Wild at Heart: Why Enrichment is Essential for Your Pet's Well-Being

You've probably heard of the term "environmental enrichment". Most people associate environmental enrichment with captive animals, such as those living in zoos and aquariums, but did you know that environmental enrichment is important for your pet's well-being and welfare too?

A body of research from ethology, animal science and veterinary science has clearly demonstrated that animals have behavioural needs and that certain innate behaviours, such as nest building in birds, are highly motivated. In addition, neuroscience shows us that animal brains have complex emotional systems that serve as motivators for behaviour. The core emotional systems include seeking (novelty), fear, panic (e.g. separation stress), rage, lust, caring (e.g. nurturing young) and play (Morris et al 2014).

Chew toys are a great form of enrichment for dogs

What is Environmental Enrichment?

Broadly speaking, environmental enrichment involves the practice of increasing the physical, social and temporal complexity of captive environments (Carlsbad & Stepherdson, 2000).

Wild at Heart

Our modern day companion animals are relatives of wild species and, more recently, breeds originally developed to perform work such as herding, hunting guarding and retrieving. Despite this fact, when choosing their next animal companion, many people do not consider the breed or species-specific behaviour of the animal, rather their choice is made on the basis of appearance or the perceived status the pet will bring them (Whelan, 2010).

What are "species-specific behaviours?" Species-specific behaviours are actions and behaviours that animals have evolved to perform or carry out. They include things like foraging or hunting for food, establishing and maintaining a territory and protecting their territory from intruders. To provide appropriate environmental enrichment it's crucial that the natural history and behaviour of the breed or species is well understood. Cats and dogs are both members of the order Carnivora and they share species-specific behaviours similar to their wild counterparts. Similarly, companion parrots also share the same species-specific behaviours as their wild living relatives.

Many wild-living cat species are arboreal (live in trees)

As with captive exotic animals, laboratory animals and livestock, our pets are also captive animals living by the constraints we place on them. Even though we provide them with everything they need to survive (i.e. food, water, shelter, vet care etc) we often don't realise they retain the instincts and desires to perform, and need outlets for the expression of, these behaviours in order to thrive. When we fail to provide ample opportunities for our pets to express natural behaviours or exercise as they normally would, unwanted negative behaviours can result (Whelan, 2010).

Dogs:
When considering the natural history of dogs, it's important to recognise breed differences. With over 150 different breeds in existence, originally developed to perform specific jobs, genetic differences in the strength of the core emotional systems are likely. For example, one dog may be a high seeker, constantly motivated to chase a ball, compared to another which is a low seeker, happy to live a more sedentary life. These days pet dogs are not required to perform the jobs they were originally bred for however those selected behavioural traits still remain. For example, the Border Collie that herds small children or the Doberman that barks at people walking past the home. These are normal behaviours for these breeds but are often considered problematic by dog owners (Morris et al, 2014).

This dog is highly motivated to fetch the ball

Cats:
Increasingly, pet cats are confined to the home with many not having regular access to the outdoors. Although this keeps them safe from cars and other animals, many can spend long periods of time in isolation unable to exhibit hunting or social behaviours. Consequently, these cats often develop problem behaviours.

Species-specific behaviours of the cat are very similar to that of it's relatives, the African wildcat and to free-roaming cats, and include social family rankings, elimination and feeding behaviours (Overall et al, 2005). When owners understand these normal behaviours and provide appropriate outlets for them, the behaviours are less likely to be expressed in a problematic way.

Behavioural issues are a common reason for relinquishment of companion animals to shelters. As such, we must recognise the core emotional systems affecting behaviour and do our best to provide appropriate outlets for these systems through enrichment. This will help to reduce problem behaviour and the subsequent relinquishment of pets to animal shelters.

Benefits of Environmental Enrichment

Much of the research on the benefits of environmental enrichment to date has been performed on mice in a laboratory setting. These studies show that an enriched environment can provide numerous benefits including improved learning and memory, increased brain weight and size and enhanced activity of the opioid systems in the brain (van Praag et al, 2000). Research on captive exotic animals shows that enrichment can decrease aggression, increase activity, reduce the expression of abnormal behaviour and improve health and reproduction (Carlsbad & Stepherdson, 2000).

Enjoying some environmental enrichment!

As our pet's guardians it is our responsibility to maintain not only their physical health, but their emotional health as well. Adequately providing for the mental health of our companion animals through environmental enrichment before the development of behaviour problems is key. Furthermore, the concept of environmental enrichment should be considered an essential component of pet husbandry rather than an optional addition.

