My Philosophy of Enrichment
When people visit Doglando, they are often amazed at what they see — dozens of happy, healthy dogs getting along harmoniously. Many ask how I manage to keep all these animals so calm and content. I want to share my personal philosophy of canine enrichment and how it influences the environment we create at Doglando.
Defining Enrichment:
I define enrichment by breaking the word itself into three parts. These parts represent the values that create the concept of canine enrichment.
En: The first part, en, is a unit of measurement. At Doglando, we’re measuring the behavior we want to promote. But what does that mean? What kind of behavior do we want to promote? We want our dogs to feel like dogs, and that’s what happens when they engage in species-typical behavior like digging and playing. We allow our dogs to behave in a way that feels natural and good for them.
Rich: Rich, the next part of the word, is all about abundance. Every element in the dogs’ environment should be in abundance. Scarcity can cause dogs to behave in dysfunctional ways, such as being possessive, guarding objects, and even lashing out with aggression. But when there is abundance, dogs behave very differently. To encourage functional behaviors in our dogs, Doglando creates an environment where all of their needs are met in abundance.
Ment: To me, ment means strengthening and reinforcing. It’s not enough to provide the abundance and encourage species-typical behavior once — we have to continue to reinforce these behaviors so that over time, they become strong patterns of behavior that remain with the dogs even after they leave our campus.
Creating Enrichment
To set out creating an enriching environment at Doglando, I first asked myself, what do dogs need? Many people would say things like food, water, shelter, companionship. But what I learned from my time studying street dogs is, if you can provide one need that encompasses all others, provide the freedom to roam. Space is one of the most important needs a dog has. It’s the number one tool dogs use to resolve conflicts with each other. They need the option to remove themselves from a situation and go to another space. If they have the freedom to roam, they’ll find their own food, water, shelter, and companionship. When we create an environment where all these needs are accessible, the dogs access the things they need when they need them.
My philosophy of canine enrichment is the backbone of everything we do at Doglando. If you’d like to experience our campus for yourself, schedule a tour today with or without your dog.