Pet Pals Enrichment Series 

When pets learn a new task that ends in the acquisition of food (i.e. work for their food); they receive mental enrichment and stimulation! That time and effort they spend with their use of both mental and physical skills is highly rewarding and builds great confidence.

For example, some toys require your dog to manipulate them to get a food reward. This provides the dog with opportunities to scavenge and explore and thus, requiring it to expend mental and physical energy to accomplish the task. In contrast, if your dog gets all its food from a food bowl, it does not have to work or use any energy to obtain the food.

There are lots of benefits in allowing pets to eat more naturally through working for their food. For example, slowing down voracious eaters enriches mealtime to make the meal seem larger and could reduce the risk of bloat. Seemingly larger meals also means that dogs on diets will feel more satisfied/full from working for their food. Picky dogs are often more interested in food if it’s presented as a fun puzzle for them to solve and best of all; mental exercise is every bit as tiring (if not more) than physical exercise. So working for food could help reduce your pets from creating their own mental stimulation or as we call it, “getting into mischief”!

With many feeding toys on the market you are sure to find more then one that your dog or cat will love! Cats too and many other pets, not just dogs naturally work for their food in nature. Of course, make the puzzle easy in the beginning so that your pet is successful and builds confidence. Then gradually increase the difficulty as they figure out how to make the toy work. You can even feed entire meals from a toy and throw out the food bowl altogether.

**IMPORTANT** Keep in mind to not overfeed your pet! It's critical to calculate how much you are giving as training rewards, how much you are putting in feeding toys or other enrichment, and what is left to be put into the food bowl. That total should not exceed your pet’s daily needs.