Enrichment for Behaviors

Announcing the "Enrichment for Behavior" Workshop!

This Online Workshop will be offered June 14th at 12PM (Central) via Zoom.

In the Enrichment for Behavior Workshop we will be taking a look at enrichment and how it impacts our dog's behavior. This will be a deep dive into what makes "enrichment" enriching to our dogs, how individual dogs have different needs and how meeting our dog's needs can impact their behavior.

In March, Yooper Paws did a series of videos on simple enrichment activities using food. But what do you do if your dog doesn't enjoy food? 

Most dogs find sniffing to be enriching and that can make food more enjoyable. Some dogs love to hunt, some love to chase, some love to dig and so forth. Many owners know what their dog loves, but often struggle with ways to take that behavior the dog loves and use it in an enriching way that can then aid in training the behaviors you love.

We, as dog owners, don't always love our dogs doing the behaviors they love. Sometimes other people don't love our dog's behaviors. And sometimes other dogs & animals don't love our dog's behaviors. However as a Canine Coach I believe that it's not fair to our dogs to totally prevent them from doing the things they love. This would be like asking the artist not to paint or telling the musician they can't sing or play music. With a little bit of thought, we can find ways to let our dogs do the behaviors they love without causing problems for us, other people, or other animals.

Azul loves to watch or stare at other dogs but often other dogs do not appreciate this behavior. As Azul's human, I've struggled to find ways to allow him to do the staring he loves safely. With some trial and error, I've learned to work with this, giving Azul a chance to stare when it's safe and training a "look away" cue when staring isn't a good idea. I make sure that he has time to stare every day, meeting his needs to do the staring behavior. Then I can ask Azul to look away if his stare is causing stress to another animal.

When we meet the dog's needs and train the right behaviors, we can keep everyone feeling safe, calm, and happy!

If you'd like to learn more about Enrichment for Behaviors, fill out this form and join us for this Online Workshop!

Thank you for registering!

This workshop will be available for free throughout June 2023. 

After that it will be added to the Behaviors Series of paid workshops.