If you’ve ever looked at your dog after a long workday and thought, “I know you still have energy, but I’m exhausted,” you’re definitely not alone. Most of us are balancing some combination of work, errands, family life, health, and a ton of other concerns.
The good news for your pup? Dog enrichment doesn’t have to mean expensive toys, hour-long training sessions, half-day hiking adventures, or turning your living room into an agility course. In many cases, just 10–15 minutes of intentional play or mental stimulation can completely change your dog’s mood and behavior (and improve yours, too!)
The whole purpose of our dog enrichment ideas is to give your pup opportunities to use their brain, nose, body, and other natural instincts. Honestly, some of the best activities are the easiest ones. For us, Primmie is easy to please and absolutely loves sniffing. Goomba loves anything that involves playing.
Whether you have a high-energy puppy, a curious adult dog, or a senior pup who enjoys sleeping more than playing fetch, these easy daily activities can help provide relief from boredom for dogs while strengthening your bond at the same time.
What is dog enrichment and why does it matter?
Dog enrichment is any activity that encourages physical, mental, or sensory engagement. It’s a wide category of potential activities, but good dog enrichment ideas encourage your dog to act like a dog using their natural instincts. Different dogs may prefer different activities, but every dog naturally uses their ability to be a dog to get through the day. We have a whole category of our posts dedicated to enrichment for dogs and it’s a great place to get started if your new to enrichment or dogs.
A lot of dog parents focus primarily on physical exercise, but canine mental stimulation is just as important. Think of a time that you were utterly exhausted, but your mind was still going fast and you couldn’t sleep. A run with your dog may burn a lot of physical energy, but it doesn’t work your dog’s mind much. For that, we’ll have to use activities that engage their brain and senses.
The different types of enrichment
There are 4 broad categories of enrichment that we typically divide dog enrichment ideas into.
First we have physical enrichment, which is what most people think of first when they think of enrichment. Tug, fetch, walks, flirt poles, and anything that involves primarily movement falls into this category.
Next, we have mental enrichment. This will include anything where your dog is using their brain the most. DIY dog puzzles, training, hide and seek, and any dog brain games fall into this category.
Social enrichment is exactly what it sounds like. Anything that involves primarily interacting with humans or other animals will fall into this category. Play dates, group walks, meeting new people, or even massages will be primarily in this category.
Finally, we have sensory enrichment. This will include anything where your dog is using their senses the most. Food-based enrichment, sniffing games for dogs, exploring new areas, and interacting with new objects will fall into this category.
Don’t get too hung up on doing a certain amount of each enrichment per day or anything too specific. Try to mix it up and include some of each when you can and you’ll get to see your dog have a great time. If you’re looking on ideas to get started, check out our favorite indoor enrichment for dogs and outdoor games for dogs.
Signs your dog could benefit from more enrichment
A lot of undesirable behavior in dogs come from a pup isn’t sufficiently enriched. While it sounds like a negative, this is a good thing if you’re reading this. These behaviors are much easier to fix than some others, and with only a few changes to our day, you can help decrease or even eliminate these unwanted behaviors. Here’s a list of some common behaviors that can be improved with enrichment:
- Excessive barking (not reactivity)
- Chewing unwanted objects
- Restlessness or pacing behavior
- Digging (check out our guide on dog proofing a fence for additional help)
- Attention demanding behavior
- Struggling to stay calm
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but is an idea of what to look for. Check out our post on the signs of a bored dog for a deeper dive on this and the benefits of consistent enrichment.
Benefits of consistent enrichment for your dog
Using some of our favorite dog enrichment ideas in your daily schedule can have enormous benefits. For your dog to have fun, it doesn’t have to be some Instagram-worthy hike through the woods. Intentionally interacting with your dog and doing activities together counts, too! Here are some of our favorite benefits of doing enrichment consistently with your dog:
- Improve your bond with your dog
- Reduce nuisance behavior
- Encourage calmer behavior inside
- Support behavior improvements
- Encourage problem solving
- Extend mealtime
We love watching our dogs solve problems and learn new behaviors. Check out VCA Hospital’s article on Behavior Management – Enrichment And Foraging Toys for some more information.
Our favorite dog enrichment ideas
As a reminder: this isn’t a checklist to be completed every day. If you’re just getting started, take it slow and start off with some of the easier activities first. There is plenty of time to add more activities as we go. We try to mix it up and grab activities from each category daily, but don’t stress out if you can’t.
