Holiday Enrichment: Keep Your Dog Happy and Stress-Free This Season

Keeping Your Dog Entertained During the Holidays with Enrichment Activities (Plus some training tips!)

The holidays are a time of joy, celebration, and festivities, but they can also invite chaos and disruption into your home. For our canine companions, these changes can sometimes result in stress or boredom, often resulting in naughty behaviours. Incorporating enrichment activities into your dog’s holiday routine is a fantastic way to keep them engaged and joyful while you juggle holiday festivities. Here are some creative ideas to ensure your dog feels included, entertained, and safe during the holidays.

Create a Calm Space
The holiday hustle and bustle can be a lot for pets. Set up a room or kennel in a space in your house away from the festivities where you can let your pet unwind and destress. Try playing some calming music, plugging in a diffuser with pet-safe essentials oils, or giving them something to chew on. Chewing actually can help alleviate anxiety, so giving your dog an outlet to chew on something like a stuffed KONG is a great way to help them feel a little calmer.

Keep Routines Consistent 
Dogs enjoy having a routine and consistent schedule, so try to keep their daily activities scheduled as possible. Feed them at their regular morning and evening times, walk them at their regular times, and play with them at their normal times. Giving them this sense of consistency and normalcy can help them feel at ease during the holiday festivities.

Play Scent Games
The holidays are full of new and yummy scents for both humans and dogs alike! Take advantage of the season’s smells by hiding holiday-scented snacks around your house for your pup to find (pet-safe of course!). Cut up apples and baby carrots into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle with a little cinnamon, bake or air fry sweet potato bites, or make frozen yogurt drops with fresh peppermint and hide them around your house for your pup to find and enjoy!

Holiday-Themed Stuffed Puzzle Toys
Enrichment toys are a great tool to utilize during the busy holiday season. Stuff a KONG Classic or Toppl with seasonal ingredients to share the season’s givings with your furry friend. We love this recipe from KONG, featuring fresh peppermint, parsley, apple, and yogurt. Stick it in the freezer for an extra challenge! It’s also not a bad idea to have a variety of stuffed toys in the freezer ready to go, so if your pup finishes one before the festivities are over, you have another one ready to go. 

Don’t feel like stuffing your own toys? We’ve got you covered! With our Puzzle Club you get one puzzle toy a week complete with treats to go along with it. Just return the toy the following week and you’ll get a brand new one! It’s as easy as one, two, three! Click here to learn more.

Make Frozen Holiday Treats
A simple way to let your pup join in on the holiday fun, grab some holiday-shaped ice molds and fill them with pet-safe merry ingredients like unsweetened cranberries, cherries, pear, or pomegranate seeds and freeze in water. You can use the cubes to stuff KONGs or Toppls to help them last longer! You can also fill the ice cube trays with a mix of plain yogurt, unsweetened pumpkin, and peanut-butter (xylitol free) for another tasty treat.

DIY Puzzle Toys
Keep the sniffing fun everlasting by hiding treats inside a snuffe mat and bringing it out for your pup to enjoy during holiday activities. Make your own snuffle mat by tying pieces of red, white, and green fleece together, like is shown in this tutorial. Change the amount of fleece you use to alter the difficulty! If you don’t feel like making your own, we love the x brand because they come in a variety of different fun patterns and difficulty levels.

Make Time for Walks and Exercise
A good way to help prevent anxiety during the holidays is to give your pup a physical outlet to release their energy. Make time for an extra long walk the morning before festivities and right before, if you have the time! Even if you can’t go for a full walk, throw the ball or frisbee a few times in the backyard to get your pup’s blood moving. Just a few minutes of physical activity can result in a happier and stress-free pup later.

Training Tips

The holidays are a great time to teach new tricks or reinforce already learned skills. Here are a few fun tricks you can teach your dog during holiday activities.

Holiday Manners
Teach your dog to sit and wait patiently as guests enter your house. Place them in a sit command next to you and make them wait patiently before they run up to say hello. Make sure to correct them if they jump up on guests!

Impulse Control
Yummy holiday smells are a great time to practice impulse control with your dog. Work on “leave it” and “wait” commands and then reward with a treat. This can also help with tableside begging later on.

Unwrapping Presents
Did you know you can teach your dog to unwrap presents? Hide their favourite toy or treats in wrapping paper and encourage them to use their nose and paws to unwrap it! Once they get the hang of it you can encourage them to open your own presents for you and then reward with a treat!

The holiday season doesn’t have to be stressful if you set you and your pup up for success in advance. With a bit of careful planning you can ensure you and your pup have a stress-free holiday season.

Until next time,

🐾 Woofs & Wags
- Melissa & Oaklee 🐾
@unleashthepawsitive