Written by Ashlie Adams, M.S. ABA | DN-CET | Founder, Canine Brain Games
In this post:
- Why the word “enrichment” gets misused — and what that costs your dog
- What dog enrichment actually is, according to behavior science
- Why the distinction between enrichment as an object vs. an outcome changes everything
- What agency has to do with it — and why it matters more than most people realize
- How to know if what you’re offering your dog is actually enriching them
- Where play style fits into all of this
You’ve probably bought something labeled “enrichment” before.
A puzzle toy. A lick mat. A snuffle mat. A treat dispenser. Maybe a whole basket of them. You set it up, your dog investigated it for thirty seconds, walked away, and went back to the thing they’d been doing before — which was probably something you’d rather they didn’t do.
And somewhere in that moment you might have thought: my dog doesn’t like enrichment.
Here’s what I want to offer instead: your dog doesn’t dislike enrichment. They just didn’t find it in that object.
That distinction is small on the surface. But it changes everything about how you approach what your dog needs — and why they do what they do.
The Problem With “Enrichment Toys”
Walk into any pet store and you’ll find an entire section labeled enrichment. Puzzle feeders, foraging mats, treat-dispensing balls, slow feeders, chew toys, sensory items. All marketed under the same umbrella.
The word has become a product category. And that’s where things start to go sideways.
Because enrichment was never meant to describe an object. It was meant to describe an outcome.
Enrichment is not a toy. Enrichment is not an activity. Enrichment is what happens — the outcome — when an animal’s behavioral and psychological needs are met in a meaningful, appropriate way.
That’s not a semantic argument. It has real implications for what you offer your dog, how you offer it, and whether it actually does what you’re hoping it will do.
A puzzle toy sitting on the floor is not enrichment. A dog who is genuinely engaged with that puzzle toy — using their senses, problem-solving, working through a behavioral need that fits how they’re wired — might be experiencing enrichment. The object created the opportunity. The outcome is what matters.
Where the Definition Comes From
The concept of enrichment in animal care comes from behavioral science — specifically it was first introduced as a concept by psychobiologist Robert Yerkes in 1920 for primates in captivity.
The research kept arriving at the same conclusion: animals need more than food, water, shelter, and absence of pain. They need opportunities to engage in the behaviors they’re biologically wired for. To express their instincts. To interact with their environment in ways that are meaningful to them as the species — and the individual — they are.
For dogs, that includes sniffing and foraging. Chasing and pursuing. Chewing and mouthing. Carrying and cuddling. Problem-solving and making choices about how to engage with their environment.
When those needs get met in appropriate ways, something shifts. Not because the dog has been trained or corrected or tired out. Because a behavioral need was fulfilled.
That fulfillment is enrichment. The toy, the mat, the activity — those are tools that may or may not produce it depending on whether they fit the individual dog.
The Part Most People Miss: Agency and Choice
There’s a second piece of the definition that gets left out of most enrichment conversations, and it’s one I feel strongly about.
Real enrichment isn’t just about meeting behavioral needs. It’s about giving your dog genuine agency in how they meet them.
Enrichment means your dog has real choice in how they engage — not just access to a stimulating object, but genuine participation in the interaction on their own terms.
This matters because a dog who is forced through an activity, pressured to engage with something they’re uncertain about, or given no say in when to stop isn’t really being enriched — even if the activity itself could be enriching under other circumstances.
Think about the difference between scattering food in the grass and letting your Forager hunt at their own pace versus standing over them saying “sniff it! sniff it!” as they try to figure out if this is safe. Same activity. Completely different experience for the dog.
Agency sounds like a big concept but in practice it looks like this: offering the activity and letting the dog decide how to engage with it. Not requiring participation. Not pushing through reluctance. Trusting that a dog who is genuinely enriched will lean in — and that a dog who walks away might be telling you something about fit.
We love snuffle mats here and each one of my dogs approaches them in their way. One of my dogs will pick up the snuffle mat, shake it until all of the food is out of it an scattered across the floor. I use to think she was frustrated and didn’t want to use it. I was wrong. That was just her way of using the item.
