Friday Round Up: Enrichment Resources from Around the Web

Lucky for us enrichment nerds, there is a lot out there being written on enrichment and mental exercise for dogs.  This is also lucky for pet owners and their dogs because it makes it easier than ever to incorporate enrichment in their lives.

I'm going to try to do Friday Round Ups of cool enrichment stuff I find on the web during the week.  I hope you will try some of the things out with your dogs!

Planet Dog Frozen Treats
I'm a fan of Planet Dog products, and these are 3 super easy recipes for stuffable, freezable toys.  Awesome for the hot weather!  And don't forget that dogs, like people, enjoy a variety of flavours of foods.

Five Ways To Make It Up To Your Dog
Modern Dog writes a simple but helpful article with a variety of social activities you can do with your dog at the end of a work day.

6 Boredom Busters for Dogs
These are really beginner activities, such as tug and teaching tricks, that most of you will probably know about already, but they're still really fun for your dog!

Barks from the Guild: To Walk or Not To Walk?
The Pet Professional Guild's July magazine has a good article on when and why walking your dog may not be the best choice for exercise and enrichment.  Hint: it's more often than you may think!

Do Dogs Have Emotions?
Most dog owners and enthusiasts think this is a silly question: obviously they do.  But science has been a little slow on the subject of animals and emotions.  This page uses Panksepp's various systems to explain what's going on inside the brain.  Why is this related to enrichment?  Keeping animals happy is a major part of why enrichment matters, and to understand that we need to know exactly what it means to say that an animal is "happy".

Bonus:
I love blogs, especially blogs about dogs!  So here's a page I found this week with a whole bunch of great dog blogs, all in one spot for your viewing pleasure.  Sadly, mine is not on there (yet ;)
Companion Animal Psychology: Blogs To Follow

That's all for this week!  PS If anyone has any resources on enrichment they'd like to share, please send them my way and I can include them in the round up.