Channel Your Dog’s Need to Forage

big kongYou work for your food.  So should your dog.

If our domestic dogs lack anything, it is the need to tap into the ‘seeking and searching’ part of the brain.  When dogs hunt, when they forage, when they follow a scent trail – they use the part of their brains called the hypothalamus.

This is the part of the brain humans use when we hunt, when we shop.  Scientists believe that people who are addicted to shopping – yes, that is an actual behavior diagnosis – are actually addicted to using this seeking and searching part of the brain.

Human psychologists believe that when people shop (ladies), it is not the actual having of the material item, it is the process of seeking for and acquiring the item that is most rewarding.  After we acquire the item (a new amazing pair of pumps), we experience momentary high.  Our brain is flush with serotonin and our need to seek and search is temporarily satiated.

But after some time, this part of our brain demands to be exercised.  It wants to forage.  And so, we grab our wallets and head to the store.

Likewise, dogs wish to seek.  Give your dog the opportunity to do so by putting his morning kibble in plastic milk carton with two 1/2″ holes in the side or in a kong wobbler.   Click this link for a video of my puppy using his seeking and searching brain.

 

 

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