Mom I'm Bored: Canine Enrichment

During my time as a zoo keeper I learned many things about animals. For instance...

Badgers love hamburger.

Cranes yearn to get their groove on.

Chimps are artistic.

Leopards love hide and seek.

And lions want to eat you.

All of these behaviors are ways the animals learned to pass the time. To keep our accreditation, and to be kind responsible caregivers, we were required to provide the animals with a variety of daily enrichment. Enrichment was anything that stimulated the animals senses and encouraged them to use their mind and body in ways they would living in the wild. This could be food, toys, puzzles, scents, different textures and ground covers, novel sounds or training activities. It was fun seeing how creative we could be.

Without this stimulation animals can easily develop stereotypic behaviors which result from boredom and stress. This is the tiger you see pacing back and forth, the monkey rocking side to side, or the porcupine that won't stop scratching at the corner of its enclosure.

We now understand variety is necessary for our zoo animals, but many people think its fine to keep their dog inside all day with one squeaky toy and a 30 minute walk. We provide Fido with meals, a warm bed, and the pleasure of our company 12 hours a day and they have the poor taste to bark, dig in the yard, chew our shoes, jump on the furniture, and knocking over the lamp while trying to catch their own tail.

These dogs more than likely are bored out of their skulls and have more energy than they know how to deal with. Their little living room enclosures don't even have hourly guests coming by telling them how cute and exotic they look. Its our job to give our dogs some hobbies or even better work to be done to earn their room and board.

My dogs carrying important vaccines to poor children. OK that was a lie, but they do deliver copious P-mails.

Exercise

We all know I think exercise is essential for a happy dog (and a happy person). Its an opportunity for dogs to get their hearts pumping and to see new places and smell new smells.  Aside from just walking and running there are a multitude of canine sports such as agility, flyball, lure coursing, hunting trials, dock jumping etc. There is also just getting out and playing with your dog. Fetch, tug of war, running around the yard like crazy animals all sound fun to me.

Training Partners

Training

It is a great thing when you can teach your dog how to learn from you. You can encourage all the behaviors you want from your dog and help them love doing it. When I'm shaping a behavior my dogs get very excited running around the room hoping to hear a click. Training allows you to mentally and physically stimulate your dog. My dogs do the majority of their training in order to earn their daily food allotment. Instead of their meal being 1 minute of gorging followed by 23 hrs and 59 minutes of wishing they had more, I spread their meal between several training sessions fed out a few kibble bits at a time.

Nix momentarily walking with a loose leash. I dub this a training, patience, and kibble miracle.

Food

Special treats or clever ways to feed your dog can really brighten up their day. If you don't want to take the time to feed your dog through training you can at least find ways to make eating an exciting challenge. You can scatter their food around a room or yard and make them sniff it out. Put their food in a paper bag, milk carton, box, or other interesting container and your dog shred his way in.

My dogs love gnawing on carrots, squash, yams, green beans, and apple. I often give them my cut off carrot tops to munch on for a bit.

Would you like a banana?

One of our favorite treats at the zoo was making "Popsicles." We would get blood or water and freeze a variety of meats and treats inside. We froze kibble, hamburger, fish, veggies, crunchy fruits, and other treats inside. I am sure most of you at home don't have access to buckets of blood, but my dog's kibble added to hot water makes a delicious stinky fishy mess that the dogs love. I have also seen bullion used, but I would be careful of high sodium levels and onion flavoring. You could make you own stock from simmering the bones and meat trimmings left after your chicken dinner. Just make sure you don't feed your dog cooked bones. You can freeze your concoction in their dog food dish, miscellaneous containers, or cupcake pans. I wouldn't suggest feeding these to your dog on the living room carpet.


You can also find devices that release food to surprise them throughout the day.



Toys
There is an endless list of dog toys. They can be used for training, partner games like tug and fetch, alone like when my dogs eviscerate fuzzy bunnies and happy stuffed squirrels, or used as puzzles to contain food like Kongs which can double as chew toys. You can make your own toys with customized fillings if you have any old tube socks. Just put what treats or toys you want inside a knot the top. Little fox puppies loved swinging them around and playing tug with them.

I had a dog that carried around an old flat leather football for 10 years. When I worked in a greenhouse my dog loved chasing, shaking and tearing apart dirty clumps of roots and grass and would chase then eat miniature pumpkins and squash. They also loved chasing after and ridding our yard of as many grasshoppers as possible.

