Technology
Is My Dog Bored? Understanding and Fixing Understimulation in Modern Dogs
In this episode of Walkin Talk, host Lisa explores the often-overlooked issue of dog boredom and under-stimulation. She discusses the importance of fulfilling a dog's intrinsic needs and offers p...
Is My Dog Bored? Understanding and Fixing Understimulation in Modern Dogs
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hello my dog loving listeners and welcome back to the walkin talk. I'm Lisa, your host,
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your trainer and absolutely the most dog of sex person you know here with another weekly
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dose of dog chat that is hopefully going to help you make living life alongside your dog
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just that little bit more enjoyable, a little bit more pleasant, a little bit more wonderful
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as you move into yet another week together. Now let me kick this episode off straight away with
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a question I want to ask you, although actually let me flip that I don't want to ask you directly,
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but I want to know if you've ever asked yourself this, okay, is my dog bored? Because I think we've
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all been there, right? You're sitting on the sofa, your dog is either just unashamedly staring at you
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with those eyes, you know the ones, or maybe they're pacing around or god forbid they've started
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chewing something they definitely shouldn't be chewing and you wonder why is wrong with my dog?
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Does this dog just need more to do? Well today we're going to really dig into this question because
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the truth is boredom and under stimulation are some of the most overlooked causes of behavioral
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problems in dogs and yet they're also one of the most misunderstood topics. Some people think
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throwing a toy at their dog is enrichment. Others think enrichment is some super complex
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pin-dressed worthy project that requires YouTube free Suddens inside three layers of Kong a week
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before serving. Some people think you need to spend a lot of money on complex enrichment products
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for dogs. I mean that is just an incredibly massive market that I feel like has exploded
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in the past decade or so. Others are happy to just crack out a kitchen while tube and get creative
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with it. So I want us to unpack this together today. We're going to talk about the
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unnatural lives our dogs live compared to what they're realistically actually wired for because
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I think so many people forget the world we are asking our dogs to live in every day without
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respite really is not the world they were built for. We're going to look at why some breeds perhaps
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need more fulfillment than others. We're going to think about ways in which we can look at both our
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daily dog walks and our general lives at home with our dogs and how we can make sure these are
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genuinely satisfying. I also want to talk about why enrichment and fulfillment really can be
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powerful antidotes to problem behavior but I want to make sure we give balance to the fact that
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enrichment alone is not a magic wand either. I think the problem with social media these days
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right and bear with me like come with me down this narrative alleyway I'm going to I'm going to
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bring a spark to stop it with this but the problem with social media is that the algorithm now
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can be so tricky to satisfy and so as a professional myself I know that a dog trainer's and
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behaviorist and anyone working in this industry they are gradually being forced to make more and
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more outlandish statements shall we say or promises or present increasingly controversial notions or
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ideas just in order to get their content seen at all like you have to say something that no one has
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ever said before in order to spark engagement is wild and so I can think of one individual who
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is entirely brand now is basically built around the idea that dogs should not be trained
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they should not be trained because training is not necessary and that any and every behavior
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problem can actually be solved if that dog is simply delivered all the enrichment they could
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possibly need so for example you want your dog to stop pulling on lead they're just not fulfilled
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enough you want them to stop barking at other dogs more enrichment at home you want to sleep
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train them and settle train them they'll just do all of that stuff automatically as long as they're
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fully satisfied in terms of their species specific drives now don't get me wrong don't get me
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wrong of course enrichment and fulfillment and all that good stuff plays a massive part in tackling
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problem behaviors and I'm so happy that we are talking about fulfilling our dogs needs over just
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disciplining them into doing what we want with force or punishment but genuinely please can we
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remember that training still matters guys I'm not saying it has to be rigid and boring and we have
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to have our dogs walking around like robots all the time but truly honestly you still need to teach
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your dog the things you want him to know if you want him to know them do you know what I mean like
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this trainer said on some piece of content or another oh my dog doesn't know sit I can't ask
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him to sit because I haven't trained him that and I think okay I get that you're saying he should
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live naturally and he should be a dog but truly one of the most fun ways my dogs and I get to engage
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with each other every day and build our relationship and I can grow their confidence and I can help
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them navigate human situations they otherwise wouldn't understand is through the training that we do
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together it creates a form of communication between us that feels almost sacred sometimes it's
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a past time we can both fully engage in as a team and it just feels like such a wonderful way to
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invest in a relationship with an animal there's an entirely different species so whilst I am
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fully here for enrichment and fulfillment I am also fully here for teaching our dogs behaviors
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for us playing training games to grow their confidence or their flexibility or their impose control
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and I'm definitely here for anything that encourages you to engage with your dog on a one-to-one
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level ultimately for a lot of dogs training sessions are literally another form of brainwork
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and enrichment aren't they which is what we're talking about today anyway did I pull that off