How did I know it wasn’t frustration? She would pull it out of the closet when she wanted to use it, and just about every time she would do the same thing. She was focused and knew just how she wanted to handle the problem in front of her. She was communicating to me that she enjoys this, but in her own way. She also felt safe enough in the environment to use it in the way she wanted.
How to Know If Your Dog Is Actually Being Enriched
This is the most practical question, and the answer is simpler than most people expect.
Watch your dog.
A dog who is genuinely engaged with something that meets their needs looks different from a dog who is going through the motions. They’re focused — not distracted, not looking for an exit. They’re working at it. They come back to it.
And afterward, they settle in a way that’s qualitatively different from being tired. It’s not the collapse of exhaustion. It’s the quiet of a need that’s been met.
Here are some questions worth asking:
Does the activity fit how my dog is actually wired? A Forager working a snuffle mat is meeting a real need. A Chaser doing the same activity is just waiting for something to move. Same mat. Completely different outcome depending on the dog.
Does my dog have a real choice in how they engage? Or are you managing the interaction, redirecting, insisting? Real engagement tends to look voluntary.
What does my dog look like after? More settled than before, or just done with something that didn’t quite land?
Does my dog come back to it? Or does it join the pile of things they investigated once and walked away from?
The answers to those questions will tell you more about whether something is working than any label on the package will.
Why Play Style Is the Missing Piece
Here’s where this all comes together.
If enrichment is an outcome — not an object — then the question becomes: how do you consistently produce that outcome for your specific dog?
The answer is knowing how they’re wired.
At CBG, we organize enrichment around four play styles: Forager, Chaser, Chewer, and Cuddler. These aren’t personality types or training categories. They’re descriptions of how a dog is primarily oriented toward engaging with their environment — what kind of behavioral need is driving most of what they do.
A Forager needs to hunt through scent. A Chaser needs to work through a movement sequence. A Chewer needs sustained oral work that regulates their nervous system. A Cuddler needs soft textures and comfort items that meet a specific instinctive draw.
When the activity matches the play style, enrichment becomes consistent and predictable. You stop guessing. You stop buying things that join the ignored pile. You start seeing what a dog who gets what they actually need looks like.
The toy doesn’t produce enrichment. The right activity, matched to the right dog, offered in a way that gives them genuine agency — that’s what produces enrichment. Play style is how you know what “right” means for your dog.
A Note on What Enrichment Can and Can’t Do
One more thing worth saying clearly, because it gets glossed over in a lot of enrichment content.
Enrichment is a powerful tool. When a dog’s behavioral needs are consistently met in appropriate ways, a lot of the behaviors that were driving everyone in the household crazy tend to fade — not because we addressed the behavior directly, but because we met the need underneath it. We built trust with our dog and provided a safe environment for them to learn and play.
But enrichment isn’t a substitute for professional behavioral intervention when it’s needed. If your dog is experiencing significant anxiety, reactivity, or behavioral challenges that are affecting their quality of life, enrichment is something to do alongside working with a qualified professional — not instead of it.
Enrichment and training go hand in hand. The Barkive is built around that relationship, not as a replacement for it.
Start Here
If you’re not sure where to start — or you’ve been offering enrichment and it hasn’t been landing the way you hoped — the most useful first step is knowing your dog’s play style.
The free CBG play style quiz takes 2 minutes and tells you whether your dog is a Forager, Chaser, Chewer, or Cuddler — plus what that means for the activities and enrichment that actually fit them.
→ Take the free quiz at caninebraingames.dog/play-style-quiz
Or if you want to dig into the full play style breakdown before you quiz, start here:
About Ashlie Adams
Ashlie is the founder of Canine Brain Games and a certified canine enrichment technician (DN-CET) with a Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis. She worked as a clinical counselor working with children before drawing a parallel that changed how she approached dogs: the same principles that helped kids navigate hard things — understanding behavior as communication, meeting needs rather than suppressing them — applied to dogs too. CBG was built from that shift, and from 20+ years of working alongside behaviorally complex rescue dogs. She is not a certified dog trainer, but has worked closely with many trainers throughout her career.
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