There is an almost unlimited variety of items for your dog to chew on such as Nylabones, rawhide, bully sticks, antler, smoked bones, pig ears, special aged cheese, filled treats, hooves and more.

Yes Please

Smells
One thing I will never forget from the zoo is tigers go crazy for old lady perfume. Spray some around and they will roll around and rub their head and neck against smelly objects until they smell like they are ready for church. I have seen my dogs perform this same behavior on a pair of my stinky sneakers. You can make old toys, boxes, spots in the yard, and other object you may choose new and interesting by experimenting with safe smells. Perfumes, juice from a can of tuna, urine and scents used to train hunting dogs, stinky socks, items that belonged to other animals, raked up leaves, new mulch, freshly turned soil and many other things can really excite your dog. My dogs go crazy and rub the floor for smells whenever I use Bag Balm for dry foot pads.

On occasion, when I'm ready to clean up a mess, I let my dogs tear apart empty boxes that used to have food in them. Even smells that make your dog curl his nose and huff away add interest to the dog's day, so don't be afraid to experiment a little. Just remember if a smell seems strong to you its even stronger to your dog so no need to over apply.

Yeah smells!!!

Sounds
The abundance of squeaker toys should make it obvious that dogs love toys that talk back. You can by packs of squeakers if you want to add them to your own homemade toys. I have also found toys with a crispy crunchy plastic inside. One of my dogs likes crunching on empty soda bottles with the lids removed. You can also find toys with speakers inside that make a variety of animal sounds.
My dogs also like to sing along when I play the harmonica or trumpet.

Additional Resources
Animal Farm Foundation, Inc.
ASPCA
AAZK Enrichment Suppliers

Fuel For the Fire: My Attempt at Creating a Homemade Training Treat.

Lately I have increased my focus on dog training. I dream of happy obedient dogs that no longer scream at bikes or traffic, cease to choke themselves on walks, and who I can take to events and public places with relative ease. Maybe even a Miniature Pincher who doesn't feel the need to take on Great Danes. To get to that point I've been exercising my clicker finger and going through large amounts of dog treats.

Because these treats could add up to a significant amount of the dog's daily diet, I wanted to be careful what I was giving them. I wanted the good nutrition and digestive stability of the quality kibble I was giving them and I didn't want to create three waddling little pig dogs. High quality treats can also be expensive. On a whim I decided “hey I'm a good cook. Why can't I make my own dog treats?”

I began an internet search for homemade training treats. The majority of my finds were for hard cookie or biscuit style treats. These may be simple and have a long shelf life, but when doing quick repetitive training I did not want to stop for my little dogs to crunch, sniff, and lick up every crumb. Another common treat I was finding was dehydrated diced up beef liver. I'm sure this is stinky and delicious, but using too much liver can be dangerous because of its high levels of fat soluble vitamins that can cause toxicity in your pets.

In the end I decided “Why can't I just throw a bunch of healthy tasty ingredients in my food processor and make my own recipe? What could go wrong?”

I made a little list of healthy things my dogs enjoy in their mouth and the end result was...

Doggie Wheaties! Or maybe Pup Flakes? Canine Crumbles? Brown Bait? A giant mess that tastes pretty good? This is fun! Maybe I need to have a naming contest.

Ingredients

1.25 lbs chicken liver (I got the little white Tyson tub)

31 oz (2 cans) unseasoned pinto beans

3 ½ cups (about 2 large) yams

1 ¾ cups (8 small) apples

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 large eggs

I'd eat that.

It cost me about $10 for the entire list, but I was left with most of a bag of apples, 10 eggs, and the majority of a bag of flour for my own consumption or future batches of... Num Num Nips?

Instructions

I started by boiling the livers in a pot of water until no longer pink. I do not recommend getting distracted taking pictures of your pretty ingredients letting brown liver water boil over onto your burner. I poured the livers into a strainer and set aside. A few of mine had little green bulges. This is a gall bladder and it is not tasty. Cut those off if you see any.

While the liver was boiling I rinsed and scrubbed my yams and put them in the microwave on high for 20 minutes. Make sure they are on a plate because they get sticky and syrupy when cooked through.

I cored my apples, but left on all the skin. I then pureed them in my food processor until they resembled applesauce. 

Because I planned to dry the final mix I didn't need all the juice present in the fresh apples so I squeezed out about a pint of tasty tasty apple juice which I drank while finishing my baking.

Mmmmm. Juice!

If you have cheesecloth this would probably work even better. The pulp left over from your juicer could work great. I was left with about 1 ¾ cups of apple pulp.

