Is most of your training focused on impulse control skills like LEAVE IT, mat/spot STAY, or not jumping on humans during greetings? Or are you working on overcoming reactivity to dogs, people, delivery trucks, etc? Then exercise and enrichment are HUGELY important to your training regimen. 

In impulse control training, we’re asking our dogs to “swim upstream” against their natural impulses. And with good reason! These skills help our canine companions successfully navigate the human world. But if we only work on these skills, you’re bottling up a lot of energy and natural impulses, and making it harder for your dog to be successful at this training. 

We need to give your dog an outlet to “swim with the current” of their natural impulses in a way that’s appropriate and safe.

If you’re thinking, “Ok, but I do provide my dog with exercise and enrichment! I walk them often and give them stuffed Kongs and bones to chew!” That is GREAT, but for many dogs, the most enriching and tiring activity you can do is sniffing!

Oodles of scientific studies emphasize the power of a dog’s nose, some concluding that their sense of smell is as much as 100,000 times better than a human’s. And with so much of their brain dedicated to this sense, if we’re not exercising that part of the brain on a regular basis, we’re missing out on a huge opportunity for enrichment and letting your dog follow their natural impulses.

So what I suggest you add to your weekly routine this month is SNIFFARI’S, which is a cute term the internet has given to walks or adventures that are 100% focused on letting your dog sniff to their heart’s content. Three ways I suggest you can do this:

1. Change your Expectations with your Daily Walk.  Don’t have a specific route or distance in mind for your neighborhood walk. Let your dog go at their own pace (within reason) and sniff whatever they want to as long as they want to, as long as it’s not a safety risk! When 40% of your walking time is up, turn around and head back. Leaving that extra 10% of your time for the way back makes extra sure you don’t rush them if the sniffs on the way back happen to be extra interesting. Also, separate the parts of the walk that are focused on exercise, enrichment, and sniffing from the parts where you want to focus on leash manners. For a block at a time, work on loose leash walking with cues like SWING and tactics like direction changes, but then say your dog’s release word, and let them sniff for the next block or two. Or, you can use the second half of your walk to focus on loose leash walking, because you’ll be more successful with your dog at this time than at the beginning of the walk before their needs have been met.
2. Long Line Walks in a Park or Open Space.  Studies have shown that with a 16ft leash, dogs sniff up to 3x longer than when they are on a 5ft leash. So, if sniffing is your goal for the walk, get a longer leash! For safety reasons, I suggest you drive to a local park or open space before switching to a long leash. A long lead also makes it a nicer walk for you because you don’t have to follow your dog to sniffs in inconvenient places, and you can keep a nice, consistent human pace and avoid getting frustrated with constantly waiting on your dog’s sniffing. It also makes it clearer to the dog when it’s time for their loose leash walking manners and when it’s sniffari time. For some great guides on how to handle a long lead and more reasons why this is a great walking style, see this article.
3. Skip the Walk and Book a SniffSpot.  I often feel the need to tell friends and clients that I swear I don’t work for the Sniffspot.com marketing team; I just genuinely love it. This is a unique online service where homeowners with a yard or dog play space post their “spot,” and dog owners can rent it by the hour or half-hour for their dog to sniff, play, run or train. Spots usually cost between $5-25 for an hour. Some spots outside of Denver are upwards of 20 acres! There are fully fenced options as big as 4 acres! But even if you only go to a small space near your home, it’s going to be way more interesting and sniffable for your dog than their own backyard. I guarantee the first 10-20 minutes in a new spot will be pure sniffing. In my opinion, this is hands down the best option for sniffing enrichment for reactive dogs, because there are filters on the site that let you choose a fenced space where your dog won’t see or hear any other dogs, humans or animals, so your enrichment and de-stressing outing won’t unexpectedly become a stressful event for your sensitive pooch. I also love this if your pup has made a best friend in Barks and Rec. class or otherwise, you can come to a space like this together and let your dogs run, play, and sniff in a neutral environment. 

So mix up your routine this month and get your dog some extra sniffing opportunities, and pay attention to how their behavior and training progress are affected. And if you ever have questions about Sniffspots or sniffing enrichment, reach out to the Good Dog, DYNO team for more tips on how to make this work for your dog!