We recently had the opportunity to speak with Laurie Horn, CPDT-KA, from Sniffing Out Solutions about how scent work can benefit sheltered dogs.
Dogs have 100,000 times more scent receptors than people. The largest lobe of their brains is dedicated to interpreting olfactory input. In other words, dogs “see” the world around them through their noses.
Most animal shelters are filled with negative scents, other dogs, other species of animals, and cleaning products. Some even use bleach, which can cause nose blindness.
Allowing dogs access to positive scents, and to use their noses to understand their environment, can be extraordinarily impactful for their well-being in any situation and particularly in the shelter where so many things about their day-to-day lives are upended from a typical home life. Scent work can also build confidence and induce a sense of calm. It can be particularly helpful for cruelty-case dogs and long-term-stay dogs that are facing behavioral deterioration.
How can scent work be incorporated into the daily routine in a shelter environment? There are numerous ways to include scent enrichment that won’t significantly add to the tasks of staff and volunteers.
For example, ditch the built-in bowls and replace them with slow feeders and in-kennel enrichments like peanut butter filled Kongs. Give dogs scented toys in their kennels. Dogs will often ignore unscented toys, making them less useful for enrichment.
Your building can be an asset too. The training room is an ideal place for scent work. A small investment of time for each dog, as little as five to ten minutes each session can be very beneficial. Start with hiding treats around the room. Keep them visible. As a next step incorporate boxes to hide the treats in and eventually under, increasing the level of difficulty as the dogs grow their scent work skills.
Another fairly simple idea is to place small ledges or narrow shelves along the walkways that dogs traverse to go from their kennels to outside walking or play areas. Place treats on these ledges for the dogs to find as they go. This simple bit of scent work will give them something to concentrate on instead of the kennels and other dogs they are passing along the way. Another option would be to make the bottom of the walls magnetic, so metal tins with treats can be placed along the path.
Install a living wall, filled with dog-friendly herbs and plants in an indoor play space. This will require some maintenance, but the benefits, particularly in harsher climates where dogs can’t get outside as much in intense heat or cold, could be immense. A slat wall can work well for this purpose. There are lots of creative ideas online for building and maintaining living walls.
Consider building a sensory garden in an outdoor area away from your parking lot. This has the potential to engage all of a dog’s senses.
- Scent – with herbs and other dog-friendly varietals.
- Touch – the walking surface of the path could be different in different areas, from gravel to grass and beyond.
- Taste – you could incorporate edible plants.
- Sight – dogs could be engaged with views to a safely placed birdhouse, pinwheels or flags.
- Hearing – tranquil sounds from a pond, a fountain or piped in music from a discretely placed speaker.
Other options for this sensory garden include:
- Creating a space for digging, which could also be used to hide treats or toys.
- Including a spot for rolling in the grass.
- Building a pergola or a canopy with a bench for resting in the shade.
In addition, building and maintaining a sensory garden could be a great way to engage a new group of volunteers – ones with a passion for plants and gardening.
When we are creative, and we try to envision the world from the perspective of the pets we care for, we can use the built environment to make their lives richer and our work more meaningful.
Learn more:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7222336/ – Effects of Olfactory and Auditory Enrichment on the Behavior of Shelter Dogs.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159118300297 – The behavioral effects of olfactory stimulation on dogs at a rescue shelter.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159119301868 – The scent of enrichment: Exploring the effect of odour and biological salience on behaviour during enrichment of kennelled dogs.