Good enrichment should provide pets with opportunities to express behaviours driven by positive emotional systems of seeking, caring and play. Some examples include foraging, play, positive social interactions and grooming. Enrichment should aim to increase positive emotions and reduce the time animals experience negative emotions such as fear and panic (Morris et al, 2014). When applied correctly, environmental enrichment promotes optimal animal welfare.

Stay tuned for my next few blog posts which will focus on the most effective ways you can provide environmental enrichment for your dog, cat and companion parrot!

References

Carlstead, K. and D. Shepherdson. "Alleviating stress in zoo animals with environmental enrichment." The biology of animal stress: Basic principles and implications for animal welfare (2000): 337-354.

Morris, C. L., T. Grandin and N. A. Irlbeck. "Companion Animals Symposium: Environmental Enrichment for companion, exotic and laboratory animals". Journal of Animal Science 89.12 (2011): 4227-4238.

Overall, K. and D. Dyer. "Enrichment strategies for laboratory animals from the viewpoint of clinical veterinary behavioural medicine: Emphasis on cats and dogs." Ilar Journal 46.2 (2005): 202-216.

Van Praag, H., Kemperman, G. and Gage, F. H. "Neural consequences of environmental enrichment." Nature reviews. Neuroscience 1.3 (2000): 191.

Whelan, F. "Environmental enrichment for pets." Veterinary Nursing Journal 25.3 (2010): 27-28.

Lead Reactivity Part 2: How to avoid or resolve it

As discussed in Part 1, lead reactivity can be a serious problem that should not be ignored, especially if it's developed into its more aggressive form. The good news is the behaviour can be avoided or, if it’s already a problem, successfully modified.

Avoiding Lead Reactivity

There's a lot you can do to help avoid your puppy or adult dog from developing lead reactivity. Remember, most lead reactivity and aggression, whether towards people, other dogs, animals or inanimate objects, develops due to past unpleasant or scary experiences. Try to avoid such experiences by reading and responding appropriately to your dogs behaviour and body language. This is easier said than done, as research suggests people are not proficient at correctly interpreting dog behaviour and emotions. You can read more about how to accurately interpret canine body language here, here and here and see a quick video demonstration here and a more detailed one here. If you notice your dog is uncomfortable in a situation, move them away until they relax again. Remember when your dog is on lead, and feels unsafe or threatened for any reason, their escape option (flight response) is not available and they’re much more likely to use aggression (fight response) in an effort to make the scary thing go away. It’s up to us to ensure we can accurately read our dogs (and others) to avoid placing them in situations in which they resort to reactivity and aggression.

In addition, work on making outings on the lead extra positive. Most dogs already love going for a walk because of the novel sights and smells and the opportunity to explore. However you can boost and help maintain the positive association with things your dog encounters during walks (e.g. cars, bikes, other dogs, strangers, kids etc) by pairing them with things your dog values (e.g. high value treats, pats, praise, favourite toys, games etc). By doing this extra work, you can help negate any mildly negative experiences your dog may have. Also work on rewarding your dog for calm and compliant behaviour while on lead. This is also helpful for dogs that become overly excited and frustrated when on lead. So many dog owners underestimate the importance of teaching their puppy how to walk nicely on the lead – a foundation behaviour which will provide the building blocks of a great relationship. Learn more about lead training your puppy and adult dog here and here. This might be stating the obvious but dogs don’t come automatically programmed to walk nicely on the lead and be model canine citizens. They need to be taught how and, as their guardians, it is our responsibility to dedicate the time and patients to teach them.

A happy and relaxed dog
(Image: Alex Pearson on Flickr)

Resolving Lead Reactivity

If your dog is already lead reactive or aggressive you firstly need to identify the trigger or triggers for the behaviour (e.g. other dogs, strangers, trucks etc) and the critical distance (or threshold) at which your dog begins to show early signs of fear, stress or anxiety. These are often subtle (e.g. lip licking, panting, ears held back, hard eyes, paw lift, focused attention on the trigger etc) and preclude the more overt signs of reactivity and aggression (e.g. barking, growling, pulling on the lead, pilo-erection). Next you need to work on changing your dog’s emotional response to the trigger (e.g. seeing another dog) from a negative association due to fear to a positive association while under threshold. Sounds easy enough but what does this involve? 

