Whilst environmental enrichment (EE) does not have one specific definition, it is considered a dynamic process consisting of a range of activities, designed to support the increased expression of natural behaviours, cognitive, emotional, social, physical and psychological stimulation, whilst reducing behaviours associated with a poor fit environment.
The goal of environmental enrichment is to make the environment more complex and dynamic by providing positive stimulating challenges, choice making opportunities, appropriate control of social interactions, and the opportunity to behave in more diverse and species-specific ways, yet in a manner acceptable to society. Providing a good-fit environment will support a reduction in anxiety/fear based behaviours, whilst teaching your dog good life skills, how his work can have good outcomes (increasing listening skills, learning, and motivation), predictable routines to help him know what comes next, and when things important things will happen, reducing uncertainty and anxiety.
EE programmes should be as idiosyncratic as possible and have a range of activities that consider sensory needs (visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile, and taste). Activities can include:
Rene Descartes (1637) described animals as no more than simple biological, reflex driven machines, without ‘thinking’ minds, unable to speak or reason, and lacking the consciousness needed to experience true ‘emotional’ pain, love, or fear (Skirry, J. 2016). Philosopher J. Bentham (1823) later challenged this view, stating: “The question is not can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer?”
In the 1960’s ethologist, behaviourist, and engineer Hal Markowitz (1978; 1986; 2011), believed that captive zoo animals were indeed suffering, describing one US zoo environment as a ’concrete wasteland’, whose occupants lived in tiny featureless enclosures, leading dull, lifeless lives, devoid of contact or activity, whose only movements were apparently functionless repetitions (stereotypies), symptomatic of chronic stress and deprivation (Horowitz, A., 2009). This was in stark contrast to the animals he had witnessed living in their natural habitats, who presented as active, intelligent, dynamic individuals (Bender, A., & Strong, E., 2019).
In an effort to improve the lives of captive animals, Markowitz (1978; 1982; 2011) used ethology, psychology, and engineering ideas to introduce ‘behavioural engineering’, a variant of B.F. Skinner’s (1953) operant conditioning. This approach used Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) to train animals to manipulate apparatus and puzzles that delivered food as reinforcement (Maple, T. & Segura, V., 2014) and which provided a way to test whether psychological and physical welfare benefits were really being made (Fernandez, E.J, and A.L. Martin., 2021). Markowitz, recognizing the need for animals to practice species-typical behaviours, added other, naturalistic interventions, such as hunting, scent work, climbing, and foraging. Behavioural engineering later became known as environmental enrichment and has been adopted through law in many captive animal settings, including laboratories, aquariums, and animal rescue centers.
Dogs in the wild will spend much of their time searching, hunting, and scavenging for food, whilst domestic dogs, originally bred to serve a function alongside humans (hunting, scent-work such as tracking, guarding livestock, herding, and for protection), now live often sedentary lives compared to their wild or working counterparts, often spending hours waiting for their owners to come back from work. Spending time alone for such social, intelligent animals can be very boring, and some may find other activities to keep themselves amused (chewing or tearing items, barking, digging, scavenging bins). Even if toys are left out, the dog may show little to no interest. Anxiety can also develop, and depending upon the severity, a range of behavioural symptoms can express their distress (panting, salivating, pacing, destructiveness, inappropriate vocalisations/silence, inappropriate elimination, aggression).