Have you ever been to the zoo and watched a Polar Bear playing with a ball in his pool? Have you ever seen a Tiger cub ripping up a pumpkin? That's enrichment!

Zoos offer enrichment to exotic animals to allow them opportunities to perform natural behaviors in a controlled setting. It helps make them more manageable, it reduces stress, it increases awareness/understanding of the world around them and  it even prevents behavioral & medical problems created by boredom and confinement.

Sadly, when our dogs perform natural behaviors inside our homes it's not called enrichment. When Fido gets into the trash ( foraging) we can't appreciate that this is natural behavior for dogs. What about when he chews on the furniture or digs up our prize rose bushes?

Below is a short clip on some of the ways I allow my dogs to participate in foraging behaviors and you can too!

I have a few other enrichment techniques that I use as well, stay tuned for more ways to allow your dog to be a dog with out being a BAD dog!