ENRICHMENT

Puppies raised in a stimulating environment experience physiological changes due to that enrichment. They have larger brains with more neural connections and healthier brain cells. Puppies who are provided with adequate mental, physical, and social enrichment sleep more soundly, socialize with more confidence, and approach new problems with gusto and a can-do attitude.

By providing ample enrichment, we also allow our puppies to do something really important: we allow them to “saturate” to the things that some dogs find overwhelmingly exciting. A lot of behaviour problems occur when dogs become too excited by things like people, dogs, new environments, or food and toys. We can prevent this by ensuring that our puppies get more than enough of all the things they desire, so they don’t totally lose their minds when they are presented with them as a distraction!

The puppies at Toronto Puppy School have access to all kinds of enrichment which we sort into four main categories: environmental, social, exercise, and learning. Environmental enrichment comes from making the area our puppies learn in fun and engaging; we put down new and different surfaces, we have plenty of access to toys, we offer many types of beds to rest on, and we introduce new objects daily. Social enrichment comes, of course, from other dogs and puppies, but that’s not all! We invite guests of a variety of ages to play with and teach or puppies, and we take them on outings to meet new and different dogs, people, and critters.

Providing exercise for puppies within the confines of what is safe for puppies of their age is not just beneficial for their enrichment. It also allows our puppies to grow natural confidence by providing them with accomplishable challenges to teach them about their growing bodies. Finally, we provide learning enrichment in every aspect of our program by encouraging our puppies to develop problem solving skills by fostering independence and creativity.