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did I bring it back in who knows right let's get your dogs lead on and let's get walking so
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let's start with the big picture dogs domesticated dogs as a species are living in our world and if
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you stop and think about that it's actually a kind of amazing isn't it like every single day our
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dogs are adapting to a life that is nothing like the one their wild ancestors lived way back when
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proto-drugs world canids would have spent their days roaming scavenging hunting problem solving
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socializing in structured groups and making choices about where to go and what to do and then
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you fast forward to today and what do we actually ask of our dogs stay in the house walk nicely on a
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lead sleep and do pretty much nothing while we're at work please which by the way is pretty much all day
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five days a week be quiet when the Amazon delivery person comes please don't make bloody fast oh
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don't dig up the garden um actually like don't fuck with anything out there like don't touch it
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because it's decorative thanks um don't chase the squirrels don't bark at the neighbors please
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don't react to the cats or the birds that appear don't shred the sofa cushions actually don't eat
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anything don't put anything in your mouth unless it's in this round thing that I put on the floor
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and so on and so on right it's ridiculous in other words don't do most of the things that your
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brain and body have evolved to do now just for fairness domestication has obviously changed dogs
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hugely a labrador is not a wolf of course we acknowledge this but and this is the important point
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the underlying needs for activity stimulation and fulfillment have not vanished they've just been
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reshaped so what do I mean when I say fulfillment well essentially fulfillment is that sense of
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satisfaction that comes when an animal engages in behaviors they are intrinsically motivated
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to perform before us humans um think about how you feel after solving like a really tricky crossword
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does anyone still do crosswords anymore I don't know um or finishing a good solid workout or just
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getting stuck into like whatever hobbies you have that you love you're not just tired afterwards
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but you're satisfied aren't you and dogs have that same need they are wired to chew to dig to sniff
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forage to chase shred problem solve and when we don't provide safe structured ways for them to do
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those things guess what they're in provides won't they and their improvisation rarely looks how we
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want it to chewing your shoes digging up the flower beds barking at passes by these are often not
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naughty behaviors they are just your dog's attempt to meet those unmet needs and of course
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the type of fulfillment required or desired by your dog varies hugely depending on breed and
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this is also such an important piece of the puzzle um take your gorgeous border collie right
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bred for generations to work sheep which involves intense focus lots of independent problem solving
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speed stamina and masses of reactivity now picture that same collie living in a two-bed flat with
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a 20 minute lead walk once a day or even twice a day that's a recipe for disaster right or think
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about a dashing quite popular breed at the moment bred to go down badger sets and tunnel savage
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little dogs genetically speaking they were literally created to go underground start fights with
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scary things and finish those fights right imagine the kind of mindset and drive required to breed a
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dog to want to do that so if you don't give them safe outlets to dig and chew and to doggedly pursue
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stuff you're probably going to find your safe cushions or your shoes or your underwear or all of
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the above are going to look like living through a shredder then on the other end of the spectrum
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you've got breeds like greyhounds who often are quite content to be honest with little
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bests of running and then super long naps that doesn't mean they don't need enrichment they absolutely
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do but the intensity and the type might just be different to the dog next door understanding your
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dogs breed tendencies isn't about boxing them in but it really does help you predict what kind of
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activities might really like them up now let's talk about walks because walks are often the
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only consistent daily activity our dogs get but let me be very clear there is a broad spectrum of
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the kinds of walks being delivered out there believe me is your dog pacing around the block every day
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with you same room same pace no off lead time at all or do you have a repertoire of different
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environments do you incorporate sniffing and exploration are they allowed any time to roam off lead
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a walk can either ultimately be boring and restrictive or it can be the highlight of your dogs day
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and it's kind of up to you really if you are marching your dog around the block nose off the ground
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pulling them along at the human pace that's not really very enriching that's just exercise and not
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even great exercise really because a truly fulfilling walk for a dog involves lots and lots of
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sniffing did you listen to last week's episode on Scentwork if you didn't go and listen to that after
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this one because the canine brain is basically built around the nose there are estimates that dogs
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experience the world through scent as vividly as we experience it through vision imagine that
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I mean you literally can't imagine the all factory input your dog is receiving from the world
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constantly you can't because we humans don't have the tools required to process it full stop it would
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be like trying to explain the way we see the world with our eyes to a mole is that right a moles are
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they like basically blind is it bowls wherever it is some kind of little underground creature that is
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basically blind because it lives underground they wouldn't see the value in stopping to look around
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and take in the gorgeous view because they can't see it and it's the same for you and your dog and
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the smells they want to sniff allowing them that sniffing time lowers cortisol it provides mental
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stimulation and it truly satisfies deep instinctive needs that we as humans just don't have when it comes
