A dog’s nose is a powerful tool, it’s used to find missing people, detect drugs and explosives but the greatest thing it can do is enrich your dog’s life. As professional dog walkers were hired to exercise a client's dog and most often both parties key in on the physical aspect of the dog walk and ignore or maybe even feel aggravation about the mental aspect of Fido’s time outside the confines of his yard. I know when I find myself repeating to all our dog walker trainees that it’s his walk not yours so you must allow him the luxury of sniffing. I always like to look at the dog walk as a time for a dog’s mental and physical enrichment and as a professional walker I know I’m his guardian but also his tour guide. I’ve learned to enjoy my walk through the dog’s satisfaction. It’s his time to meet the neighbors (by scent), sniff the “social media” and catch up on the latest happenings of the neighborhood. 

Enrichment is important to the mental health of your dog. The term “canine enrichment” refers to the “practice of providing a dog with objects and opportunities that improve his overall quality of life.” Most of the practices devote time to natural, instinctual activities with some sort of physical activity included. 

Remember it’s all about balance and whoever said a tired dog is a good dog is absolutely correct, but they needed to go a step further and say a physically and mentally tired dog is a balanced dog. As a pet sitter and dog walker it’s part of my job to keep my charges enriched. Something as simple as taking a new route or walking in a new area does amazing things for both your dog’s and your brain. Sometimes it’s too hot or cold to walk outside for long periods of time so it’s up to me to create games that will work the dog mentally. These can be easy games you devise with rewards being kibble or high value treats. One of my favorite treats are Hebrew National Hot Dogs cut up in tiny pieces and frozen in snack bags so they’re ready to grab and go. These can be wonderful, high value rewards for training, distraction or nose work while on our walks. If I need to distract a reactive, a few pieces of treat or kibble thrown on the ground while another dog/person passes is a great diversion away from the “intruder”. I love when it snows, and my walk takes me to fresh snow where I can throw a small number of treats into the snow and watch him use that powerful nose tool to dig through the snow to locate his reward. 

If the weather won’t cooperate, urge your clients to invest in puzzles, lickimats and snuffle mats that you can use indoors to challenge his problem-solving ability and earn his reward. Don’t have access to these tools? Simply take a valued reward and hide it somewhere in the room and have him “find It” or even easier hide a treat in one hand and have him figure out which hand it’s in. These games will allow him to work out some of the energy he has built up by using his mind and it will challenge you to be a better dog walker/trainer/tour guide for your client. A dog’s brain responds to the stimulus of problem-solving and the scents that he detects will help him meet his mental needs. I like to think I’m as tired on a day that I had to problem solve as I am on a day that I had 6 dog walks. It’s a different tired, but tired, nonetheless. As a result of your concentration on the dog’s mental health and enrichment as well as your physical activity with him I believe your clients will see a more well-balanced dog.

Yvette Gonzales, As You Wish, LLC

NAPPS Past President and NAPPS Volunteer