How To Provide Mental Enrichment For Injured Dogs

Did your dog just have surgery, or did they happen to injure themselves and now the vet has recommended that they stay on crate rest or to keep their activity levels as low as possible? Keeping your dog calm is crucial to prevent re-injury – but exercise is so important to your dog’s daily life. After just a few days of the low activity regime, your pup will most likely become bored and will end up wanting to do more and more activity.

In this article, I’ll help you out with a few ideas on some mental enrichment that is low impact and low activity to ensure your pup will heal, as well as stay content with the reduction in activity levels.

Mealtimes

The first thing you can adjust while your dog is healing is to make their meals into a game and fun activity. There are many ways to do this. There are puzzle bowls, maze bowls and “snuffle mats” that can be found on the market. However if you are looking to DIY some options, there are many creative ways to set up a puzzle. For those pups who have never had to solve any sort of puzzle or not as food motivated pups, you can do the following:

Inverted bowl

Place a smaller bowl upside down in a larger bowl, then pour food around the outer edge of the smaller bowl.

Scattered feedings

Just as the name sounds, take your dog’s meal and scatter it over the floor, crate, or even the yard. Then allow your dog to “clean up” and allow them to use their nose to find all their pieces of food.

Now, do you have a dog that is experienced in puzzles or extremely food motivated, and you’re looking at the previous two examples and thinking to yourself, “this would take my dog half a second?”. If so, these next ideas may help you out a bit more.

Towel knot

Lay out a towel, sprinkle a bit of food down the center, fold the towel in half, and sprinkle some more food on the towel, then roll the towel while intermittently sprinkling down more food. When the towel is completely rolled up, tie it in an overhand knot. Then allow your dog to untie it and find the food.

Freeze their food

It seems so simple, but this can take your dog quite a while to eat. Hydrate their food with water, dog safe broth, or even plain Greek yogurt. You will add just enough of the ingredient of your choosing to the bowl to where each piece of kibble is coated or touching it. Then throw it in the freezer for at least three hours, or until frozen. Using yogurt or dog safe broth may increase your dog’s motivation to eat it, too.

Treats/chews

Kongs

Stuffing KONG toys can be another great idea for mental enrichment. KONGs and other stuffable toys can also be frozen to create a longer duration of this toy. You can find many KONG stuffing recipes on their website.

Muffin tins

Take a muffin tin and add plain Greek yogurt, pumpkin, or any other dog safe treat with this same consistency to each of the spots. On top of all of those tins, you can also add their regular treats, blueberries, or anything else that your pup likes. You can freeze this as well to get a longer duration.

Nose games

Treats/toys

Hiding treats or toys around a room and allowing your dog to go hunt for them can be extremely engaging for their nose. This game can also be rewarding for them.

Cups

Take a few cups and turn them upside down. Put a treat under one cup, and see if your dog can find where the treat is.

Frozen bones

Some raw dog food companies will sell cut bones still with the marrow in the middle. When frozen, these bones can keep your dog entertained for hours.

In conclusion

Allowing your dog the time to heal and get better is crucial – however, it can be difficult to keep them entertained. We hope that some of these ideas may be able to help you out!