Upgrade Playtime: Why Enrichment is Essential for All Pets

Playtime isn’t just about throwing a toy around with your pet — it’s about building confidence and encouraging curiosity. Enrichment is an exciting way to help you upgrade your pets playtime leaving you with a calmer, healthier, more fulfilled pet! Integrating enrichment in your pets routine will encourage their natural instincts to flourish such as exploring, foraging, hunting, problem solving, and learning. Dogs, cats, and small animals alike thrive from purposeful play, making enrichment a great way to support both mental and physical wellness.

What is enrichment? 

Enrichment is any activity that involves both mental and physical stimulation allowing your pet to express natural instincts and behaviors. There are five main forms of enrichment that when used together are beneficial for your pets overall wellbeing. 

Why Enrichment Works

Research has consistently shown positive impacts of enrichment on animals' wellbeing. A study using interactive problem-solving toys with shelter dogs found both mental and physical benefits. Dogs showed an increase in physical activity like walking and bow posture when playing, and a decrease in destructive behavior such as excessive barking and tearing apart their environment. Repetitive behaviors like excessive grooming, barking, and digging can be signs of stress – this study found a decrease in those behaviors in dogs introduced to enrichment toys. Additionally, the study found a decrease in cortisol levels, the stress hormone, when compared before and after enrichment. These positive changes demonstrate how enrichment can keep your pet active and that enrichment may be a useful tool to reduce stress in response to environmental triggers like loud noise and new people entering the home. 

A survey given to pet owners in 2022 revealed several benefits from food-driven enrichment: 

• Less boredom 
• One of the most reported benefits to enrichment feeding. 
• Greater amount of satisfaction with their meals 
• Reduction in begging behavior.
• Increased interest in food 
• Some pet parents use puzzle toys to encourage their dog to eat.
• Found their pets to be calmer
• Increase in physical activity helps them stay calmer throughout the day.

Notably the survey found that dogs with a healthy weight are 5x more likely to be fed using enrichment feeding, like a slowfeeder or snuffle mat, compared to overweight dogs. Since it takes longer for your pet to eat out of enrichment feeders their digestion slows down creating an increased feeling of fullness preventing them from overeating. Enrichment feeders also turn mealtime into an active process physically and mentally promoting exercise, even if it’s subtle. 

Enrichment is not only beneficial to your pet physically and mentally, but it can also benefit you. As we’ve discussed, enrichment can help reduce destructive behaviors at home by helping your pet feel more comfortable and in control of their environment. It’s also been shown that engaging in enrichment with your pets builds trust and a positive routine, strengthening your bond. 

Getting Started with Enrichment

Now that you have the information about how enrichment can be beneficial for your pet and yourself you may be wondering how to get started. Thankfully introducing enrichment doesn’t need to be complicated, but it is important to be patient and adjust to your pets needs and interests. Here are a few helpful tips on how to get started and prevent frustration from your pet: 

• Start easy, and increase difficulty gradually. 
• Choose stuffed toys or beginner level puzzle toys. For puzzle toys, place treats on top of and outside the puzzle at first. 
• Demonstrate as needed. 
• With puzzle toys, stuffed toys, or games you may need to show your pet how it works and where the treats are at first. 
• Rotate activities and toys. 
• Just like people may not want to reread the same book or rewatch the same movie every day, pets enjoy novelty so switching up toys and activities helps prevent boredom. 
• Adjust to your pets physical needs. 
• Senior pets may do better with ‘easier’ activities so opting for a snuffle mat, switching up their daily walking route, or socializing with their favorite people may be easier for them than an obstacle course or difficult puzzle toy. 
• Stay with your pet.
• Supervision and encouragement from you will provide your pet with a positive experience and strengthen your bond.

Aiming to add 15-30 minutes of enrichment to your pet's daily routine will incorporate a positive experience to their day. Small changes can make a big impact, you can start enrichment at home in simple ways. Hiding high-reward treats around the house encourages natural foraging behaviors—freeze-dried treats such as beef liver or minnows are especially effective because of their strong scent.  Scatter feeding is another great option for all types of animals to promote foraging behaviors during mealtime. For small animals like guinea pigs and rabbits, spreading hay, herbs, or pellets throughout their enclosure encourages natural grazing and exploration. Additionally, changing up your daily walking route exposes your dog to new places to explore. You can also create a simple at-home obstacle course using household items to encourage movement and curiosity for cats and small animals like guinea pigs and rabbits. Many cats show clear excitement when they “catch” a teaser toy or hide inside tunnels during playtime since it mirrors hunting and builds confidence. Tools like puzzle toys, slow feeders, and snuffle mats—many of which are available at Rumford Pet —make it simple to incorporate enrichment into your pet’s daily routine. Small moments of intentional play like these can create a lasting positive impact on your pets wellbeing.

Find the Right Enrichment

At Rumford Pet, we’re here to help you find new and creative ways to upgrade your pet’s enrichment routine—whether that means a quick stop for socialization, discovering a new favorite toy, or getting product guidance from our team. If you’d like help choosing the best enrichment for your pet’s age, energy levels, or personality, our team is happy to help you find the right fit. The following is a list of some of out favorite enrichment products to recommend: 

For Dogs: 

• Stuffed toys 
• Woof Pupsicle is our most popular stuffed toy with a wide variety of options, including a calming mix with L-theanine for dogs who may get anxious. Woof also sells mixes and trays so you can make your own inserts at home. 
• Puzzle toys
• Outward hound has a wide variety of toys ranging across 4 levels of difficulty. 
• Snuffle mats
• A great sensory enrichment to get their nose working. 
• Lickmats and Slow Bowls
• With a wide variety of patterns slow bowls are a great option for slowing down mealtime. 

For Cats:

• Tunnels and Teaser Wands 
• Promotes stalking and hunting behavior. 
• Puzzle toys 
• The Kong Cheese Rocker is a good option to encourage your cat to problem solve. 
• Snuffle mats
• Lickmats and Slowbowls

For Small Animals: 

• Oxbow offers an Enriched Life brand with a wide variety of enrichment toys to choose from: 
• Chew sticks 
• Wobble feeders 
• Puzzles 
• Forage bowls 
• And more! 

Using Enrichment at Home

Upgrading your pets play time opens a door to building curiosity, confidence, and fulfillment for your pet. Whether you’re shaking a teaser wand for your cat, stuffing treats in a puzzle toy for your dog, or encouraging a small animal to forage and explore, these moments of enrichment positively benefit your animals physical and emotional wellbeing. A little creativity, patience, and the right tools can build an enriching routine for your pet, creating a positive experience and strengthening your bond.