Some dogs will naturally have less interest in certain categories. For us, Goomba does not enjoy interacting with other humans or dogs besides a very small group and Primmie doesn’t have nearly as much interest in toys as Goomba does. You’ll learn what your dog (and you) enjoy doing the most and which enrichment toys for dogs are the best option for your dog.
Sniffing and sensory games
Dogs experience their world through their senses first, like their nose. In our experience, a good session of sniffing can help calm your dog and tire them out. For us, Primmie LOVES sniffing and it’s her one of her two favorite categories of dog enrichment ideas. We think you’ll love these sensory activities for dogs, too!
Full Moon's savory bites are one of our favorite treats for our pups. Both of our pups love them and they perform behaviors with extra motivation with these on the line. They smell like what they're supposed to and have a low number of ingredients, which makes us feel good about them, too. They're a staple of our treat rotation and affordable for the number of treats you get!
For sniffing activities involving food, we recommend using treats that are small or can be broken into small pieces. Some of our favorites are dry kibble, Full Moon savory bites, or Stewart freeze-dried beef liver.
Window watching
This is by far the easiest of the dog enrichment ideas on the list, but it’s a hit with most dogs. As long as you’re not reinforcing bad habits, window watching is a great way for your dog to entertain themselves while you’re busy or not home. It’s a perfect passive option that your dog can choose to do when they feel like it.
If your dog has fits with certain triggers outside, we’d highly recommend controlling this instead of letting your dog ingrain bad habits. For us, Goomba has occasional issues with certain things outside. Between management and Spirit Dog Training’s Tackling Reactivity course, we’d managed to limit this. We highly recommend all of Spirit Dog Training’s courses and we’ve used quite a few at this point.
Find it scent game
This is Primmie’s favorite of our indoor activities for dogs and Goomba enjoys it, too! All you’ll need to do is hide some kibble or treats around your house and let your dog sniff them out. We’d recommend using higher value treats when starting to help keep your dog motivated. Depending on your dog’s level of motivation, you can transition to regular kibble or something a little less exciting.
Stewart's freeze-dried beef liver is our go to option for beef liver! We love it because it's affordable and our dogs love it for the taste. We use freeze-dried beef liver as everything from a reward for training to recipes in frozen enrichment. We find that Stewart's has the best value for beef liver for a product we feel good about feeding to our dogs.
This is one of the easier dog enrichment ideas on our list. All you’ll need is a decent treat to start. We recommend freeze-dried beef liver, like Stewart’s beef liver, since it’s cheap and is a favorite of most dogs. We’d recommend checking out our favorite low calorie dog treats or our post on is beef liver safe for dogs for more information.
Backyard treasure hunt
The backyard treasure hunt is effectively the same as the find it scent game, but outside. Most of our favorite dog enrichment ideas can be modified for indoor and outdoor use, but this one’s the easiest. Do the same process, but outside instead of in your home. It really increases the difficulty level when you’re outside as there are a ton more scents.
Digging pit
We acknowledge that this one isn’t for everyone, but giving your dog an area to dig is a great way to let them burn off some energy. We have one specific spot in your yard that we let Primmie dig, and she absolutely loves it! We left one area of our yard near our house that we didn’t do a sidewalk on yet specifically for her.
If you’d rather have a more contained option, we’d recommend either making a DIY digging pit or buying a children’s premade sandbox. Either option will help keep your dog’s digging in a more contained area. If you’re already having issues with your dog digging, check out our guide on dog proofing a fence for some help with that!
Ball pit
A ball pit is exactly what it sounds like, a cleaner version of a digging sandbox. It’s a perfect option if you’re more interested in teaching your dog to find items in an area. You can hide either high-value treats or toys in a ball pit, whichever gets your dog more excited.
Depending on how vigorous your dog is, it may take a little while to find all the balls, but it sure beats cleaning sand up!
Shredding
Shredding is another of our favorite dog enrichment ideas because of how easy and cheap it is. To start, all you’ll need is an old box or cardboard tube. It’s a great way to let your dog burn some anxious energy that doesn’t cost you anything. As long as your dog doesn’t eat the pieces, you can hide a toy or special treat in the box to help encourage some motivation.
For us, Primmie loves shredding old paper towel tubes. It’s super cute and she gets a lot of activity from one. My mom is even nice enough to save them for her so we usually get quite a few. It’s a perfect way to get some boredom relief for dogs that is accessible for any age dog. If you want something more reusable, we’d recommend the Hol-ee roller stuffed with cloth pieces.
