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Too often animal enrichment is viewed as an afterthought by pet owners. But as one NSW veterinarian argues, many pet behaviour problems would be solved if more of their psychological and environmental needs were met. By Tracey Porter
Lockdown taught us all that being safe and being satisfied aren’t always synonymous. Yet too often we forget this also applies to our animal companions.
According to Dr Katie Hankins, many pet owners mistakenly think love is enough when confronted with behavioural issues such as excessive barking, or destructive chewing and digging. Yet in many cases, she argues, these behaviours are symptoms of unmet psychological and environmental needs.
“Post COVID I think we should all reflect on how being locked up at home was safe, but it was often far from stimulating, and we couldn’t wait to have a choice of activities. But many of our pets, particularly our working breeds, are living every day in what we considered ‘lockdown’,” Dr Hankins says.
“We have the power to provide our animals adequate, good or great lives. As vets, medically and surgically we can now provide great health. But are we doing enough to ensure great welfare?”
Following years spent prescribing behavioural medication to dogs that were physically healthy but struggling psychologically, Dr Hankins began to question whether traditional approaches to pet care were addressing the core issue.
Much of the behavioural deterioration she observed stemmed not from illness, but from animals unable to cope with environments that failed to meet their behavioural and cognitive needs.
Drawing on experience gained working in zoos, where enrichment and welfare are central to animal management, the Savvy Pets Behavioural Vets founder identified what she describes as a blind spot in companion animal care: a lack of creativity in how owners think about enrichment.
Most owners, she believes, fail to recognise that dogs, cats, birds and reptiles are effectively captive animals whose lives are tightly regulated by humans. Owners determine what and when they eat, when they exercise, who they socialise with, what they play with and even whether they reproduce.
What we need to do is to look at the five categories of environmental optimisation—social, cognitive, physical, habitat, and sensory and food, and be more mindful and creative in what we provide.
Dr Katie Hankins, founder, Savvy Pets Behavioural Vets
“We love our pets, and they definitely enrich our lives, but I don’t think we do a great job of meeting all their needs,” she argues. “We get set in providing one or two categories of enrichment—a walk to provide physical enrichment and a food puzzle for food/cognitive enrichment. What we need to do is to look at the five categories of environmental optimisation—social, cognitive, physical, habitat, and sensory and food, and be more mindful and creative in what we provide.”
The owner’s role
Dr Hankins, who in addition to being a veterinarian is also an internationally accredited Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant, Associate Certified Cat Behaviour Consultant, and an Elite Fear Free Certified Professional, claims that meaningful enrichment is often less about spending money and more about changing one’s attitude.
“So much enrichment is free and won’t take more time,” she says. “For example, instead of taking your dog out for a 40-minute power march with your earphones in, which is mainly physical enrichment, take the earbuds out and interact with your dog. Sing your Taylor Swift songs to them; that’s social and sensory enrichment. Let them stop and sniff trees, check their ‘pee-mail’, and that becomes sensory and cognitive enrichment as well. It takes the same amount of time and costs nothing.”
Dr Hankins, who spent eight years working in a referral emergency hospital, says the level of enrichment already being provided in emergency care is what vets and pet owners should be aiming for. She notes Feliway and Adaptil diffusers are great sensory enrichment for sick and stressed pets while keeping rabbits, cats and dogs separate is vital to decreasing stress.
“I’d love to see more friendly visits; dogs coming into hospitals for a pat, chat and treat and nothing negative happening. This would help desensitise dogs to veterinary visits and hugely reduce the stress. Then there are activities we could add, depending on the pet. For example, a boisterous post enterotomy labrador could have beef broth pupsicles, cats in hospital could have soft bedding in boxes, guinea pigs could have straw bedding to hide in. There are so many options that are cheap, simple and very effective.”
To bridge the gap between veterinary medicine and behavioural welfare, Dr Hankins has adapted enrichment strategies commonly used in zoos for the companion animal sector and developed a large-scale enrichment resource for pet owners and veterinary professionals alike.
The result is Savvy Enrichment, an app that provides free access to a library of activities and personalised daily enrichment plans tailored to an animal’s species, energy levels and the owner’s available time.
The platform suggests more than 530 activities and allows owners the opportunity to have their activities reviewed by animal enrichment professionals, and to log behavioural changes on a centralised system to enable progress to be shared with the animal’s vet and trainer.
The results can also be used by vets interested in tracking if the meds they are prescribing are improving the pet’s quality of life.
Dr Hankins hopes the launch and uptake of the app, which is still undergoing beta testing, will prompt a broader shift within veterinary care, where enrichment and welfare discussions are integrated into routine consultations rather than treated as optional extras.
“As vets, we all have our own animals and by elevating our pets’ enrichment activities at home, I think we will all see the advantages to welfare and our bond. This will spill over to the recommendations we make to our pet owners.
“I’ll feel very happy if instead of seeing a chihuahua in a handbag, I see the same dog really loving his dog life as a dog rather than an accessory.”
