#148 - You’re Getting Enrichment Wrong

You’re getting enrichment wrong.
Yeah, we said it. (Lovingly.)

In this episode, Emily and Allie unpack why enrichment so often feels overwhelming, guilt-inducing, or impossible to “do right.” Spoiler alert: it’s not because you’re failing. 

We talk about what enrichment actually is (and what it definitely isn’t), why novelty and fancy setups are optional, and how separating “training,” “management,” and “enrichment” can make behavior change harder than it needs to be. Allie and Emily share real stories from real animals and real clients to show how meeting needs creates an environment for learning, better outcomes, and way less pressure on everyone involved.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re not doing enough for your pet (or your clients), this episode is your reminder that enrichment isn’t about doing more. Enrichment is about doing what matters.

TLDL (too long, didn’t listen): 3 Key Takeaways 

1️⃣ Enrichment isn’t defined by novelty, toys, or aesthetics. – If it reduces harm, improves welfare, and helps an animal meet their needs, it’s enrichment. If it doesn’t work for the individual in front of you, it isn’t enrichment. No matter how “correct” it looks on paper or online.

2️⃣ Training works better in an enriched environment. – Enrichment isn’t an add-on or a bonus. When needs are met, training gets easier, clients follow through more, and behavior change becomes sustainable.

3️⃣ You don’t have to be perfect – Real-world enrichment happens within real-world constraints. Shifting from guilt and comparison to curiosity and problem-solving is often the most impactful change you can make.

For the full episode show notes, including the resources mentioned in this episode, go here.

More from Pet Harmony

Pet Parents: enrichment ideas and practical behavior tips
📸 Instagram & Facebook: @petharmonytraining

Pet Pros: relatable moments and support for your work with pets and their people
📸 Instagram & TikTok: @petharmonypro

📬 Sign up for our weekly newsletter: https://petharmonytraining.com/join/

Subscribe & Review

If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to subscribe and review. It helps more pet parents and pros find us—and makes our tails wag every time. Thanks for being here! 💛

 If you're a pet professional, and you're done questioning whether you belong every time something feels hard, join FREE How to Tell Your Imposter Syndrome to Sit, Stay, & Eff Off webinar. Register at https://petharmonytraining.com/imposterwebinar/

Transcript

[00:00:00] Emily: I was told that. Every dog has to learn these 16 skills first before we can start working on the actual issue. But I can't get my clients to do it, and I feel like I am a terrible professional because I can't get my clients to do it. And I can't tell you how many times, I don't have to tell you audience. I can't tell you how many times we, the mentors are like, it's not you, baby.

You are. You're doing great. The reason that you can't get your clients to do that is because that is not a thing that you should ever have to try to make people do, because if you're looking at this through an enrichment framework, the only skills that you should be training are ones that help you to reach the goals of reducing harm, improving welfare and wellbeing, and meeting physical, emotional, and behavioral needs.

So. The reason that you feel like a failure is because somebody taught you something that's really, really impractical and unrealistic and, and not, and not, not really doable. 

[00:01:09] Allie: Welcome to Enrichment for the Real World, the podcast devoted to improving the quality of life of pets and their people through enrichment. We are your hosts, Allie Bender...

[00:01:27] Emily: ...and I'm Emily Strong...

[00:01:28] Allie: ...and we are here to challenge and expand your view of what enrichment is, what enrichment can be and what enrichment can do for you and the animals in your lives. Let's get started.

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Enrichment for the Real World, and I want to thank you for rating, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:01:48] Emily: All right. We need to talk. You're getting enrichment wrong. Yeah, I said it. I went there. I chose violence. I'm kicking off this episode with some, some spice. But it's not just you, it's all of us. We all do it. Don't feel bad. I'm gonna tell you a story about when I was still running Austin Parrot Society back in the day, and my landlord helped me convert my garage into a bird room, and I had my six birds in there, and then I also had six.