Sound desensitizing
While sound desensitizing is likely one of the least exciting dog enrichment ideas, it is one of the most helpful activities. The idea is to combine the find it scent game in a contained area with a noise that your dog isn’t comfortable with at a low enough intensity that it doesn’t scare them. After consistent practice, your dog will pair that noise with a neutral or positive association instead of a negative one.
We’ve been doing this one for years and have desensitized our dogs to a whole slew of things. We’ve had success with washing machines, people, thunderstorms, trash trucks, dogs, and more. We follow the process outlined by Spirit Dog Training’s Tackling Reactivity course and we’re huge fans. They even have our dog’s favorite sniffing sniffing treat recipe, too, and we use the treats at least a few times every week. Check it out and let us know what you think!
DIY puzzle games
Next up is one of our favorite categories: puzzle toys for dogs! Some of these will be puzzles for your dog to do on your own, but others are interactive dog activities. Either way, we think your pup will love them because our dogs do.
There’s an endless number of puzzles for your pup, but if you’re looking for ones you can create yourself, we highly recommend our DIY dog puzzles post. It currently has 15 options as of the time we’re writing this post.
Muffin tin treat game
The muffin tin treat game is one of the easiest puzzle games for most dogs. All you’ll need is a muffin tin and some tennis balls to cover the holes. To start, place some treats under the tennis balls and let your dog explore. Eventually, they should paw at the balls, which will move and reveal the treats.
We love this game because it’s a great place to start with dogs who haven’t had to use their brain for puzzles before. It’s cheap to setup and a one-time cost, which makes it even better. We recommend starting with a smellier treat like beef liver to start and then you can transition to something else if you want.
Towel roll treat puzzle
The towel roll treat puzzle is one of our favorite dog enrichment ideas for pups who like to use their nose. You’ll need a towel you don’t mind your dog using along with some kibble or other treats. We generally use dry kibble or Full Moon’s Savory Bites for this, but our dogs are pretty good at rolling things out.
To make the puzzle, place some treats every few inches in the towel while rolling it up. That’s it! Initially, this is perfect since it’s not too hard for your dog. If you want it to be more difficult, you can get the towel damp and stick it in the freezer to increase the difficulty. Our dogs love this puzzle and it only takes a minute to prepare.
Cardboard box treat puzzle
This is a take on the puzzle balls that you’ve likely seen at every pet store, but cheaper and harder. Find an old clean box and tape up the sides. The less tape visible, the better, as this will limit the amount of kibble that get stuck. Cut out some holes that are larger than the treats your putting in.
Stewart's freeze-dried beef liver is our go to option for beef liver! We love it because it's affordable and our dogs love it for the taste. We use freeze-dried beef liver as everything from a reward for training to recipes in frozen enrichment. We find that Stewart's has the best value for beef liver for a product we feel good about feeding to our dogs.
Since this puzzle is a bit harder, we’d recommend starting with a higher value treat first, like our favorite Stewart’s beef liver and mixing in some lower value treats. We usually use a mixture of beef liver, kibble, and whatever meaty-y treat we have on hand. You pup can push the puzzle around flipping it until it’s empty. When you’re done, dispose of the box or let your dog shred it.
We we’re extremely surprised with how much Primmie like this puzzle, especially since the supplies were free!
Which hand or shell game
This is one of the more interactive dog enrichment ideas and we’re actually currently working on it now. The idea is simple: put a treat in your hand and show both hands to your dog. Let them indicate which one has the treat through pawing, nosing, or other marking and give them the reward. It may end up being more challenging than you’d think for your dog to pick up on.
After your dog gets the idea, you can transition to the shell game where the dog has to track the shuffling cups and mark the correct one. We’ve been working on the DMWYD trick certifications with our dogs and multiple variations of this are on their possible tricks. It’s been a great time and we’re working on the expert tricks now!
Outdoor enrichment
Next up for our favorite dog enrichment ideas: outdoor enrichment! Some of these activities are Goomba’s favorite (Prim loves them, too) and they’re all free! We recently got back from a weekend trip to a state park and that hit all of these ideas at one time or another.
We think your dog will love these activities, and you barely have to change your routine at all.
