Day 8: Body Awareness – cavaletti

Monday again and time for Day 8!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 8 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Cavaletti

At a glance:

• borrowed from the horse world, cavaletti or ground poles are small jumps for stepping or trotting over, rather than leaping (for the most part)
• cognitive and sensory based enrichment
• often used in training for sports dogs and for rehab after injury, trauma or surgery
• get the family involved in this one – kids love setting up challenges like this for their pets. It’s probably better that an adult help the dog move over the…

View original post 1,843 more words

Day 7 Sunday Funday

Your first Sunday Funday…take a break and look back on your first week!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 7 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Every Sunday during #100daysofenrichment is Sunday Funday! This means you and your pet repeat your favourite challenge or challenges from the week.

You can do it exactly as you did first time round, you can try a different option, build on your progress already established, reinvent and rejig it…what ever you want to do with the last week of challenges!

Monday Day 1 Stuffables

Tuesday Day 2 Release the toy, release the joy!

Wednesday Day 3 Handling &…

View original post 91 more words

Week 2 Equipment List

Keeping up so far? Here’s what you will need for Week 2!

AniEd Ireland

Hard to believe that the first week of this ambitious project is coming to an end. It has been a resounding success, down to you guys. The joy you have given us, watching you and your pets have fun and enjoy enrichment together, is much appreciated!

Keep up with all the resources and challenges relating to #100daysofenrichment here
and join our Facebook group too!

All challenges are presented with multiple options so you won’t lose out if you don’t have some of the items.

For Week 2 you will need:

• eggboxes
• aluminium drinks cans
• snufflemat if you have one (don’t worry if you don’t have one)
• balls (a safe size for your pet)
• paper cups
• broom/mop handles
• bamboo sticks or similar poles, walking sticks, crutches
• a flat lying foldable ladder (again, don’t worry if you don’t have one)
• different size cardboard boxes or plastic tubs

• paper, packing paper, wrapping paper…

View original post 99 more words

Day 6: Sniffing Saturday

Day 6! Sniffing Saturdays will soon become your dog’s favourite day of the week!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 6 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Sniffathon

Saturdays during #100daysofenrichment are all about emphasising the dog in all our dogs; all about sniffing and doing dog things.

Implement Sniffathon Rules:

• allow your dog to sniff sniff sniff
• no human interference
• allow your dog to sniff as long as they please – don’t even suggest that they must stop sniffing or move along
• allow your dog engage in doggie things, even if it seems icky to you, once safe

That’s it, take your dog for…

View original post 1,286 more words

Day 5: Freestyle Friday

Your turn!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 5 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Freestyle Friday

Now it’s your turn to get creative! Every Friday will be Freestyle Friday. We’ll give you the ingredients for a puzzle or enrichment device and you build it.

Rules:

• you must use all the ingredients
• you can add anything else you like, or nothing at all
• whatever you come up with must be enriching

Day 5 Ingredients

You must use the following:

• box(es) or tub(s) – any size just make sure they are safe
• packing, loose…

View original post 121 more words

Day 4: Hanging Out – Just be

Day 4! Hanging out and just being is one of my favourite things…

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 4 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Just be

Today, there’s no big plans or training exercises. Today, we are dialing it way back and hanging out.

Learning to just be is not a skill that comes to most pet dogs easily, and indeed to many people. Just being is a lost art; in the age of smart phones and on-demand entertainment, we don’t have to be very often or for very long.

But, this is such an important skill for companion animals, who, at…

View original post 641 more words

Day 3: Handling & Husbandry – handling comfort

Important skills and concepts for pets and people today, Day 3!

If you think you are going slow enough, slow down some more…today’s words of wisdom 😉

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 3 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Handling Comfort

At a glance:

• improve your pet’s comfort with handling and grooming procedures
• all dogs must be handled, in often invasive ways, throughout their lives for grooming, health care and first aid
• social and cognitive based enrichment
• although children can make great dog trainers with the right guidance, this exercise is best established by the adults in the household
  Children might help by preparing treats for practicing this exercise.
• these exercises can be practiced in individual sessions…

View original post 3,265 more words

Day 2: Play: Release the toy, release the joy!

Day 2!

Lots of applications for today’s challenges, but because we are working on teaching new behaviours, discipline yourself to practice just 30 seconds at a time. That way you keep it fun for both of you and you can review your work and keep it successful too!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 2 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Release the toy, release the joy!

At a glance:

• a release cue is a signal, probably a word, used to ask the dog to let go of a toy or item
• teaching a toy release, to drop something, apply it to games and tricks
• cognitive based enrichment
• toy release, relinquishing stealables, play/play/play, tricks
• get the family involved in this one – children can be great dog trainers but, for this, it’s best to add smaller children when the…

View original post 3,517 more words

Day 1: Stuffables

And so it begins…

Get your stuffables ready for Day 1!

AniEd Ireland

Welcome to Day 1 of #100daysofenrichment and thank you for joining us on this journey!

Although our challenges are directed mainly at dogs, we want all species to enjoy and benefit from #100daysofenrichment so, please join in, adjust and adapt to help your pet or companion live a more enriched life.

Don’t forget to review all the information leading up to #100daysofenrichment and more here on playing safe. Know your dog!

Stuffables

At a glance:

• durable toys or items with a hollow space within for stuffing
• food based enrichment
• line them, stuff them, freeze them, hide them, suspend them
• get the family involved in this one – kids love making puzzles for pets and these challenges offer lots of opportunities for children to use their imagination to come up with the best stuffables for their pets.
  Remember, supervise children in all enrichment activities and interactions with pets.
• stuffable prep…

View original post 2,775 more words

Stress: the good, the bad & the ugly

Just one more sleep…

AniEd Ireland

When talking about stress, most people are referring to the negative effects largely associated with chronic stress. Stress is a normal part of life and nobody can be insulated from it.

Stress responses are experienced at neurobiological, physiological, psychological and behavioural levels. This involves a complex interplay between body and brain systems.

Dogs, like other mammals have similar biological ‘equipment’ for experiencing stress – the parts involved in stress responses are very ancient and likely evolved in more simple creatures. That’s because stress keeps us alive.

If stress keeps us alive, how can it be bad?

Stress acts at a number of different levels, depending on the nature of the stressor. Different stressors elicit different types of stress responses.

Any time the body is faced with challenge, it must produce a response that helps it cope with that challenge. If the individual has the neurobiological, physiological, psychological and behavioural tools…

View original post 819 more words