Cages for foster birds. So had a total 12 birds in this room and I spent an entire weekend like decking the garage slash bird room out in like the fanciest ways. It was so much work. I was so creative, I was so proud of it. I took a ton of pictures and I posted them online and in the Austin Parrot Society. Forums and I was like, look at this fancy bird room. I made an enriching space. Look at me. Go. And then I moved the birds into the room and zero of the birds interacted with any of the stuff.

They were all like, what is going on with this space? It is so extra. Like, what are you even doing? What are we supposed to do with this space? I don't understand. This is loud. I, it's like, you're at a 30 and I need you at a seven. Right? I was like, okay. Ouch. Duly noted. Okay. I have been adequately chastised by these 12 birds who are all like, unanimously telling me that this is not it, that this is not enrichment.

And I was like, okay, cool. So I had to keep tweaking it and tweaking it until I got to a place that the space was actually usable for them and that they actually enjoyed using it, and they did the things so that enrichment could actually happen. So I also get enrichment wrong sometimes. It is really common for us as humans to take that prescriptive approach and think in our heads, like have a hypothesis of like.

This object is meant to be an enrichment toy and it's meant to achieve this outcome. So I'm going to provide this and ta-da enrichment has happened. And then, the, the thing about the descriptive part of this, what makes it a descriptive process rather than a prescriptive process, is assessing outcomes.

Being like actually. None of the birds were enriched at all by my first attempt at packing that garage full of stuff, and so it was not in fact enrichment. So, yeah there are lots of fancy enrichment, like food puzzle toys out there, and there are lots of Pinterest worthy activities. And I would say that my first attempt at the bird room was packed, chock full of fancy food puzzle toys and, and, and it was very Pinterest worthy.

And also it was not enrichment at all. So today we're diving into what enrichment really is, what it isn't, and how understanding that difference can change everything for you and your pet. So many pet parents and professionals. By the way, I'm not picking on just the pet parents. We pros do it too. We feel like we're failing at enrichment because.

We can't keep up with the trends or the toys or the complex plans. We see other people posting their videos of doing this fancy schmancy training or taking their dogs to agility competitions every weekend. And we're like, man, I'm failing my pet 'cause I don't do that stuff. But the truth is, enrichment isn't about doing more, it's about meeting needs, better about making sure that.

Our animals have as much agency as possible, which means giving them the skills that they need to make good choices in the environment that they live in, reducing harm, improving welfare and wellbeing and making sure that they can live a life as close to what they would be living without human interference as possible.

Their current reality. So by the end of this episode, you'll understand how enrichment fits into your daily life, how it ties directly into training, and why it's not optional. If you care about your pet's wellbeing and your wellbeing, and if you're a behavior professional, your client's wellbeing and their success.

I feel like this really enrichment is like a lot of things where social media has hijacked the concept and just become like keeping up with the Joneses exercise and like being marketed to, to be like, who's the best little consumer? And it's become really forge. Nope. For forecast is not a word. I'm gonna try that again. I ally your face right now. What?

[00:07:20] Allie: Become very forecast like. Like I just, it just, I went, I went all the way back to. Gulliver's travels where there's a kingdom that eats the egg from the, the small end and the kingdom that eats the egg from the large end. And it's like a hilarious satirical commentary on religion in whatever time that was in whatever country that was. Ireland, uk, I don't know, something over there. And so my brain went full for, versus like spooned.

[00:07:55] Emily: That explains your face, and also I'm here for it. I,

[00:07:59] Allie: I thought you would be.

[00:08:01] Emily: I'm here for like, setting up a fake war between for guests and ISTs. Okay. Back on track. Why was I talking about forecast? I forgot what I was originally saying. 

[00:08:10] Allie: I don't actually know what you were saying before. Before this. 

[00:08:15] Emily: All right. I'll try to get back on track. It's not you. I was the one who invented the word forecast. Here we go. I've got this. I can do this. So we can be really what is happening happened? I was almost on track All.

[00:08:29] Allie: Sorry, I'm just waving my little nos around.

[00:08:34] Emily: They are those physical therapy or, or just stress reduction?

[00:08:38] Allie: Stress reduction.

