Have you ever had a chance to watch wild dogs and observe how they spend their days? Well, they spend most of their waking hours roaming around and looking for food. They forage and they hunt, using mainly their noses to track food.
Now think of your beloved dog. You feed him once or twice a day, right? You have your routine, and the meals are served at more or less the same times every day. Most people still use bowls, and eating a meal from a bowl takes a few minutes at most, several maybe if you use a slow feeder.
Given that adult dogs need 12-14 hours of sleep a day, it leaves 10-12 waking hours. In the wild, dogs would spend most of that time sniffing around, scavenging, and hunting. But not our pet dogs. They have their walks, but these walks last about a couple of hours altogether. Many dog owners don’t realize how important it is for our dogs to sniff and don’t let their dogs engage in this natural behavior. All too often, I see people pulling their dogs away from a patch of grass where their dogs dipped their noses.
10-12 hours is a lot of time, and most of it our dogs spend at home. They get bored, and bored dogs are like bored toddlers – they cause problems. They might start chewing on things they shouldn’t chew, as chewing is a natural dog behavior. They might start destroying things because boredom leads to frustration. They might start exhibiting all sorts of behaviors we don’t accept, even though some of these behaviors are completely natural for dogs.
And here is where snuffle toys come in handy. First of all, they allow dogs to satisfy their most basic need – foraging for food. Dogs see the world through their noses. Smell is the most developed sense in our canine companions. Dogs have 300 million olfactory receptors, compared to about six million in humans. A dog’s nose is a very complex apparatus, and our dogs love using it. With snuffle toys, dogs can use this most sensitive sense – smell – outside their feeding times to find some extra food, which they love!
According to scientists, 15-20 minutes of snuffling burns as much energy as an hour-long walk. So snuffling wears dogs out – in a positive way, of course. Snuffle toys can greatly help you if, for some reason, longer walks are impossible: when the weather makes it impossible or even dangerous to take a dog outside, when a dog has some health issues and has to be immobilized, or even when you have a very busy time at work.
Snuffle puzzles are great boredom busters – they keep dogs occupied while stimulating their brains (and that has a long-term effect on dogs’ welfare), they make them happy (who wouldn’t like those extra yummy treats, right?), and relaxed. My dogs love taking naps after their snuffling sessions, and it shows that this kind of activity really helps burn excess energy.
As a professional dog behaviorist, I love using snuffle toys in the therapy of fearful dogs. These toys help build confidence in dogs – this is what solving problems does to dogs. My own dog, Nutka, is living proof of that – when I adopted her about six years ago, she was afraid of pretty much everything. I’ve used various means to help her overcome her fears, and finally, brainwork for dogs (all these snuffle toys, puzzles, treat toys, snuffle mats, solving problems to attain food) did its magic!
Now, if you ask me as a dog mom – I say yes, my dogs need their snuffle toys as they make them happy, busy, fulfilled. I see how much they love snuffling, I see their excitement when I reach for snuffle mats. I see how relaxed they are afterwards. As a behaviorist I highly recommend getting some snuffle toys for your pup. They are great for dogs off all ages – puppies, adolescents, adult dogs, and seniors; for dogs with disabilities (blind, deaf, CH and with many other neurological issues, paralyzed or otherwise immobilized to name a few) and behavioral problems – I successfully use them as supportive therapy of fearful dogs. And most of all – snuffle toys are a great way to satisfy dogs’ most natural need – foraging for food. This way we can compensate for what our dogs have lost in the process of domestication.