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to smell so slow down let them sniff that lamp post for two whole minutes if they want to introduce
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variety different routes different textures underfoot maybe even scatter some treats in the grass
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let them forage for a bit if you've got a high drive breed you can incorporate training games
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whilst you're out you can play tug or you can retrieve while you're out on your walks basically
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I'm saying let's stop thinking of walks just as bathroom breaks and let's remember they're one
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of the most interesting enrichment sessions we can offer each and every day okay right that's walks
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now let's move inside the house so bluntly I would say home life is where so many dogs experience
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the greatest levels of boredom especially when they are left alone and chew toys puzzle feeders
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licky mats scent games these are all tools we can use but again it doesn't have to be complicated
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even something as simple as hiding a few treats around the room and letting your dog go find it
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taps into those natural hunting instincts rotating toys is another big one that so many of us
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never bother with dogs like kids get bored of the same toy left out every day try putting half
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of them away and then just rotating which half is out each week and suddenly the old toys are a
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little bit more exciting again food based enrichment is also brilliant because eating from a bowl
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is honestly a wasted opportunity in my opinion make them forage shred lick puzzle solve their way to
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get to their food you're feeding them anyway right so you may as well make it work for you and make
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it a little bit more interesting for them and the brucey bonuses the more enrichment you can get
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into their day the more positive effect you will begin to notice when it comes to behavior because
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like I said at the top of this episode enrichment and fulfillment don't just prevent boredom they
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actively reduce problem behaviors too not necessarily eradicate totally in all cases but they are
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absolutely a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to behavior modification because when dogs
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are fulfilled their baseline stress levels drop which means their nervous systems are karma which
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in turn means they're less likely to tip over into hyper vigilance or reactivity or destructive
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habits but and this is important so i'm going to say it again enrichment is not a magic cure
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roll despite what you've heard on instagram sometimes i see people throwing puzzle toys at the
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dog or they're spending hundreds of pounds on over complicated enrichment equipment but then
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they're still struggling with lead reactivity or recall problems or separation anxiety or whatever
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it is and they get really frustrated by doing all this enrichment doing all this extra stuff why
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isn't it working this guy on instagram said this was golden goose whereas really what you need to
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know is enrichment is the foundation it creates the conditions for training to work better a fulfilled
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balanced dog is more receptive to learning but ultimately behavior change still requires structure
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is still requires teaching and it needs reinforcement to make it stick i think a bit like this right
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if a child is hungry and tired and bored then not going to learn how to run no matter how good the
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teacher is so a fulfillment meets the dog's basic needs but then training builds the skills they
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need to live successfully in our world and in my opinion you really do need both so some practical
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takeaways for you what can you do this week to make sure your dogs needs are being met number one
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let's start by auditing your walks are they enriching or are they just toilet breaks can you
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slow down and let your dogs sniff more number two add one enrichment activity per day don't
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overwhelm yourself doesn't need to be super fancy even literally grabbing a handful of your dogs
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kivill and scatter feeding it in the garden counts don't over complicate it okay number three think
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breed specific so what was your dog bred to do and how can you provide a safe outlet for that drive
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if you have no idea where to start with that go back and listen to my podcast episode on
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breed specific fulfillment loads and loads of ideas in there number four rotate your resources
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so toys choose puzzle feeders anything and everything keep them novel mix it up every once in a
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while keep things exciting number five pair your enrichment with training don't expect enrichment alone
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to solve behavioral challenges if you are struggling with any in particular but use it as the platform
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for teaching and if you have no idea what to teach how to train what games and exercises you and
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your dog can work on together head to my website listen dog training dot com there's literally loads
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of courses and guides and training packs that will guide you step by step and give you loads of
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ideas of where to get started because when we get this piece right everything else ultimately gets
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easier training becomes smoother problem behaviors do reduce and life with your dog feels easier feels
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more connected and far more joyful I mean this was the whole reason you got a dog in the first place
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right to own a dog who's not just quiet because they're suppressed but a dog who's genuinely
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content because their life is just rich and satisfying and they're happy ultimately happy dogs make
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happy own and stay there and on that note I think we can call it a day I think we've done great work
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guys hopefully you have got lots of ideas and a couple of actions you can just pop up your sleeve
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for future walks and evenings at home I would love for you to try one new enrichment activity
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with your dog this week and then let me know how it goes DM me on Instagram I'm at listen dog
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training and I bloody love getting all your pictures and your messages your DMs your little video
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clips of all the things you're doing honestly it makes me so happy okay so I guess there is
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nothing left to say other than thank you so much for joining me on this walk today or letting
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me join you is probably more appropriate and I will see you same time next week for another episode
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of The Walkin Talk