[00:08:39] Emily: They are delightful. I almost had it. I can get it back. Here we go.

[00:08:43] Allie: Sorry, I'll wave my NS off screen. 

[00:08:46] Emily: Okay. Sounds good. Okay, I got this. All right.

We can get really focused on trying to be. As good as somebody else or trying to meet these, like, fake expectations on social media. And I feel like that's it. Well, no, I don't feel like, I know it is definitely not just an enrichment thing, right? Like it, there's the, the keeping up with the Jones' thing is a problem on social media with everything, with how your body looks, with how you do your makeup, with going on vacations, everything.

And I feel like enrichment has just been yet another victim of the social media keeping up with the Joneses. Like garbage. How do you feel about that? Fight me or don't fight me.

[00:09:29] Allie: Don't, I don't. Agree with you.

[00:09:39] Emily: Excellent. I'm glad. It's almost like we wrote this book together or something.

[00:09:44] Allie: Yeah. Well, okay. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna not fight you, but have an a dunum. That is, that is 

contradictory. 

[00:09:55] Emily: Yes. Okay. I'm here for it. Do it. Let's go.

[00:09:57] Allie: You're choosing so much violence today, and that is very normal. And I just, I, I just can't rise to the occasion.

That is fair. That is fair. What I will say, and those, those of you who know me well, know that I am one of the last people to, to. Bestow compliments upon social media. What I will say is that for people who are just starting their enrichment journey, maybe they haven't uh, had the, the. Vast experience. They haven't had experience with other species in which environmental enrichment is just like the norm. It's the thing that you do. It's, it's not contested at all. One of the nice things about social media is giving you ideas of different ways to do things.

We, we talk so often about how you can. Essentially like how once you know the rules, you can come up with ideas on your own. And also I think those examples can be really helpful for people to start trial and eval so they can, they can learn the rules and internalize the rules.

[00:11:07] Emily: Yeah, for sure. That, that's a great point. And I think it, it was an important one to bring up because it's not that I. Social media is bad and people shouldn't share what they're doing with their pets because other people might feel bad about it. That's, that's not the message at all. It's just we need to bring the focus back to what we're doing and why we're doing it, and that this isn't a competition for who can enrich their pet the most.

It's about making individual assessments for your pet and your household in your. Environment based on your constraints and your pet's constraints, which has literally nothing to do with anybody else. And also, we, we share the good stuff on social media. So you don't see all the ways that the people who are posting their agility competition videos every weekend also feel like they are struggle busing.

To meet their pet's needs, right? So it's not so much about controlling what other people do on social media, it's more about shifting our mindset about what enrichment is and how to engage with the stuff on social media. Don't let the keeping up with the Joneses tendencies trip you up is the, is the take home point.

So let's, let's get into some nitty gritty examples of of that. I'm gonna pause having literally just started talking again. There are knots snap, there's a knot. There is a single unifying knot.

[00:12:48] Allie: 'Cause otherwise it's harder to do this, you 

[00:12:52] Emily: Right. Yeah. By the way, you no longer have to do that off screen because now that I know what it is and I know what to expect from it,

[00:13:01] Allie: It's not distracting anymore. What I should probably actually do is go get a coloring book. That would probably be a a, a less distracting 

[00:13:09] Emily: Do your thing. Whatever you need to do to take care of your body and your your person. I am, I support you. Also, you no longer need to worry about it because it was just, I was just reacting to the, the novelty, the lack of predictability and the novelty, and now that it is both predictable, wait, nope, that's not right. Now that it is predictable and no longer novel, I I will not react to it anymore.

[00:13:38] Allie: Which I think is a great segue into why you don't have to recreate the wheel every time you try to enrich your pets. 

[00:13:46] Emily: Yes, that's true. That's true. I think I had a really good conversation with Christina Spalding about this at a conference that she and I spoke at, I, I don't know when, some time ago. Time has no meaning. She had talked a lot about the. So she spoke first and then it was my turn. And in her presentation she spoke, talked a lot about the research that had been done on novelty and its role in enrichment.

