Friday, October 14, 2016

6 Categories of Enrichment for Your Dog #PAW5EnrichedLifeChallenge

By adopting a dog, we assume the typical dog parent responsibilities of feeding, walking, vet bills, play time, training, and more. This is great and helps ensure our dogs stay healthy and happy, but dogs can and do get bored. That's why adding enrichment to our dogs' lives is so important.


What is enrichment and why is it important for your dog? Enrichment is a means to add mental and physical stimulation to your dog's life with puzzles, games, training, and socialization. Enrichment activities are meant to tap into your dog's natural canine instincts and behaviors.

PAW5 is launching their #PAW5EnrichedLifeChallenge to dog parents. PAW5 is dedicated to providing enrichment for dogs through thoughtful product design and education. This program will challenge dog parents to provide their dog with 5 days of enrichment to challenge their furry friend's mind and body in healthy and rewarding enrichment activities. We are joining the challenge starting on October 17th and hope you will join us!


There are six defined categories of enrichment. Dog parents can choose the category that best suits their dog.

1. Sensory - This includes anything that stimulates your dog's senses. Sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.

2. Feeding - By employing the power of your dog's nose and brain, you can encourage your dog to use their natural hunting and foraging skills at meal time.

3. Toys and Puzzles - These encourage your dog to manipulate them for a reward. The reward is usually food or treats, but could also include plush, rubber, rope, and fetch toys.

4. Environmental - Adding new things to your dog's life can sometimes increase their physical activity and make things more interesting. Try adding a mirror to a room in your house, build a ramp in the backyard, or go for a hike in a new place.

5. Social - Interaction with other people and other dogs builds self confidence and trust. Visiting the pet store, the dog park, or even a friend's house can help keep your dog well socialized.

6. Training - Training can help strengthen the bond you have with your dog. It helps to build trust plus your dog will learn basic and important listening skills.

PAW5 has created a 5 day schedule for their #PAW5EnrichedLifeChallenge. Each day is designed to insert enrichment into your dog's life with all of the 6 enrichment categories above.







During the challenge, we will be utilizing our PAW5 Rock N Bowl and the PAW5 Wooly Snuffle Mat. The Wooly Snuffle Mat is a new enrichment item from PAW5 that engages a dog's sense of smell as the snuffle, snort, and sniff their way through dinner time. If you don't have these items just yet, don't worry! You can still join the fun with plenty of other enrichment activities.

I really like this product and I think Shiner enjoys using it too. It's a bit different than other types of puzzles and toys, but I believe that's why it works out perfect for my dog. She can figure out most puzzle feeding toys, but would rather not bother with them and sometimes doesn't get all the food out. She's more of a "just put the food in the bowl" type of girl. You can check her out in action in the video below.


For more information about the PAW5 Enriched Life Challenge and activity ideas, just click here. Share how your 5 days go in the comments below and share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with the hashtag #PAW5EnrichedLifeChallenge. Good luck and have fun!

We received a PAW5 Wooly Snuffle Mat at no charge. Pawsitively Pets only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. All thoughts and opinions are our own. 

5 comments:

  1. For those that struggle to enrich their dog's lives that is a great list and challenge. At our house, we may be over enriched as we are always doing stuff with sports, travel, obedience, play, etc. I think this is a great idea from PAW5 and we love their bowl.

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  2. Those are wonderful ideas ! Many ideas are great for cats too. Purrs

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  3. shiner...we agree with pixie N zorro...several oh theeze wood be grate for catz two ~~~~~~ waves two ewe callie & roadside !!!

    that snuffle matt iz awesum !

    heerz two a pineapple fish kinda week oh end ~~~~~~~ ♥♥♥

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  4. That is a great list of enriching your dogs’ life. For a loving pet parent, there’s nothing else in this world that matters more than giving the best for the dog babies.

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  5. Great list and thanks for the challenge! I meditate with my dog and cats daily, and it seems that it might cover the suggested sensory, environmental and social categories. I give them the opportunity to move in and out of the space I'm in and they tend to gravitate toward me during most meditation sessions. xoxoxo

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