With our first cairn Ollie, we discovered enrichment toys. His personal favorite was this plush tree with several little squirrels in it that he'd root out. He went through a few of these in England when he was a youngster. I'm not sure if this is what led to one of his favorite activities of squirrel chasing in the back yard, but it provided him with hours of entertainment in the house.
Our girl Pepper loves nothing better than to locate squirrels and run them up a tree. Puppy Finn will join her, but he isn't quite as gung ho about these furry tailed rodents, which is fine by me. I decided to buy Finn his very own squirrel enrichment toy to see what he thought, but unfortunately it hasn't become a favorite of his like it was for Ollie. So I went in search of something else. I gave the snuffle pad a try, but it's a very short lived interaction because they're so good at ferreting out the little bits of treats I hide in it.
I was perusing the aisles at a local store for something engaging to introduce to Finn and ran across this ball, shown above. I brought it home to see what the dogs thought and it was a big hit. Now Pepper and Finn each have their own treat balls they roll across the floor. I usually load them up in the early afternoon as a snack between Finn's breakfast and dinner times. They both get really excited when I prep the balls for them. I always put in a few smaller treats that will fall out pretty easily. Some pieces are left a big bigger so they'll have to hit just right to get ejected. My ploy is to leave one larger piece that can't fit through the opening. That way the dogs will continue to push the ball around for a longer period of time because they can see, hear and smell that there is a treat left in the ball. It's an ingeniously evil move on my part.
Maybe I'd be more svelte if I had to chase down the Tex Mex food and assorted desserts I enjoy. Not a bad idea there, folks. At least I'd burn off some of the tasty calories I'd be consuming.
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