And I was like, I'm here for that. Yes. Cool. And then when it was my turn to present, I was talking about how we're defining enrichment and that novelty is not a definition of enrichment. But I didn't say it that way. I don't remember how I phrased it. I think I said like, enrichment isn't about novelty.

That, that sounds like what I would say. And Christina was like, well, but all these like all this research showing that novelty is enriching, and, and I was like, yes, for sure. Not saying that novelty isn't enriching. What I'm saying is that enrichment is not defined by novelty, and sometimes in some cases, novelty is not at all enriching. If you think about, oh my gosh, there's three knots now, 

[00:15:04] Allie: The knots are still exciting. 

[00:15:06] Emily: The knots are still exciting because they're still novel. The not the new knots are novel and therefore they are exciting. But if you have an animal who is a little concerned about new things, like if novelty is distressing, then giving like novelty is, shouldn't really be a part of the enrichment plan.

Except for in these very careful situations where you're helping them to be less distressed by novelty, but you're not doing novelty as a way of delighting them, as a way of getting them to, to like increasing interest. Right. And also even for animals who are not distressed by novelty. Novelty can be fatiguing.

If everything you have to do is something new and you don't get the chance to continue to gain familiarity and skill with a single thing, you're just starting over. Like, okay, let me use an example. I am a language nerd. I love languages. I have a list of like 21 languages I want to learn. I. Got myself a language learning app, and I started a language and I was like, this is fun.

I was like, but I wanna also start this language and then I also wanna start this language. And I got really discouraged and I stopped using the app because I didn't give myself time to actually learn any of the languages. I was just starting new languages over and over and over again. Not enriching.

Not enriching, right? So novelty. Is can be enriching. And also enrichment is not defined by novelty because it's not always enriching. We take a descriptive approach of observing how the individual interacts with novelty, how often novelty is actually enriching for them, if there's such a thing as too much novelty.

And we make our enrichment plans based on those observations. When Miley was a puppy, she was the most novelty seeking animal I have ever worked with. She wanted Ev, like all she cared about was what's new, what's new, what's new, what's new? Now that she's older and she's more experienced and she's seen the world a bit, she just doesn't, she doesn't need as much novelty as she did when she was younger.

She still enjoys novelty in occasionally, but. Her enrichment plan no, is no longer, what's another new thing that I can introduce to this dog? Right? So she's a good example of that.

[00:17:45] Allie: Yeah, so I, I think especially when we're talking to pet parents, a lot of times we're, we're having to talk about those nuances related to novelty and whether that's something that their individual pet needs and how often they need it and, and what context they need it, and all of that good sort of stuff.

I think for professionals, where we talk more frequently is. About not separating en enrichment from training or training from enrichment, where I've, I've seen so many behavior modification plans, training plans, whatever it is that, that you wanna call them, where it's like, here is your enrichment plan and here is your training plan.

And not only is that overwhelming for the client, it also. Creates an unnecessary and sometimes harmful divide between the two things, because realistically, enrichment is setting the context for the animal, being able to learn and perform well during that training session. So when we better meet. Our pet's needs. The training becomes easier, we can do more with the training, all of that. And so it really is, is not separate from, or a bonus or an addition or an if there's time, it's a how do we set this learner up for success, and that's through enrichment.

[00:19:15] Emily: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's something that we really. Work on a lot in Pet Pro is helping people to understand how training should function as enrichment. And we oftentimes, and I know we've talked about this on the podcast before, but oftentimes when people first join Pet Pro, they're like, I was told that.

Every dog has to learn these 16 skills first before we can start working on the actual issue. But I can't get my clients to do it, and I feel like I am a terrible professional because I can't get my clients to do it. And I can't tell you how many times, I don't have to tell you audience. I can't tell you how many times we, the mentors are like, it's not you, baby.

You are. You're doing great. The reason that you can't get your clients to do that is because that is not a thing that you should ever have to try to make people do, because if you're looking at this through an enrichment framework, the only skills that you should be training are ones that help you to reach the goals of reducing harm, improving welfare and wellbeing, and meeting physical, emotional, and behavioral needs.