Slowing down your walks
Almost all of us could benefit from slowing down our walks with our dogs, especially as your dog gets older. For your dog, the most exciting part of the walk is exploring and investigating all the sights and scents on their path. If you are in a hurry and try to hit a specific distance, it won’t be nearly as enjoyable for you or your pup. Slowing down your walk and letting your dog explore will help enrich their mind, too, and our dogs love it.
The best part of this activity is that it required almost no changes. Let your dog go on their next walk and explore some while you walk, even if they don’t go as far. We bet that they’ll enjoy it and get more out of it than just reaching a point and turning around.
Rotate where you walk your dog
Similar to slowing down your walks with your dog, rotating where you walk can make a huge difference for both you and your dog. Let’s be honest: walking the same section of road gets stale for most of us. Even something as simple as rotating the direction you walk can change it up and allow your dog to explore new scents.
Going new places occasionally is even better, but even staying on the opposite side of the sidewalk occasionally can mix it up. It’s one of the simplest dog enrichment ideas and there are an endless number of places to go!
Sniffari
A sniffari is another of our dog’s favorite dog enrichment ideas and it’s super easy. Start at a place that has lots of fun scents, like a trail, state park, or area where other dogs go and simply let your dog explore. Don’t try to walk for distance, but try to maintain good leash manners.
Your dog will likely be like ours: sniffing, pawing, and looking for things to interact with. We have a local botanical garden that is a perfect place for us since it is in the woods and has dog scents, too! Try out a few different places and see what your dog likes best!
We used sniffaris for Goomba extensively when he was recovering from CCL surgery and it helped us keep him entertained. He’s had three knee surgeries over the years, but is doing pretty good now!
Food-based enrichment
Food-based enrichment is a broad category of dog enrichment ideas, but without a doubt Primmie’s favorite! It’s an easy way to add in some bonus enrichment for your dog without changing your routine. There are an endless number of options for this, but we’ll touch on a few of our favorites.
Slow feeders and food dispensers
You’ll likely see this category of food based enrichment the most, and it’s one of the cheaper dog enrichment ideas on this list. Anything that distributes food to your dog and tries to slow it down will count in this category. This can be anything from silicone inserts that go in your dog’s food bowl to balls that distribute treats as they move, like this PetZone IQ Ball.
This is one of the first food-based enrichment toys we purchased years ago! We purchased ours at Menard's, a regional hardware store, but Chewy's is cheaper. We love that it is easy to clean and that you can modify the difficulty level for your pup.
The goal is to extend your dog’s mealtime and not have your dog eat it all in 15 seconds. If you go to the pet store, there are a million variations of this category, so choose whatever you like or you get the best deal on. We list a few of our favorites on our post about dog enrichment toys.
Snuffle mats
Snuffle mats are our most commonly used piece of equipment with our dogs and they’re one of the most flexible dog enrichment ideas on this list. You can use them as a simple puzzle, hiding treats or kibble in the mat. We recommend checking our post on low calorie dog treats so your dog can get the most sniffs in at a time. They’re not too hard so even less food motivated dogs will enjoy them and they’re extremely portable.
One bonus of snuffle mats is that they make an excellent way to desensitize your dogs to uncomfortable situations. They’re the tool we use for it when we’re using Spirit Dog Training’s courses on reactivity. It’s definitely our preferred option and we’ve made a lot of scary situations positive over the years.
If making a DIY snuffle mat isn't your thing, check out the Forager mats! They have all our favorite features, durable, easy to clean, and have a nice density which makes hiding kibble easier. They're a great low-cost way to entertain your pup.
Our current favorite are the Pet Parents snuffle mats and they’re holding up great. It’s also easy to make a DIY snuffle mat, if that’s your style. We’ve made 4 over the years and they’re easy, but just take some time.
Lick mats
Lick mats are our preferred place to start with food-based enrichment. They’re essentially a one-time cost, which means they are super cheap, and last forever. We recommend Chewy’s Frisco lick mats (2 pack) because of their durability and ability to go through the dishwasher. Our dogs love them and we’ve had our current set for years without any issues.
The Frisco silicone lick mats are our favorite lick mats that we've tried. They're cheap, safe, and work great! We use these more than any of the other options we have. They're the perfect size, even for our 80 lb dogs, and have a double lip on the outside to prevent spilling. We also love that they are dishwasher-safe, which makes cleanup a breeze!
We’ve written about lick mats extensively over the years, but we’d recommend our benefits of lick mats for dogs and frozen lick mats posts as great places to start. Our dogs are super excited when the lick mats comes out and they love any of the recipes with peanut butter or PB Fit’s Simply Peanut powder.
