Cavoodles make wonderful family pets, which have made them one of the most popular dog breeds for Australian households. As a crossbreed of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Miniature or Toy Poodle, most Cavoodles have a very high intelligence, which makes housetraining and obedience training easy. However, it also means that the Cavoodle may get bored easily, as well.
To keep your Cavoodle entertained and mentally stimulated, you will typically turn to enrichment activities. These are actually something most pet parents do on a daily basis – Cavoodle dog training, games and play are all activities that stimulate your Cavoodle’s mind. However, with life being busy for many pet owners, the whip-smart Cavoodle may find that these activities are not enough.
Giving your Cavoodle puzzles to solve, tasks to do, and things to explore can fill that gap, resulting in a more easygoing, gentle and calm dog. Not only will you prevent your Cavoodle from developing destructive behaviours, they’ll be generally happier and more healthy as well.
Enrichment Activities For Your Cavoodle
- Scatter feeding
The simplest and easiest of the enrichment activities is called scatter feeding. It works exactly how it sounds – you scatter your dog’s kibble around an area, instead of placing it in a bowl or other container.
This type of feeding replicates how dogs would naturally find food before being domesticated. Dogs are adept at scavenging for any scrap of food, no matter how small, as most dog owners will attest. Your Cavoodle will have to use their sense of smell to hunt down every last piece, a form of easy scent work.
You can try different approaches to this activity. Try spreading some kibble around your yard or place your dog’s dry food in a towel and let them unfurl it to get their food. There are endless options.
- Sniffing walk
This is just a normal walk, but with a little more time for your Cavoodle to explore and sniff around. Most of the time, when we take our dogs out for walks they’re on a strict timetable. Once in a while it’s good to forget about that and just let your dog sniff to their heart’s content.
Your dog gets a huge amount of information from the scents around them, and sniffing around on a walk is their equivalent of reading the morning newspaper. Sniffing for information not only helps your dog learn about the world around them, but also helps them de-stress.
- Hide-and-seek
Dogs love to hunt, and you can be part of the game as well. All you have to do is get your Cavoodle to sit and stay, then quickly hide somewhere in the house. Call out for your dog and let them try to find you. For dogs just learning this game, it can be helpful for you to bring along a few treats so that they have a scent to lock on to – and you can give them to your Cavoodle as a reward.
There are many more DIY enrichment activities that you can do, or even puzzles and toys you can give to your Cavoodle to keep them entertained. What’s important is that your Cavoodle has lots of outlets for their energy so that they don’t get bored.