So. The reason that you feel like a failure is because somebody taught you something that's really, really impractical and unrealistic and, and not, and not, not really doable. There are very few people in the world who get excited when they're like, I get to teach my dog 16 different skills before we work on the issue that I brought came to you about amazing.

Like that's just, there's a very small subset of humans who have that response. So like it's not you. We just need to help you figure out how to look at training and enrichment as pieces of a whole, rather than as separate entities, 

[00:21:13] Allie: My sidebar that does not add value to this conversation, but I'm gonna say it anyway, is when I was working at a different training company, I once had somebody come to me and ask me to help him teach his dog the, the like seven core skills or behavior. I don't, I don't remember what the actual wording was, and I was like, I have literally no idea what you are asking me to, I don't know what you're talking about right now. And then I looked it up and it was like from some TV personality, delio that I don't even remember which one, but like somebody, and I was like, oh, that's what I was being asked to do. Cool. 

[00:21:53] Emily: Yeah. TV is entertainment. It's not real training. That's why it's so important as professionals to understand enrichment deeply and understand. How these puzzle pieces fit together and understand how to use an enrichment framework and think about behavior change through the lens of enrichment because we can't teach clients. How to create sustainable behavior change if we're bogged down in this very labor intensive mindset of we have to give them a management plan and a training plan and an enrichment plan, that's really hard.

Instead, think of it as enrichment being the soil that the training grows in. There's actually been quite a bit of research looking into how enriched environments actually do make. Healthier, more robust learners in the same way that enriched soil gives us really big, fancy bumper crops where you can like, share a photo online of your gigantic pumpkin or whatever, right?

That enriched environments increase neuroplasticity and decrease stress, improve resilience improve an animals. Positive outcome bias. In other words, they have a more optimistic outlook. I'm like, this will probably go well if I make this attempt, it's probably gonna be great. Right? And all of that directly impacts learning and behavior outcomes.

So if. It's really helpful to understand how enrichment and training and management all fit together as pieces of a puzzle because all of these things really do impact each other and make, make each of those components easier when they're working together in harmony instead of being compartmentalized. 

[00:23:46] Allie: So one it's hard for me to come up with one specific story for this because it's like literally over a decade's worth of work doing this with, at this point probably over a thousand animals and, you know, all of that. I remember this one kiddo whose name alludes me, and so I'm gonna call her Elaine. Elaine's parents contacted me because she was reactive on walks through the window, the, the whole kind of general reactivity, delio that, that we see all the time. And as I was talking to them and they were describing when the reactivity got worse in their life and it, it had to do with some, like house layout thing or, or I believe there's also a schedule change in there as well.

And. So, we're talking and I was like, it sounds like Elaine, even though she's fully an adult, you know not, we're not talking puppy, we're not talking adolescent. She was fully an adult. I was like, it sounds like she's kind of an overtired, cranky toddler staring out the screen door, waiting for people to yell at instead of napping.

And what happens if we just. Let her not be near the screen door. And, and then she goes and takes a nap. And I only had a couple of sessions with this family because that was the solution. It was that Elaine was choosing to spend her days being hypervigilant at the, the. Screen, front porch, screen door watching the, the neighborhood watching the sidewalk yelling at everything that walked past.

And when we stopped giving her access to that, she was like, oh, I guess I'll go, just go nap now. And, and that was the solution. Everything else that they were trying to do became so much easier because these clients had been trying things and, and things that. Should have quote unquote worked but weren't working.

And it was because Elaine wasn't prepared to learn. She was, she had an overtired, cranky toddler brain, which I relate to. And, and once we gave her the a better opportunity and space to nap, she took it.

[00:26:03] Emily: I feel like that that is, yes, you're right. That is welcome to Tuesday and we have like years and years and years of welcome to Tuesdays and also. Same for professionals. Like, it's hard to think of one example because we also have what the, the like original beta testing version of the mentorship program was nine years ago.