Stuffed hollow bones
Next up on our favorite dog enrichment activities list is stuffed hollow bones. This is a cheap purchase that our dogs get a ton of value from. All you’ll need is a hollow bone (we like Red Barn’s hollow bones) and something to stuff in to the bone. We typically use a little dog-safe crunchy peanut butter and unseasoned chicken or string cheese, but there are a bunch of options. We used Full Moon’s jerky tenders and baby carrots for a long time and they worked great, too!
We love RedBarn's hollow (and stuffed) bones. They're usually $5-$10 each, but we're able to use the same one for weeks! We'll use the emptied-out bone and stuff other treats (like chicken or sweet potato) in it. Our pups love it and it's very affordable!
We use these bones for when we’re eating so that our dogs can entertain themselves while we enjoy our meal. They love them! Goomba and Primmie both wait for the bones patiently every time we eat a meal and we easily get over a month from each bone purchase. We recommend checking out our post on stuffed hollow bones for additional information.
Busy treats
We’re a little biased, but we love the Woof Pupsicle and West Paw Toppl. There are a bunch of options for busy treats for your dog and we’ve tried lots of them, but these are our favorites. For the Pupsicle, you can purchase refills (Primmie loves the peanut butter and chicken and calming refills) or create your own using the Woof refill tray. We do both options and Primmie loves them both. Check out our post on Woof Pupsicle recipes for more information on that.
For the Toppl, you’ll have to make your own refills, but it’s super easy. The wide mouth means you don’t even have to blend ingredients most of the time. We recommend the West Paw Toppl stopper, which does double duty as a plug and holder. You can put anything dog safe into a Toppl, but we have a list of our favorite combination. Check out our favorite Toppl recipes for more on that.
There are a bunch of similar options like Kongs, Soda pop’s honey pot, and others and they all function similarly. Try a few out and let us know your favorites!
Training
Any type of training is one of our favorite dog enrichment ideas. Whether you like agility, scent work, obedience training, or something else, training will help enrich your dog mentally. There’s no way to go wrong and it’s one of the most fun ways to interact with your pup.
We love seeing our dogs problem solve as they’re trying to figure out what we want. Once they figure out what we’re asking for, they’re super willing to perform the same behavior and it’s a great way to bond with your dog.
Obedience and trick training
One of our most common dog enrichment ideas we use is teaching our dogs tricks. Our favorite part is you can teach your dog whatever you feel like! If you’re just getting started, we recommend Puppr’s app and it’s what we used to get started. We’ve used it for almost as long as we’ve had our dogs at this point, and their tutorials are fantastic to break down tricks into manageable steps.
We’ve been working on Do More With Your Dog’s trick certifications for a while now. They allow you to do get certified in a database of tricks as you progress through with your dog. Both of our dogs are working on the expert levels and about halfway done as of writing this.
It really doesn’t matter what tricks you teach your dog, as long as it’s fun for both of you. We routinely teach our dogs’ “tricks” that are physical therapy for them since they’re getting older, and they still have a great time!
Stay/recall work
A great way to burn some energy and work on a skill at the same time is working on stay and recall! Compared to other dog enrichment ideas on this list, this one involves quite a bit of physical moving, too. All you’ll need to do is give your dog a stay command (check out Puppr if you need help with this) and then recall them to you. Repeat for as long as you want or until your dog gets tired.
We've recently discovered PBFit's pure peanut powder recipe and we're huge fans! Our dogs love it and it has around 1/3 of the calories, which makes it a great option for training and enrichment, especially for dogs with weight issues! The Pure Peanut recipe also only has 1 ingredient, which makes it perfect for dogs with allergies, too!
We like this one because it’s great if it’s too hot or rainy for normal playtime and it works great inside, too. We recommend a high value treat, like string cheese, peanut butter, or unseasoned chicken. Our dogs love all of these and we like to keep the recall command loaded heavily so they listen the first time. If you want a low calorie option, check out PB Fit’s Simply Peanut, which has less than half of the calorie of normal peanut butter.
Playtime
Next up is our favorite dog enrichment ideas related to playtime. These are some of our favorites since they’re mostly just for fun and require little training or preparation. All of them are great for smaller areas or homes, too, but with an indoor agility course, you may be limited to only one or two obstacles at a time depending on your home’s layout.
