Behavioural Enrichment

Exercise is very important but so is stimulating the mind of your pet.

We are very passionate about behaviour enrichment because unfortunately a great deal of young dogs are euthanised for behaviour problems, most stemming from boredom, frustration or bad experiences outside of their control.

Having a pet is a huge responsibility because they are dependent on you. They rely on us to create wonderful and safe environments for them to develop and thrive. They will be grateful and they will show their appreciate with a purr or a tail wag.

A note on this, however, nervous cats sometimes purr and nervous dogs sometimes wag their tails.

We do not give animals enough credit. Yes, they have not managed to develop apps or play chess but they are deeply intelligent, it is even speculated that they are psychic.

Here is a list of ten amazing things animals can do:

1 Dogs can smell when people are experiencing low blood sugar and alert them before they become dangerously ill

2 Elephants dig up clay from river beds to rid themselves of gastrointestinal parasites

3 Bees can communicate where to find pollen kilometres away by interpretive dance

4 The average dog can learn 165 words. Clever canines... up to 250.

5 Goldfish have been proven to have the ability to differentiate different musical composers.

6 Pigeons can remember over 100 human faces.

7 Capuchin Monkeys learnt that if they leave palm nuts in the sun for a week they become brittle enough to open with rocks. They set up production lines to have a constant supply of food.

8 Parrots 'catch' yawns from other parrots the same way we do.

9 Crows can understand Traffic Lights and wait until they change to green before stepping off the pavement to get food.

10 Cats remember specific incidents from years earlier, including when they were very young.

Pretty impressive isn't it?

I encourage you to meet Splash. He is pretty amazing. He has had hundreds of thousands of views on youtube. Watch this video:

The Best Trained Dog Ever (July 2013)-best listening dog-dog-best dog ever-amazing dog tricks-Dog Tricks Extra Tags- best listening dog the best listening dog in the world dog best listening dog in the world smartest dog in the world most obedient dog in the world dog wants a kitty the best

Then think about why a dog who lives in an apartment (instead of herding sheep) may become a barker or bite out of frustration.

Many years ago, I volunteered at a Zoo in Australia (I will give you my opinion on Zoos and conservation psychology another day).

I was feeling a little exploited after sweating away shovelling the dung from the zebras, rhino and giraffe enclosures... until... I saw how excited the lions were when we released them from their holding dens into their enclosure. We had just dispersed the dung from the African animals throughout. I thought this was fantastic. They loved it. This was their part of their daily behavioural enrichment plan.

We must remember that our pets have natural instincts. Although domesticated, they do still live in 'Captivity'.

Time to look on the positive side. How can you enrich your pets behaviour:

1. Train them

2. Let them smell the roses (but not lilys, they are toxic), trees, dogs butts etc etc

3. Exercise appropriately to their breed - (we are working on breed specific exercise regimes)

With more of us living in urban environments with limited space and risk of accident and injury with having pets outside, it is important to realise that having pets kept indoors more of the time can create stress and boredom. The Ohio State University has developed a great resource called the Indoor Pet Initiative - we encourage you to check it out here.

Many more insights and solutions coming soon.