So we also have like a decade's worth of like, welcome to Tuesday experiences with mentees as well. But same thing where like. Over and over and over again. We see professionals who shift from this, this kind of prescriptive homework list approach to a more descriptive meeting needs through this plan enrichment framework approach see better client follow through and also better client outcomes.

But I think. My favorite was one of the people that in Pet Pro that we lovingly tell them they can never leave. When they first joined, they were like, I have this client who's really struggling with I think it was hand targeting. I'm pretty sure it was hand targeting because it's usually hand targeting.

And the dog didn't wanna touch their nose to whatever the hand or whatever. we were like, why does the dog need hand targeting? What does that have to do with probably resource guarding? Again, I don't remember the details because this is such a welcome to Tuesday thing. Right. And the look on their face was priceless because it was that, look you get when you've been learning stuff in theory and all of the sudden the.

Dots connect to real world practice. Like, oh, this is what we mean when we say descriptive approach. Like, I actually have no idea why I am doing hand targeting with this dog. It has absolutely nothing to do with plan we're working on. And we were like, yeah, cool. If. Hand targeting is not going to help you reach your goal.

You don't need to teach hand targeting in this context. And again, like we've said so many times, we're not anti hand targeting. There are many situations in which it is helpful. It does help us reach the goal. It is an incredibly valuable and flexible tool. Targeting is amazing and also. If it doesn't help you reach the goal in this moment with this animal and their environment, with the actual skills that they need building, don't do it just because it's a really helpful tool that every that, that you've been told every animal needs, right?

And they came back The next time we had like an office hour, they were like, yeah, we got rid of it. And like, we're just focused on the things now and the client's thrilled and the dog's doing it. And we're, we've already made like so much progress and it was like, yes. Yay. Well done. So again, it's hard to come up with specific examples because these are welcome to Tuesday moments.

This brings me to like maybe some myth busting, but I don't know if it's as much myth busting as an exercise in intellectual humility, because if we have learned anything, it's that people have lots of different definitions for enrichment and that includes researchers.

And a lot, not all of them. Some of them are like amazing at Intellectual HU humility and those are the people that we just really love working with and interacting with. But a lot of them are really like, no, I am right. This is what enrichment is. And if you definition does not align with mine, you must be wrong.

I have enjoyed watching academics. Duke it out as to whether or not passive enrichment is the thing. I don't know if y'all know this, but there are some academics that insist that it, it's only enrichment if the animal is behaving to interact with it. And then there are others. I'm saying academics. I should really more accurately say researchers.

And then there are some researchers who insist that enrichment is. That passive enrichment can be a thing that the animal doesn't have to actively engage with it for it to enrich their lives. There are people who militantly insist that it's not enrichment unless it's novel and fun. And by the way, this is not Christina Spalding.

I know I said it. I had a, an earlier example of us talking about how enrichment and novelty relate. She's lovely. She is one of the people that I think everybody could learn some intellectual humility from because she rocks that so hard. But we have definitely had encounters with people who have felt very strongly that we are incorrect in the assertion that enrichment can be as simple as social bonding with your dog through like snuggling or petting.

And, and they feel very strongly that. Nope. Enrichment is only enrichment. If it's about novelty, if it's about expanding their horizons, if it's, blah, blah, blah. We've had people tell us, get like high key mad that we said that Hal Markowitz was the first person who how implemented enrichment.

And, and again, like, yes. Researchers fiddled around with enrichment in laboratory settings before Hal Markowitz. We're not erasing that, that truth. But the assertion that Hal Markowitz isn't the origin of like, how enrichment was in intentionally intended to function.

Our position, the way we feel about it is like all of that laboratory experimental stuff was really important for like the great thing about science sometimes is that it, it's just a futz around and find out process. You don't have to know the value of something to explore it. A lot of times you explore it and discover it first, and then its value becomes apparent later.

And also how Markowitz is the first person who. Found real world applicability of this concept and actually figured out how to make it work for animals in captivity or, or domesticated animals. So, you're going to hear lots of opinions about enrichment and everybody is going to be really, really rooted.