The most common approach is a combination of desensitisation (gradual exposure to the stimulus under threshold - with enough distance between it and your dog so as your dog remains relatively relaxed and engaged in the training) and Classic Counter-Conditioning (pairing the presence of the stimulus with something pleasurable such as favourite treats). For example, your dog sees another dog and immediately receives a favourite treat. After several short sessions pairing the just the presence of another dog with high value treats you want to switch to Operant Conditioning in which your dog learns to become more comfortable with the approach of another dog and looks to you for reinforcement. This is when you can ask for and reinforce, a known behaviour such as 'sit' or 'look'. This positive reinforcement training helps to activate the reward pathway in the brain releasing Dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for producing a natural “high” (but more on behavioural neuroscience in a future post!). With consistency and repetition, your dog learns that the previously scary stimulus now predicts good things and no longer poses danger. The result, over time, should be a marked reduction in reactive and aggressive behaviour.

There are numerous protocols available, based on these principles, that have been developed by experts to assist you to work on resolving your dog's lead reactivity. Choose one that’s feasible and realistic for you. Here’s a few I recommend:

• Grisha Stewart’s Behaviour Adjustment Training (BAT)
• Dr Sophia Yin’s Foundation Exercises for Lead Reactive Dogs
• Victoria Stilwell’s Teaching a Leash Reactive Dog to Make the Right Choices

Image: MarkScottAustinTX on Flickr

Things don’t always go to plan in the real world. You may encounter situations out of your control that elicit a reactive or aggressive response even after you’ve made some good progress (e.g. another dog slipping it’s lead and running up to your dog or a kid on a skateboard seemingly appearing out of nowhere). The key is to pick up where you left off and keep going. There is no quick fix. Dogs, like us, are continuously learning based on their experiences. It’s up to us to guide and enhance their experiences as much as possible to optimise their welfare and wellbeing.

Finally, if you feel you don't have the skills or knowledge to work to resolve your dog's lead reactivity or aggression, or you have tried several things that haven’t worked, then please seek professional help. Doing so is in everyone's best interest: Yours, your dog's and the community's.

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Lead Reactivity Part 1: How it develops and why it’s a liability

Lead reactivity and/or aggression is a common complaint I receive from my clients. Unfortunately, too many dog owners contact me after a significant incident has taken place even though the behaviour has been present, albeit in a milder form, for a period of time.

Having a dog that aggressively barks, lunges or pulls towards other dogs or people can be a source of stress and embarrassment. This often results in people being reluctant to walk their dog or continuing the walks but not knowing how to resolve the issue. Either way, this just perpetuates the problem. We know from neuroscience that "neurons that fire together, wire together" meaning the longer a behaviour persists, the more ingrained it becomes.

(Image: Mr.TinDC on Flickr)

Why are some dogs lead reactive/aggressive?
The most common reason for developing lead reactivity that I see in my clients’ dogs is fear due to past unpleasant or scary experiences. For example, a dog that is attacked by another dog while on lead may subsequently develop lead aggression when it encounters other dogs in an attempt to protect itself. Similarly, a dog that’s been hit by a car may display reactive barking or lunging when it sees moving cars during a walk.  It’s important to understand that a lack of prior positive socialization experiences can also result in lead reactivity/aggression. For example, dogs that have not been socialized with a range of other dogs (of varying breeds and breed types) may be fear aggressive when approached by other dogs. Similarly, a dog that’s never seen a person on a bicycle or skateboard may lunge aggressively at a cyclist or skateboarder who passes close by. This is called the “fight or flight response” and it’s a survival mechanism.

When a dog (or person or other animal) finds itself in a scary situation it either runs away or confronts the source of their fear in an attempt to make it go away. When on lead, the escape option is no longer available so using aggression in an attempt to create distance between themselves and the threat is more likely. Here’s an analogy; imagine you are walking down a dark alley at night and suddenly a dark figure lunges towards you demanding your wallet. What would you do? You’re either going to attempt to run away and escape the situation or, if you’re grabbed and can’t escape, you will fight back with everything you’ve got.

Normal dog behaviour
Dogs normally greet one another from the side, in an arc, rather than head on. When we walk them on lead along pathways we may force them to greet each other in an unnatural way. When two leashed dogs meet they are restrained and unable to move away from one another if they feel unsure or threatened. Many owners keep their dog on a tight lead when meeting other dogs “just in case” however the tension is felt by the dog and can exacerbate their stress. The dogs may all of a sudden start barking and lunging at one another (fight response) because the option to increase the distance between each other was not available (flight response). But get this; even if the dogs didn’t bark at each other, it’s wrong to assume that they were fine. Most dog owners are actually quite bad at reading their dog's body language and often miss subtle signs of fear, stress and anxiety such as pacing, panting when it’s not hot, lip licking, shaking off, paw lift and low tail carriage.