Cut them up first. I had to stir these a few times in the processor.

By this time my yams were cooked so I stuck them in the processor and blended them just like the apples.

I drained and rinsed my beans and then pureed them with the chicken livers.

Pâté anyone?

I added 2 eggs to the wet ingredients and then blended in my cup of flour.

I took half of my dog dough and spread it about ½ an inch thick over parchment paper placed on a cookie sheet. The other half I put in the fridge. I preheated the oven at 350 like I had seen for drying liver treats.

After about an hour I had hard browned edges and a sticky wet center. The oven bake method was turning into a bit of a mess. 

Delicious?

It the end after going through way too much trouble, getting way too sticky, and getting very frustrated I ended up with edible dog crumbles.



My taste tester. Do not trust your dog to nicely lick your utensils. This turned into a game of spatula tug.

Possible Problems with the Oven method:

1. the oven was too high
2. the dough was spread to thickly
3. I am very very impatient
   

If you to not have a food dehydrator I still believe the oven method could work. You'll just have to be smarter about it than I was.
The second half I took out of the fridge and spread on to dehydrator trays. The first tray was spread onto a special fruit roll up tray and the second I spread on parchment paper cut to line the tray. 

Start

I set the dehydrator to 135º because that was the recommended temp for jerky and I used raw egg. I left them in for 6 hrs and they came out crispy and dry. For a softer treat I would recommend checking after 4 to 5 hours.

Crispy finish

I took the sheets in my hands and crumbled them into little bite sized pieces that resembles bran flakes. The mix has a pleasant wheaty smell and didn't taste too bad either! In the end I had about a gallon bag full of healthy densely packed treats.

I attempted to calculate the calories per treat, but it was difficult to guess the actual serving size. The entire mix came out to about 2884 calories, but should actually be less because I don't know the calorie content for apples with most of the juice removed. To give a general idea half the dough spread to about 12 in by 18 in. That's 216 in². Multiply that by 2 to get the batch total of 432. A good treat size would be ½ in². So divide 2884 by 864 and you get about 3 calories per treat. I have read that a good treat only needs to be the size of a little pink eraser head or a pea, so you could probably half that calorie amount.

 
Something smells good up there!

This is an easy recipe to play around with if you want to try different combos or use ingredients on hand. I think unflavored pumpkin or carrots would mix well. If you have concerns about wheat ingredients I think the flour could be left out with out negative consequences. I also saw mixes that added garlic to make the treats extra scent appealing and tasty.

These treats should freeze well and have currently stayed fresh and mold free in an airtight container in my pantry for 2 weeks now.

Now I just have to keep clicking my dogs into good citizens.

Barking Bicycles: Biking with your Dog

Having one of those days where you just cant get motivated to put on your running shoes? Do your runs with the dogs just leave them wanting more? Is Fido alternating looks between his leash and you? Is your dog faster than your short legs can keep up with? Maybe you should give biking with your dog a try.

I want to say first that there are risks involved when biking with your dog. Done improperly and you or your dog could be injured. I have been thrown over my handlebars when my dog spooked and came to and instant dead stop directly in front my my tire. I got up with only a few bruises and I missed hitting my dog, but both of us could have been be hurt in this easily preventable accident. The right equipment and training go a long way to keeping everyone in one piece.

Ouch! This was from canicross not biking, but you get the idea.

There are several ways to bike with your dog each requiring different training and equipment. I would NOT recommend biking your dog leash in hand. One bad turn or lunge and your dog is in your spokes or you are on the ground. I have biked my dog with a leash, dog harness, and old beater mountain bike. The money invested on equipment does not have to be large, but there is quality equipment out there that can make the process much easier.

First you need a bike. A mountain bike or wide tired stable bike is best. Your five pound road bike may be nice when powering down the road, but it doesn't offer much resistance if your dog ever decides to bolt at a squirrel. It can also be hard on your dog to spend too much time biking down asphalt roads or sidewalk paths. A bike you can take on some dirt will be appreciated. Also have reliable brakes. It's harder to stop with a dog pulling in front of you. To protect yourself you will probably want some gloves, and smarter people than me should wear a bike helmet.

A fleece cap will pads my brains right?

I do most of my dog biking on dirt roads and it shows. Nothing screams I've been biking in the muck like a mud stripe going from your butt to your shoulder blades. If you don't find this attractive, you may want to get yourself a set of bike fenders. On your way out don't forget to grab a water bottle to take with you. Fast moving dogs need refreshments!