Not everybody. Again, intellectual humility is the goal of this conversation. But a lot of people are going to be very insistent that their definition is right or their view of it is right. But at the end of the day, what I care about. I think it's, I think it's fascinating and beautiful to see researchers talk about passive enrichment.

I think it people who, the researchers who don't think that passive enrichment is enrichment bring up really good points. I think all of that is a really worthwhile conversation to have. And at the end of the day, all of that, humans quibbling about whether or not they're right does not help us bring clarity to what enrichment looks like for us in the real world, on the ground with our animals and ourselves.

So when we're talking about enrichment, it doesn't just have to be for problem behaviors. If you. Are a human being and you share your life with a non-human and you would like to improve your relationship with them, or you would like to introduce more novelty or you would like to find more or better ways to go out and move your bodies together as a social bonding slash physical exercise thing.

Do it. That's enrichment. It's for everybody. Regardless of whether or not you feel like there's a problem in your life, if it's reducing harm and improving welfare and wellbeing, we can call it enrichment. Whether or not there are people on the internet who feel strongly that we're wrong about that, you are good enough, you, your attempts to improve your life with your pet is good enough.

If you are this belief that like. I am doing enrichment because I'm training and therefore I have to keep training more. And if I'm not training more, I'm not enriching my animal, hun. Go easier on yourself. That's, that's not it. Training can be a tool to provide enrichment to Im reduce harm and improve welfare and wellbeing.

But enrichment should be the context in which you are. Utilizing training because it makes your life easier because then you don't have to constantly think of new things to train your pet, that you don't have to keep training or keep coming up with new things to train if that doesn't feel right for you and your learner, if it does not reduce harm and improve welfare and wellbeing.

So I think the, the take home point is have. Intellectual humility and be willing to listen to these conversations and these different opinions. But don't let it get down to the core of yourself. Keep your eyes on the prize. Harm reduction, improving welfare and wellbeing. Whatever you do that works for you is enrichment.

If it's not working for you, it's not enrichment. That's, that's the thing.

[00:35:40] Allie: And if you're a professional working in the training and behavior space, remember that you work in the realm of learning. So enrichment is what prepares everyone, you, your clients, and their pets to learn effectively. 

[00:35:54] Emily: Let's get down into the nitty gritty world. World. What does this look like, pat, parents, when you're hanging out with your animals and, and living your life and you're like, am I enriching my pet? The, the, instead of just feeling guilt and trying to keep up with the Joneses or trying to like figure out which highly opinionated voice on the internet, you need to be listening to just ask yourself where are the needs being met and where aren't they?

Are there unmet needs that I can address? Are there needs that are being met? But I would like to meet them even more. That kind of stuff, right? For professionals. Review your behavior plans. Is enrichment treated as optional or compartmentalized from training and management, or is the training and management a part of a unified cohesive enrichment plan?

[00:36:48] Allie: And not just is it part of, but have you sufficiently. Explain to your clients and verify that they understand how doing those strategies is going to impact their success.

[00:37:04] Emily: Yeah, yeah, for sure. A, an an example with Bandini is. He has to live in our basement for a lot of reasons. Not gonna go into those details, not the point of the story. But the problem with being in the basement is that I can't, I couldn't give him a subterranean burrow because I'm not going to jackhammer a burrow into our foundation. Our house is foundation. That's just not gonna happen. 

[00:37:29] Allie: Well, that's just. You should feel guilty about that.

[00:37:33] Emily: I should feel guilty about that. You're right. But I did observe that he was a lot more reactive to things that were happening in the environment that were just mundane things. Because he didn't have a burrow, and so like I could have done a bunch of training with him.

I could have done like all this counter conditioning stuff, counter conditioning him to Miley counter conditioning him to the washer and dryer, counter conditioning him to the basement door, opening and closing. That would've been a lot of work. Probably would not have solved the problem. Anyway, I got a gigantic box.

