vigorous exercise!

I immediately went out and bought a Kong Wobbler for Johnnie that will make her work for her kibble. She no longer eats her meals out of a bowl, ever. She either eats them from a stuffed kong (kibble & pumpkin mixed together and frozen), from her Kong Wobbler, or through “Find It” games. You can also use old Gatorade bottles or other various food puzzles. I have known about these tricks for so long, and yet I hadn’t been regularly implementing them with Johnnie!  Doh!  Now it takes her about 15 – 20 minutes per meal to finish all her kibble, instead of the 2 -3 it was taking out of a bowl before, and I can really tell the difference in how it keeps her energy levels lower (check out the photo below – she was so sleepy she knew there was food left in her puzzle and she still tucked herself into bed. . . an enrichment miracle!).  I am still kicking myself for not consistently using these puzzles for the first few weeks I had her :-).

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Toy puzzles for dinner give us another opportunity to practice Johnnie’s “wait” cue as well.

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Later this week I will go into other ways we keep Johnnie’s puppy brain occupied so that she expresses her natural behaviors in an appropriate manner. Stay tuned!

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To adopt Johnnie Cash the food-puzzle-lover, email peacelovefoster@gmail.com.

Can’t Live Without TOYS!

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Hey ladies and gents. Sinclair here. J let me take over the blog to talk about the most important thing in my small little world: toys.  You see, I have a serious love affair with toys, as she mentioned during yesterday’s introductions. All kinds of toys: squeaky, rope, plush, plastic – you name it, I play with it.

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My version of playing is as follows: total and complete destruction. Yep, you heard me. I like to rip, shred, chew, and gnaw the toys I get my paws on.  Temporary-FosterMama (TFM) gave me a lobster rope toy, and like a true Mainer I started with the claws first.

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Now you might look at these incriminating adorable photos and think, “He is so destructive!”  BUT, think again – this sort of playing with toys is very good for me! Let me explain to you why.  First of all, giving me toys to chew on means that what I’m NOT doing is chewing on your shoes. The best way to prevent me (or whatever doggy) from chewing up things they’re not supposed to is to provide them with alternatives! I was so busy ripping the limbs off Mr. Lobster that the couch didn’t even interest me (not that it normally would because I don’t chew things I’m not supposed to, but to some dogs the couch and other non-edible things are simply deeeeelicious).

While I was deep in the La La Land of Squeaky Toy Destruction, TFM kept talking about this thing called in-rich-mint. TFM says in-rich-mint is something that makes my little doggy brain work and concentrate really hard on something. That is exactly what I do when I destroy toys: I lie there for hours meticulously ripping and pulling at my toys, planning exactly which piece of string to pick apart next. I work really hard to be the best Captain Destructo I can be. You give me a strong rope toy to work on and disassemble for thirty minutes and I am straight exhausted after that.  Like seriously, give me a NAP!!!

So next time you think toy destruction is a bad thing, think again!  It might be saving your pup from serious boredom – or, better yet, it might be saving your throw pillows from an unfortunate demise ;-)

Toy2If you are interested in adding Sinclair and his sonar ears into your family, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com or fill out an application on the Jasmine’s House website.

Find it!

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After many months of medical procedures and recovery, Joanie is getting her spunk back as she continues to feel better every day.  While walks are great to tire her out, she can only handle so much physical activity – so she needs another outlet for her energy.  From the three days I’ve had her, I’ve found that Joanie really benefits from using her nose to exercise her brain and wear her out (like all dogs!).

The easiest and most fun way for us to do some informal nose work is playing “Find it!” in the backyard. Using string cheese, I throw little pieces all over the yard and send her sniffing after them. I try to put them in a pattern so that she can find her way to the next one (she’s got a good sniffer, but it’s not that good if the treat is too far away). Because she has to root through the grass a bit, it’s not a super easy find and usually takes some effort – which is great since I want her to work those brain muscles!

We even tried a few times where I was up on the deck and she was down in the yard. The string cheese is bright white so she can see sort of where I throw it, and the rest is up to her nose.  This also helps to get her down the stairs to the yard without me taking her down there. She’s not really needy, but she doesn’t particularly care to venture down on her own – which is sort of inconvenient when you’re a lazy FosterMom!

“Find it!” is a great game. Ten or fifteen minutes of this is equally as tiring as probably a thirty minute walk. The thing about physical exercise versus mental is that when we’re done with a walk, Joanie’s brain is still ready to go. She still wants to sniff and investigate everything. But after a walk and some nose work, she’s out for the count.

It’s been fun learning what helps Joanie relax around us and what she needs to keep her happy. Watching a dog settle down right before your eyes is really rewarding, especially when you’re not sure they’re going to get there initially (more about that later).  Joanie is just another perfect example of how enrichment can be helpful for any dog!

Lessons from AFF: The Joys of Enrichment

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I’ve always been a fan of kongs and toy puzzles and nose work, but I never truly realized how they fit into the bigger picture of enrichment. Enrichment is so essential to a dog’s happiness and mental well being because it allows them outlets to use their doggy senses. I learned that it doesn’t only encompass the taste and smell senses in the form of food games, but also visual, hearing, and touching exercises. Enrichment can be fun, easy, and cheap – and for what a dog gets out of it, the extra effort is one hundred percent worth it.