Rotate toys or control when your dog gets them
This isn’t so much an activity to do, but a small modification to help keep your pup engaged with their toys. Let’s be honest: dog toys are expensive, especially if you have a power chewer like Goomba. Whether you’re getting Bark dog toys or Goomba’s beloved Hero boomerang, none last forever.
That’s where this technique comes in handy. All you’ll need to do is change which dog toy is out or in use. You can rotate them as often as you want, but we try to when our pups show the very first signs of not being quite as interested as they were. When they do, store the toy and grab another. Come back to that one in a few days or week once your dog has a chance to enjoy another.
This small modification will help prolong the life of your dog’s toys and help keep them as engaged as possible when you’re playing. Once the toy is no longer useful, we throw it in our toy graveyard that we use as a sniffing pile. Check out our post on it here: how to use old dog toys.
Playing with bubbles
Playing with bubbles will depend on your dog’s willingness to participate, but is a great low cost option to have fun with your dog. We think it’s super cute to watch your dog run after and pop the bubbles, and it’s a great low-impact activity for your dog. We recommend getting bubble wands marketed toward dogs, like this dog-safe bubble toy.
For our dogs, they’re hit or miss on bubbles, but it’s super cute if your dog is willing to participate. It’s also one of the cheapest activities on this list since you get a ton of use out of one bottle of bubbles.
Playing catch
This is one of our favorite dog enrichment ideas for older dogs that love playing, like our Goomba. Instead of playing fetch, which is high impact for dogs that are older, we modify it so they play catch instead! This results in less pouncing, bouncing, and cutting, which means we can play longer and Goomba doesn’t get sore the day after. As we’ve mentioned before, Goomba loves his Hero boomerang because it bounces erratically and squeaks forever, but any toy is great!
We love the fumbler by Chuck It! It's generally a hit in our house and the fact that it's foam means that if it hits the lamp, stuff doesn't automatically break. It's football design lends itself to erratic bouncing which helps get your pup fired up. In our experience, they last long as an interactive toy, but if your pup does destroy it, they're cheap to replace!
It’s also a great option if you only have a small space to play. It’s less likely that things are going to get broken inside, and we routinely do this activity in our living room without any issues. For our situation, we try to keep it on rugs to reduce slipping on the wood floors and use a less erratic toy. We like the Chuck It indoor ball since it makes it harder to break furniture and lamps.
We have more info about playing catch and our other favorite indoor games in our post on indoor games for dogs. Check it out if you’re looking for ideas!
Hide and seek
Hide and seek is another great activity with your dog, and you’ve likely seen vides about it online. All you’ll need for this activity is a good stay and a good recall command (check out our Puppr app review if you need some help with those). When you’re ready, ask your dog to stay, go hide, and then recall them to you. That’s it!
We recommend having high-value treats, especially when you start. Some of our favorites are unseasoned chicken, string cheese, or peanut butter. We’ve used Stewart’s freeze-dried beef liver too and it works well for this. If your dog isn’t getting the game in the beginning, start off real easy and then work your way up.
DIY agility course
Typically, most people think of agility as an option for dog enrichment ideas, but not inside. With a little modification, it’s easy to turn this into an option in your home. The main thing you’ll have to change is the number of obstacles at a time and the area where the obstacle is. We usually do one or two at a time, mostly because of being able to find non-slip areas for our dogs to use the equipment from.
Trixie's cavaletti set is our favorite, by far! We love that it's easily adjustable, lightweight, and works for small and large dogs. We've been doing cavaletti with Goomba for years as physical therapy and Trixie makes the movement simple!
- Easily adjustable
- Weather resistant
- Affordable
- Stores & moves easily
- Works for large & small dogs
- Can be knocked over if it's windy outside due to their light weight
We wrote an entire series on agility (check out our DIY dog agility equipment post, it has links to all of them) so you can find your preferred options. We love using tunnels, jumps, and the pause tables inside since they tend to require the least setup for us. If you’re trying to minimize the equipment you have, we’d recommend starting with the Trixie cavaletti set since you can do multiple obstacles with the one kit.
Flirt poles
Last, but not least, for our favorite dog enrichment ideas is flirt poles! It’s our go to recommendation for enrichment if you have a toy crazy dog and can’t play outside. It’s effectively the same as a cat toy, if you’ve ever played with a cat.
