How to Enrich Your Indoor Pet’s Life

About Tori Thurmond

Tori Thurmond combines her creative writing background with her marketing experience in her role as the Content Specialist at Brookdale. When she's not writing, she's probably spending time with her two cats or knitting.

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Owning a pet is one of the great joys in life. Whether you’re a cat person, a dog person or are somewhere in between, we can all come together and agree that our furry friends make our lives better. But what are we doing to make our pets’ lives just as good as they make ours?

Many pet owners choose to keep their pets primarily indoors for health and safety reasons, but it’s important that indoor pets have enrichment time to make up for their sometimes slower-paced lifestyle. The animal humane society describes enrichment as hobbies that help animals live a well-rounded, enjoyable life and gives the species an opportunity to be themselves.

Canine enrichment has been shown to promote relaxation, reduce stress and anxiety, improve resilience, strengthen bonds with the dog’s people and prevent undesirable behaviors or behavioral problems. Feline Enrichment can also reduce behavioral issues and reduce a cat’s stress and boredom.

Even if you have a busy schedule, small space or limited mobility, providing enrichment for your pets can be quick and easy. Here are a few ways you can enrich your indoor pet’s life:

Use an Interactive Feeder

Activate you cat or dog’s natural hunting and foraging instinct by introducing and interactive feeder. Puzzle feeders for cats or dogs are a great way to turn mealtime into enrichment time. Not only can inactivity lead to behavioral problems in your pet but it can also lead to health problems like obesity. Interactive feeders often offer smaller portions of food that your pet has to work for, sometimes even requiring activity that burns calories.

If an interactive feeder at mealtime isn’t ideal for your pet, you could consider introducing a foraging toy for special treats or just part of your pet’s meal. You can purchase foraging toys like this foraging mat or you can even make your own!

Prioritize Socialization

Just like people, our pets can experience loneliness if they don’t get enough socialization time. Allowing your dog to spend time with other dogs is a great way to incorporate social enrichment into their life. Even if you can’t take your dog to an outdoor dog park due to weather where you live or your own preferences, you could consider taking your dog to an indoor doggy daycare near you where they can play with other dogs. You could set up a dog play date with a fellow pet owner if you’d prefer to socialize your dog on a smaller scale. Similarly to other forms of enrichment, socialization may help build your dog’s confidence, reduce problem behaviors and promote mental stimulation.

Even though our feline friends aren’t usually as social as most pups, they still need socialization. Whether you adopt a second cat when your cat seems lonely or you opt to take time out of your day to cuddle and play with your cat, socialization can help your cat have a calm and confident temperament. A wand toy or laser pointer are some fun options to ways to spend a few minutes playing with your cat every day.

Incorporate Environmental Enrichment

Many pet owners aren’t available to entertain their four-legged children 24/7. However, you can provide enrichment for your pets throughout your home to help keep them entertained while you’re busy or away.

To curb your cat’s curiosity, try to take advantage of vertical spaces around your living space and consider providing a window lookout. Cat’s love to climb and keep an eye out for any sights and sounds of nature. You could consider setting up a cat tree for your cat to climb on, or if you don’t have the space for a cat tree, you can set up a cat wall, taking advantage of unused vertical space around your home. For a cozy spot by the window to stimulate your cat’s senses, there are several types of cat perches that you can attach directly to your window or window ledge, or you can simply scoot your cat’s favorite chair over to the window to give them an exciting view of your outdoor space’s flora and fauna.

Depending on what your dog likes to do (or likes to get into), you can set up an enrichment activity for them before you leave for a few hours or if you need to get some work done around the house without their “help.” Sniffing can be stimulating and enriching to your dog, so place treats around your house for them to find. You can even roll up treats in a towel so they have to work to uncover their food once they track it down. Additionally, if your dog loves to chew on household items, try giving them chew toys that will keep them busy for hours. You can even put a treat inside some chew toys, like this KONG Classic Dog Toy that comes in different sizes, to make their experience even more exciting. Just make sure that the toy you give your dog can withstand their chew level and jaw strength, and if they start to break the toy apart, consider replacing it so they can’t choke on the smaller pieces.

Whether where you live has harsh winters that aren’t safe for pet’s to spend long periods of time outside or you just prefer to keep you pet inside for health and safety reasons, there are still plenty of ways you can enrich your pet’s life inside. If you want more pet-friendly content, check out How to Train Your Cat and 6 Senior-Friendly Apps That Make Pet Care a Breeze.