Unfortunatly fenders do not fit on dogs.


The most common way to bike with your dog is at your side using bike attachments such as the Springer bike attachment or WalkyDog. These can attach to your bikes seat post or wheel hub. These are good if you have a dog you want to bike in a heel position beside your bike. There is also little training involved to get your dog on the road. I have not used any of these attachments myself, but I would caution people to keep close watch on their dog to make sure you are not forcing them to maintain faster speeds or longer distances than the dogs would like. Your dog is at your side and is required to go at your speed with little say in the matter aside from stopping and getting drug along. I also think there is an increased risk of injury to your dog in the event that you lose control and crash on your bike. It is not required, but for your dogs comfort I would suggest using a dog harness instead of attaching the leash to your dog's collar.  At least then if you crash you will not wrench your dog's neck to the side.

Another method for biking with your dog which I use is bikejoring. Instead of being at your side, your dog is out front attached to a bungee line and can even pull you along like a dryland sled. This requires more training because your dog will be out at least six feet in front and must be taught when to turn, stop, slow, and stay our of harms way. The only physical control your have over your dog is your brakes.

When I started bikejoring I used very simple equipment. I clipped a Ruffwear Roamer leash on my bikes handlebar stem above the front tire. Attaching the leash to the handlebar stem is much safer than attaching to the handlebars. Your steering is unaffected and the bike remains relatively stable. An issue myself and others have run into is if your dog slows your leash can rub or go under the front tire. Urban Mushing has a homemade solution they call an antitosser to prevent this.

Here the leash is clipped around the handlebar stem. I don't have a handy antitosser.

Another option is to get yourself a bikejoring antennae. This device sticks out over your tire and allows your leash or line to attach out in front of the tire. I use the BAY-o-net from Nooksack Racing. It is easy to attach and remove, but is very secure and stable on our rides. I bought it with their 10 foot bungee line that attaches easily to Nix's harness.

The advantages of having my dog 10 feet in front of me are I have plenty of time to stop and if I always bike keeping him in front, I never go faster than he wants. It is easy for him to stop or slow if needed. The disadvantages are I have a dog on a long line 10 feet in front of me. I have to trust that he will not bolt out in front of a car and that he will follow my direction cues. As much as possible I stick to low traffic country roads or trails. Nix knows to stick to the side of the road, but it only takes one bad turn in front of a truck.

I do not think a dog should try bikejoring without first being trained through walking and canicross which I discuss in my previous post about running with your dog. This is a safer more controlled environment for your dog to learn commands and rules of the road. An interesting side effect I have had from this is my dog refuses to bike on the right side of the road. After miles of running facing traffic he has decided that's the safe way to go and if it means he will stay to the side well away from traffic I've decided to oblige.

Deciding how you want to bike with your dog can be influenced by personal preference, local surroundings, or the personality of your dog. If Nix didn't take so readily to being out front pulling, bikjoring would not work well. Two of my dog love to be out front where the action is, but Lupe is content to run at my side. If she was about 15 pounds larger she would probably be a better candidate for a side bike attachment.
Not all dogs trust bikes. They have big wheels, move fast, and come equipped with crazy colored people in big hats and funny tights.

What are these things? Why are giant beetles clutching their heads?

You may need to spend some time acclimating your dog to your bike before you can take him out on the road. You can try these steps to desensitize your dog. If at any point your dog gets scared take a step back and give your dog more time to adjust. You can even make it a rewarding experience by clicker training and rewarding your dog for exploring your bike, being attached to the bike etc.

1) Set your bike out where your dog spends some time like out in the yard. Let them sniff and get comfortable with its existence.

2) Walk your bike around. Do not bump your dog or get angry with them. Making your dog afraid of your bike wheels is not a good way to keep your dog from getting run over. Training is.

3) Sit on the bike.

4) Slowly ride the bike.

5) Attach your dog to the bike.

6) Bike in a relaxed safe setting with your dog attached.

Nix used to be a little skiddish if the bike was to close behind him, but once he got out front pulling he no longer cared. Now he doesn't seemed bothered by it at all. Observe your dog and don't force them to do anything that is obviously scaring them. Some dogs can be scared by the sound of changing gears. Be mindful of this especially if your dog is running at your side.

The end goal of this is to go out and have fun with your dog. Bikejoring requires cooperation between me and my dog that has bonded us closer together. Nix has learned to look to me in unfamiliar situations plus he just loves getting out there to run. You also can't beat the view.