(Image: IIdar Sagdejev / CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Furthermore, people often fail to recognize inappropriate and rude behaviour in their own “friendly” dogs. Bounding up to other dogs, jumping on or body slamming them or getting all up in their face is extremely rude behaviour and could easily cause a fight. This inability to communicate appropriately also tends to be the result of inadequate socializing with other dogs, particularly past the puppy stage. Many dog owners don’t realize that socialization is an ongoing process and attending puppy classes is not enough. These dogs tend to carry their puppy style greeting into adulthood when it’s no longer tolerated by other dogs. When another dog growls or barks at the rude greeter it’s owner chastises the other person for their dog's "aggressive" behaviour.

Being on the receiving end of a lead reactive dog
If you’ve ever been on the recieveing end of a lead reactive dog you will understand what a frightening experience it can be. If not, here’s an example of what happened to me. A few months back, when I was 36 weeks pregnant with my second child, I had an awful experience with two lead reactive dogs. My husband and I took our 15-month old son and dog, Joseph, to a local park. After a lovely walk we stopped at the playground to let our son play and explore. While he was happily playing I was standing nearby watching with our dog, a very placid Labrador, on lead. Several minutes later I heard loud barking and turned around to see a man sitting on a bench nearby, his two dogs straining on their leads, intently focused on our dog who remained calm and quiet. One appeared to be a Rottweiler mix and the other a Staffy mix. Upon seeing the dogs behaving in this manner, and realizing the man wasn’t going to move away, I immediately walked in the opposite direction behind a large piece of play equipment. My intention being to create distance and a visual barrier between Joseph and I and the two reactive dogs. 

The man remained on the bench and was struggling to control his dogs. Just as I was about to move further away I heard the man yell out and both his dogs came running up to me and Joseph, who was still on lead. It was an incredibly tense moment and my heart was racing. I could tell from the stiff body language of the other dogs that they were far from relaxed and friendly. After what seemed like an eternity the dogs’ male owner came running over, his female companion close behind, attempting to restrain his dogs. There were lots of young children in the playground at the time and my husband was holding our young son a meter or so away from us. The dog owners apologised profusely and remained there with their dogs. We immediately left the park. 

At the time I was so angry and in shock at the whole situation. All I wanted to do was ensure my family was safe, so I didn’t engage in what could have been a very valuable conversation with those dogs’ owners. I am so thankful that Joseph is such a placid and social dog. It seemed as though he knew it was in his best interest to remain calm and allow the dogs to sniff him intensely and not react. Had it been our late boxer, Archie, in the same situation I know the outcome would have been so much worse! I realise now that the dogs’ owners’ were just naive but that doesn’t change the fact their dogs are a huge liability. Given the same situation with a less placid or anti-social dog, the outcome could have been dire.

(Image: Kumarrrr / CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Again, just the other day while enjoying a walk with my boys in the pram and husband walking our dog we were confronted by a mother with her two small children walking a large American Bulldog. Upon seeing us she attempted to walk her dog (who was straining on it’s lead, body stiff, focussing intensely on our dog) behind a tree just off the footpath. I asked her if she’d like us to cross the road and her response was “lets see how it goes.” Really? Let's not! My husband immediately walked Joseph to the other side of the road passing the dog with as much distance as possible. 

As I walked past the family and their obviously anxious dog the mother laughed it off, assuring me her dog was “the most beautiful dog in the world at home” but that he behaves this way because he was “attacked by another dog as a puppy”. This is unfortunate for sure and if I had a dollar for every time I heard a client say those words… The problem is, the explanation for the behaviour doesn’t fix the behaviour, nor does it keep the community safe. As dog owners we have a responsibility to keep our dogs safe and the people and dogs around us safe as well. If you have a dog that’s reactive or aggressive towards other dogs or people you have a responsibility to your dog and your community to seek professional help from a reputable dog trainer or qualified animal behaviourist.  

Having regularly been called in as an expert witness, to conduct temperament assessments on dogs that  injured a person or another dog, I can assure you their owners also proclaimed how great their dogs are with kids and dogs they know. However that’s not the point. The point is that these issues need to be address before they become serious and endanger others. 

Read Lead Reactivity Part 2 to learn how to avoid your dog from developing lead reactivity/aggression in the first place (because prevention is better than cure!) and what to do if your dog is already lead reactive/aggressive.

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