For the primary few weeks of his restoration, Hoss went for brief assisted walks 3 times each day. As he recovered and regained bodily energy, the walks elevated and physiotherapy workout routines had been added in. These actions weren’t solely to assist in his therapeutic, but in addition to deal with his bodily enrichment wants and assist tire his physique out!
We opted to additionally give Hoss not less than six different actions every day to go the time. Meals-based enrichment actions are nice to assist fulfill dietary, sensory, occupational and even bodily wants, because the canine must scavenge, sniff, chew, paw at, lick, and in any other case clear up puzzles to entry the tasty meals. Hoss didn’t obtain any meals in an everyday bowl throughout restoration: his meals was scattered in snuffle mats, hidden below objects in a muffin tin, frozen into Kongs or blocks, smeared onto lick mats, and dispersed via gradual feeder and puzzle feeder toys. After all, he additionally chomped on a couple of bully sticks or different chews every week!
For some sensory enrichment not based mostly round meals, Hoss loved (clear) pop bottles crammed with completely different scents, reminiscent of animal fur or scat (shout out to volunteer Helene for accumulating these things!) For social enrichment, he was handled to “spaw days” together with his favorite caregivers, appreciating music, massages, and enjoyable time spent together with his human associates. To provide him an outlet for his playful aspect, Hoss had a blast destroying mountains of cardboard!
