The term Free Work is associated with Sarah Fisher and her Animal Centred Education approach to dog training and behaviour. Loosely, Free Work for dogs involves setting out different types of dog-safe objects in an appropriate space, whether that’s a small kitchen floor, or a larger area. The objects must not be scary to the individual dog, as the idea is that the activity is calming, and a positive addition to their day. Encouraging sniffing and exploratory behaviour we can help to boost dogs’ moods, without getting them over-excited.

Use small treats, and/or food toys where the food is easy access such as snuffle mats or licki mats. Lay out different surfaces for them to walk on, different easily reachable heights and use different smells too!

See the video at the bottom of the page for an example set up.

Engage the Senses – gentle sensory stimulation for dogs

Think about how to calmly engage your dogs sense of smell, hearing, touch, taste and sight.

Smell examples:

• Borrow a dog toy from a friend
• Borrow a cat blanket from a friend
• Place a nice smelling, dog friendly plant nearby (e.g. lavender, if your dog won’t ingest it!)
• Various boxes with holes in, containing e.g. herbs, sheep wool, other animal bedding
• Things you can bring home from outings such as twigs, stones etc

Other senses examples:

• Play some calming music in the background
• Play birdsong, rain or trickling stream sounds (so long as your dog is relaxed with this)
• Different textures to walk on such as fake grass, carpet tiles, rubber mat, foam
• Something to walk underneath, perhaps with a blanket draped over which touches your dog
• Different flavours of treat, spreadable treats, crunchy treats, vegetables/fruit/meat/cheese
• Different types of objects, different shapes and heights

Remember that the idea is to calmly stimulate them, but not overwhelm them, so don’t change too much in one go!

Check out the video below for an example Free Work set up, and further information on considerations and the benefits.

Free Work is not limited to just dogs! You can do this with lots of different animals. Think about their species needs and natural behaviours and abilities to shape the types of objects and foods you provide. All our animals need appropriate sensory enrichment on a daily basis and this is a great way of providing it.

Check out zoo enrichment for other great ideas and research your pet’s natural environment and behaviour patterns to get inspired!

If you want to find out more about how to incorporate Free Work and other enrichment in to your dog’s behaviour or training programme then don’t hesitate to ask! With the recent online training revolution, training can be anywhere in the world as long as you have your dog, and a device with an internet connection! Get in touch to see how I can help https://weteachpets.com/contact-me/