The idea is easy: make the toy move erratically so that your dog chases it around the room (or outside)! We recommend staying on a surface they won’t slide on since the flirt pole results in a lot of cutting movements. Make sure you don’t accidentally boop your dog with the pole, as that will lead to playtime being much less positive.
We got our Squishy Face Studio flirt pole a long time ago and it's held up extremely well! We love their design and they offer replaceable lures if your pup manages to do too much damage to it. They're also fellow pitbull advocates, so if you want to help out and support someone who loves pitties as much as we do, give it a shot and you won't be disappointed!
If you’re looking for a premade option, we’ve used Squishy Face Studio’s flirt pole for years and it’s great! If you’d rather make something, check out our post on DIY flirt poles. Either work great and we use both routinely over the years.
How to create a dog enrichment routine
Fortunately for us, It’s a lot easier than it seems to create an enrichment routine for your dog. We recommend using our dog training plan template to start and planning your dog’s routine around your typical day. For example, if you work a traditional 9 to 5, the options you’ll have would be: before leaving, lunch break (if that’s an option), when you get home, and before the end of the day.
It sounds more complex than it is, but we recommend adding in new habits slowly so that it’s easy to get used to. For us, we take our dogs on a walk around 8am, give them a stuffed hollow bone at lunch more physical activity in the afternoon, and then their frozen enrichment in the evening. We work form home, so we shuffle around other trainings in the day depending on what we have going on. You just need to find what you and your dog enjoy and what works with your schedule.
Conclusion
There is no right or wrong answer with which dog enrichment ideas work for you: it just depends on what you and your dog enjoy doing together. Whether it’s fetch, frozen enrichment, or sniffing games, we think you’ll find something that you both love doing together. For us, Primmie loves anything that involves sniffing or eating and Goomba loves anything that involves playing.
What are your favorite dog enrichment ideas? Let us know your favorite on Instagram @TheRulyBully or by sending us a message!
Have fun!
FAQ
Here are some common FAQ about dog enrichment that we wanted to provide to help clear up some common questions.
Do dogs really need mental enrichment?
Yes! Dogs love using their brain to interact with their environment. Exploring, sniffing, and interacting with objects are all natural dog behaviors that your dog is going to fulfill at least partially whether you like it or not. Doing mental enrichment every day can help keep them engaged and interested instead of finding nuisance behaviors like chewing unwanted objects.
How much enrichment should I do every day?
There’s no right answer here, but even the busiest people can squeeze in some enrichment for your pup. Even 10-15 minutes of total enrichment is a whole lot better than nothing and your dog will love it! You can do as much as you and your dog are willing to do while still having a good time. We try to keep our sessions often, but shorter, to help keep our dogs as engaged as possible.
What are the cheapest dog enrichment toys?
Of all the dog enrichment ideas on our list, any of the outdoor enrichment or training options are definitely the cheapest. Most of the ideas on this list are cheap, but those two categories just require your dog’s walking setup or training treats.
We’re huge proponents of food-based enrichment, specifically frozen enrichment for dogs. We use the Pupsicle and Toppl everyday and our dogs love them! We’ve had both devices for years now and we’ve never had to replace one. They’re essentially one time costs and all you’ll have to do is make the refills. Our refills average around $0.50 per device and our dogs get around a half hour of entertainment from them.
Where should I start with puzzles and interactive toys?
If you’re just getting started with puzzles and interactive toys, we’d highly recommend our post on DIY dog puzzles to start. We have all of our favorites divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced tiers. This’ll help you have a rough order of attack to try puzzles without confusing your dog.
If we had to pick one or two dog enrichment ideas to start, we’d suggest the towel roll puzzle and the find it command. Both are simple and only require one action from your dog that’s relatively natural. For find it, place a kibble near your dog and let them sniff it out. For the towel puzzle, you roll up some kibble or treats in a towel and let your dog unroll it.
You should be able to do both without buying any supplies, too. Check out the post if you want more information about either.
What if my dog isn’t interested or doesn’t like enrichment?
Unless your dog is in pain, your dog will be food or play motivated naturally. We recommend finding the one they’re more inclined to do naturally and starting with a real easy and short session. In the beginning, make sure you quit while your dog is still interested instead of after your dog begins losing interest.
As for food motivation, controlling the resource is a great place to start. If your dog always has access to a bowl of food, providing food as a reward is not going to be very enticing. If you’re not currently free-feeding your dog, then try to do food-based activities before your dog’s meal time. This will help make sure they’re hungry and motivated during the learning phase of your activities.