I cut a hole in the front and the back. I packed it full of hay. And. He was like, this is a burrow. And I was like, amazing buddy. Like we figured out how to give you a burrow. I didn't have to do a bunch of training with him. I didn't have to do a bunch of really laborious counter conditioning exercises. I just adjusted his environments to give him a thing that rabbits.

Seek out burrowing is a species typical behavior for rabbits. Right. It was a small change that had a huge impact on his behavior and he is so much more calm and relaxed now. He's he sniffs smiley through the fence. He doesn't react at all to the washer and dryer or the, the basement door opening because I was not thinking about it like training and enrichment.

The process was. What enrichment needs to happen here to address the, the, the deficits in the environment. Right. And also, you don't have to be perfect. I have spoken. At least once. I'm pretty sure more than once in recent episodes, or maybe for you, they're gonna be future episodes because we don't record these in order.

So I don't know. Time has no meaning. But I have mentioned that there are things about Bund, Dini's life that I have struggled with feeling enrichment, guilt about like I feel like there are definitely things that I could do better. I could spend more time with him. I could. Work harder to get him outdoors, to get more sunshine.

My enrichment plan with bundini is not perfect. And also you don't have to be perfect. You just have to be intentional. So if you're thinking of enrichment as the baseline of care rather than like an extra credit project it helps you give yourself grace for the real world constraints that you're operating under.

So instead of feeling like a failure, you're like, okay, these are our constraints. How do we work around them? What can we do? Instead of focusing on what you can't do or what you're not doing?

[00:40:14] Allie: So like Emily said, I intentionality is, is really. The crux of what we're talking about today, enrichment planning is how we build sustainable change for pets. People, and we talk about this all the time in Pet Pro for professionals themselves, like we're a part of this equation as well and, and need to be meeting our own needs, enriching our own soil.

[00:40:40] Emily: I love that you separated out professionals from people. I knew what you meant. Pets, pet, parents, and professionals.

[00:40:46] Allie: That's, that was, that was it. But also I feel like I very recently had a conversation in Pet Pro where I was equated to an alien. So an annual planning maybe.

[00:40:59] Emily: I feel that I often feel like I'm an alien too. So maybe, maybe you weren't wrong. Maybe you were right the first time.

[00:41:06] Allie: Maybe professionals are different than people we don't know.

[00:41:12] Emily: We dunno. Delightful. All right.

So to recap, enrichment is not defined by what toys you use or what training you do or novelty or do you have the best like Instagrammable videos and photos of you doing things with your pets. It's not about keeping up with the Joneses. It's about meeting needs, reducing harm, improving welfare and wellbeing.

And when we do that, everything else gets easier, including our, the pressure we put on ourselves, that gets much easier. So if you want to put this into practice, ask yourself what is one need that your pet or your client, or your client's pet, or you, yourself. Might be missing right now. What's one thing that we can do to improve their welfare and wellbeing?

One need that we can meet. And speaking of needs, join us next week as we zoom in on one, often overlooked need in pet care. And while you're at it, check out our blogs. Enrichment isn't about the activity and when enrichment isn't enriching for more guidance. and share this episode with a friend. . 

[00:42:28] Allie: I hope you enjoy today's episode and if there's someone in your life who also needs to hear this, be sure to text it to them right now. If you're a pet parent looking for more tips on enrichment, behavior modification, and finding harmony with your pet, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Pet Harmony training. If you're a behavior or training professional dedicated to enrichment for yourself, your clients, and their pets, check us out on TikTok and Instagram at Pet Harmony Pro.

As always, links to everything we discussed in this episode are in the show notes. Thank you to Ellen Yoakum for editing this episode and making us sound good. Our intro music is from Penguin Music on Pixa Bay. Please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That helps more pet lovers and professionals find us so they can bring enrichment into their world too.

Thank you for listening, and here's to harmony. We, we talk about enrichment being meeting an animal's needs and if you got very little sleep and then were asked to. Speak eloquently on a podcast, you might struggle with that, 

[00:43:35] Emily: We're, We're, definitely not talking about you here. This is just a pure hypothetical.

[00:43:41] Allie: pure hypothetical never happened to me. A day in my life.