This one simple tip is what every dog owner needs to know: Use feeding time as enrichment time. Instead of giving breakfast and dinner in a bowl, for every meal, that gets demolished in under 10 seconds, try some of these other methods from time to time. Meals will last longer and your dog will get more stimulation out of it. The idea is to get your dog using his amazing nose and problem solving skills to eat breakfast or dinner.

Dogs love searching, scavenging and hunting food out with their nose. Some dogs love to rip, tear and destroy things. Some dogs love decapitating squeakers from toys (they will LOVE these exercises). Giving your dog a positive and healthy outlet to do those doggy things will make for a very happy and content dog.

Feeding like this stimulates your dog mentally, physically and it's so much fun. Your best fur friend will be satisfied and relaxed, he will totally thank you for it. Woof!

Instead of feeding your dogs food in a bowl, Samantha Jackson from Howlistic Help shares enrichment feeding ideas below.

Create a trail of dog biscuits (kibble) that your dog finds to follow and eat their food!

This is a great way to get the kids involved too. And for young children or young puppies a fun way for them to be able to be a part of the daily routine. Kids love making treasure hunts for their dogs and watching them find the food! It's easy and fun.

How to do it:

• • With your dog securely away in another room or in a crate so they can’t see where the food is being placed. Give a handful of dog food each to your kids* and instruct them to put the biscuits on the floor / ground in a line for your dog to find. Make it easy for your dog by keeping the biscuits close together to begin with.
  • As your dog gets better at finding the biscuits, you can start to make the treasure hunts harder and harder by placing the individual biscuits further apart as well as under or over obstacles etc. This is an awesome easy enrichment game that will keep the kids and the dog happily busy for at least 10 minutes!
  • For extra fun, split doggies breakfast and dinner up into multiple treasure hunts, the kids can have competitions to see whose treasure hunt took doggie the longest or shortest time to finish eating all the biscuits.
  • You can also make it even more exciting for your dog by having a prize at the end of the treasure hunt! You could use your dogs favourite treat or long lasting chew as the prize! Eating meals like this your dog will take much longer to finish his food as well as being physically and mentally stimulated. This is way more fun, more rewarding and more satisfying for your dog, helping him to be a relaxed, happy dog.

*Always supervise children with your dog.

My favourite way to feed dogs dinner! This is a great way to reuse (and get the most fun out of) your cardboard before putting it in the recycling bin. Any old cardboard or paper will do!

How to do it:

1. 1. Place some of your dog's food inside a small cardboard box.
   2. Then put that inside a larger cardboard box. Fill the large box with more dog food.
   3. Wrap up some dog food in paper and put that in the box.
   4. Fill the large box with some yummy treats and some extra paper. You can use any cardboard and be as creative as you like!
   5. Give the parcel to your dog and watch them absolutely destroy the cardboard and boxes to find dinner!

This is one of my favourite ways to feed dogs dinner. They LOVE it! Tearing and ripping and destroying. It’s another great way to involve the kids with looking after the family dog. Kids love wrapping the food up and watching the doggies make such a mess with the cardboard it brings squeals of joy.

Have fun and get creative, feeding dinner like this means it lasts 15 minutes instead of it disappearing in two seconds! The dogs will make an epic mess ripping up all the cardboard but it is so worth it! Some dogs do not like ripping etc., they might be a more gentle sweet heart. For those gentle dogs, you can make it nice and easy for them by using one box (wine box is a great example) and leave one end open so its fun and simple for them to find their dinner.

As your dog gains confidence and speed at finding the biscuits you can increase the difficulty to match their ability. If your dog is struggling, help them, make it easier or show them how to find the treats. If you dog is a sensitive kind of doggy that likes to be delicate with things, try wrapping up some of their food in a tea towel and placing that on the ground for them to gently unroll. Please supervise your dogs to make sure they are not eating the cardboard.

Here's some favourite treats:

K9 Natural Beef Healthy Bites Freeze Dried Dog Treats

Ziwi Good-Dog Rewards Lamb

Acana Free-Run Duck Dog Treats

If you know, you know.

If you don’t, well, you want to know!

KONGS are absolutely amazing and every dog trainer has at least three in their household. KONGs are the original enrichment feeder. They have a great range of toys to put food in, for dogs to push, chew, lick and work out how to get the food out. The Kong Classic is the most commonly used dog food puzzle toy and I can’t rate it highly enough.

How to do it:

Stuff the kong with your dogs normal food and some treats such as the KONG Stuff'n Treat range, which are specifically designed for your stuffable KONG toy. Watch them lick and push and throw the kong around to get it out.

One of my favourite ways to stuff a Kong for my best dog friend Axl is to put one handful of Acana dog biscuits in first, then one raw meat pattie in the middle and then half a banana gets squished in. That takes Axl (a 45kg Rhodesian Ridgeback) about 15 minutes to devour. Which is awesome in comparison to the 2.5 seconds it takes him to eat it from a bowl! Not only does it take him more time but it is more satisfying for him. He gets joy out of eating this way and is content and relaxed afterwards.

Kong Wobblers are one of my favourites. Simply pop your dogs biscuits inside and watch them push it around the floor to make the biscuits jump out.

If you already own a Kong, get creative with what you put it in, where you place/ hide it for your dog to find.

If you are ready to take your enrichment feeding to the next level you could combine a couple of these ideas to make an extra fun enrichment feeding time. For example, fill your Kong, place Kong in a box, fill the box with paper, make a treasure hunt of kibble to find the box at the end! Boom!

Have fun making feeding time enrichment time!

Article written by Samantha Jackson from Howlistic Help.

If you need advice or ideas around enrichment feeding, feel free to contact Pet Direct's Customer Service Experts on 0800 200 240.