In shelters, dogs are often so bored, overwhelmed, and stressed that they can quickly start displaying negative behaviors that are unfortunately sometimes a poor representation to the dog’s true personality. Enrichment activities help to postpone or prevent the onset of these behaviors by stimulating the dog’s senses and wearing them out mentally.  The dogs then in turn show better to adopters because they are either preoccupied working on their puzzles and therefore not barking, or they’re just so tired from all their work to get the treats or whatever that they’re mellow in their kennels.

At Animal Farm we learned about all kinds of different enrichment activities.  The most well known ones are the kinds involving food that are supposed to be tricky and keep the dog busy for a while, including frozen stuffed kongs, busy buckets, and ice treats. Frozen stuffed kongs are self explanatory, but remember that you can stuff them with all sorts of different foods and treats (just make sure you’re not feeding your dog three meals in the process). Busy buckets are small pails that you fill with different things to do, smell, and taste. The point is to stuff them very tightly so that it’s a challenge for the dog to get each fun object out – try to flip your busy bucket upside down without anything falling out! Ice treats are also pretty self explanatory. Fill a bucket with different bones, balls, treat toys, etc. then add a little bit of kibble – fill with water, freeze, and you’re done. All of these toys can include your dog’s normal meal contents to make dinner a fun and difficult exercise! Busy buckets were a total blessing with our energetic housemate Birdie; they would keep her quiet and still for more than thirty seconds!

Smell is also, as expected, a very good way to engage dogs. In shelters, simple PVC pipes with holes drilled in them can be a world of smells for a dog. Fill it with something smelly, like dirty hamster shavings (gross for humans but jackpot for dogs), and close the endings to create an interesting activity for the dogs. You can hang them around their kennel or you can put them in the exercise yard where the dogs are walked to give them something to investigate while they get their potty break. Even short, simple activities like this can make a big difference in a dog’s mental well being.

I could write forever about other ways to help make a dog’s living environment – home or shelter – more positively stimulating, but all of this and more is on AFF’s website. There you can find a plethora of information about enrichment, including step-by-step instructions and explanations about the benefits. Remember that these are not just beneficial for shelter dogs, but for your own pets as well! All dogs can use an excuse to work their sniffer, tongue or noggin. A tired dog, whether mentally or physically, is a happier dog!

My Time at Animal Farm Foundation

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Tucked back in the rolling hills of Dutchess County, New York, Animal Farm Foundation is a not-for-profit group who believes in equality for all dogs. They advocate specifically for “pit bull” dogs – the ones most likely to be discriminated against at this time – but their work goes further than that as they share sheltering best practices that help shelter dogs and the people who work with them. They’ve got a team of knowledgeable trainers who work with their adoptable dogs on the farm or where they’re needed elsewhere, as well as dedicated educators who travel around the country to share the idea of equality for “pit bull” dogs and progressive thinking when it comes to getting dogs adopted.

I just spent a week there for the internship program, and it was a week free of judgements – dog or human, free of breed/gender/history labels, and full of open-mindedness. Every day was packed full of learning about dog behavior, basic training, shelter enrichment, advocating for “pit bull” dogs, and so much more.

Each intern was paired with a shelter dog that they worked with for the week, and many also took their training dogs home with them at night as roommates. My situation was unique, as I was staying in a house with two other girls, so we had one house dog named Birdie. Birdie came from the Spindletop case. She was a bucket of energy, and so stinkin’ cute. At first I was taken aback by her affinity for constant movement, but by the end of the week it became quite endearing. Birdie was actually already adopted, but stayed the week with us to learn some manners.

And manners she learned. Each day we spent time discussing the basics of communicating with and teaching dogs in a positive way that sets them up for success and reinforces desired behaviors. These sessions included clicker training drills and shaping techniques. I never realized how fun and silly training can be until I was getting Birdie to voluntarily put her paws up on a box – an example of shaping.  We also practiced having the dogs always sit and give eye contact (offered behavior) before going through a door (reward), and waiting patiently before being allowed to eat from their food bowl. These simple things are expected from the dogs by each staff member, so the dogs learn quickly and soon they don’t even seem like rules – more like no brainer type stuff.

Practicing shaping with Eli.

While Birdie was our house guest, I worked every day with a different dog named Amarillo. Amarillo was also a Spindletop dog, and at about seven years old she decided she wasn’t in to all that much but a good butt scratch. While we (okay, mostly I) struggled with the basics like sit and down, Amarillo quickly excelled at leave it, easy tricks, and loose leash walking. I guess a girl’s gotta have some challenge in her life? She was a bit shy of the camera, so this is all I was able to catch of her bat ears.

In addition to the basic training we worked on, the interns also learned about other ways to improve the lives of shelter dogs using enrichment for the different senses. We spent a whole morning constructing enrichment activities, which I will talk more about tomorrow.

For me, one of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to know not only the Animal Farm staff, but also the other interns who came from all over the country to learn about the same things I did. Everyone’s shelter experiences were different, yet many of us had the same difficulties and issues. By the end of the week we were all encouraging each other as we shared how we will use the information from that week moving forward.

It was a very valuable experience for me; one I would recommend to anyone who wants to advance their efforts in helping shelter dogs, especially “pit bull” dogs. If you are interested, you can see more details, including the application process, on the AFF website.  If you’ve got questions, feel free to email me with any about the program or what I learned!