If your dog is a mischief maker, maybe they need a new hobby?

It is not uncommon to find that some of our dogs’ favorite pastimes are things we would prefer they didn’t do. Whether that’s digging holes in the garden, ripping up the post, or chasing pigeons in the garden. Many of these activities stem from natural dog behaviours, which perhaps your dog isn’t having the opportunity to express.

To understand this better we need to consider what our dogs’ ancestors would have been getting up to, before comparing it to our modern dogs’ lifestyles.

Dogs are scavengers, they may do a bit of hunting, but they evolved primarily to scavenge for food. That means lots of time rummaging about, investigating and snacking on a variety of different food stuffs. There may well be some hunting to supplement their diet too, so they would be locating, chasing, catching, killing and eating prey. If we now think about most pet dogs’ diets and eating habits, there are some big differences. Most dogs get fed once or twice a day, out of a bowl. This doesn’t require any real effort, and the range of behaviours required to eat the meal is limited. And when it comes to hunting, very few dogs nowadays get the opportunity to do that (usually for good reason!)

Another example of normal dog behaviour which was important to our dogs’ ancestors, but is no longer needed, or encouraged for most dogs, is digging. Digging is a useful canine skill, it helps with catching animals in burrows, making a place to store your food, creating a comfy bed or somewhere to raise puppies. But in modern times this isn’t required by our pet dogs, and most owners don’t want holes in their lawn.

So just because their ancestors did it, why does that mean your pet dog wants to do these behaviors too? Genetics. The way our dogs behave is heavily influenced by their genes. Genetic change is slow… but we can change behaviour through choosing which dogs mate to create new puppies. That’s why some dogs, and some breeds, have a much greater likelihood to perform these behaviours than others. For example, if you get a Border Collie, it is probably going to want to chase things, if you get a Jack Russell Terrier, they are likely to want to dig holes and catch prey. That’s because these breeds have been intentionally bred to do jobs which rely on these behaviours and skills. But all dogs still have the same core genetics, and they all need to be able to express natural canine behaviour, although every individual will have their own preferences.

Pet dogs don’t just want to perform similar behaviour to their ancestors, they need to. That is because their welfare is positively impacted by being able to perform natural behaviour. UK animal welfare laws and policies include freedom to perform species specific behaviour as one of the ‘Five Freedoms’ because it is so important to our animals’ emotional wellbeing.

What we are going to cover below, is essentially ‘enrichment’. Enrichment means allowing an animal the opportunity to express species-specific behaviour in a way that is beneficial to their welfare. When we think about the kind of hobbies we as humans have, they are ways for us to express our species-specific behaviour which our modern lifestyles don’t require us to do as much as our ancestors did. For example, going to the gym, when our ancestors would have been hunting, gathering and laboring, or combat sports because fighting isn’t socially acceptable in modern society. This is exactly what we want to do for our dogs too, because left to their own devices they are creating their own activities, many of which we don’t really like. So instead, if we provide them with appropriate ways to fulfil their behavioural needs, they will be less likely to find their own ways to do it.

Below are some common examples of mischievous behaviours your dogs may be getting up to as a result of an unmet behavioural need, and some hobbies to encourage them to try instead.

Sandpits with buried treasure

Create an allocated space in the garden where digging is allowed or buy/make a sandpit. You can use soil, but that will mean dirty paws coming back inside, so ‘play sand’ is usually a good option.

To encourage your dog to use this area over the lawn, bury some treats or favorite ball for them to find. In the first few weeks, try to replenish these daily, but as they have more experience of finding fun things here, you will be able to top up the treasure less frequently, perhaps once a week.

Pass-the-parcel

Pass-the-parcel and other forms of food enrichment can be a simple and cheap way to give your dogs a way to re-enact the dissection of prey. Behaviours like shredding, plucking and pulling stuffing out, relate to how a dog would consume food they had caught. Using their food, we can present it in ways that allow these behaviours to be put into action. For example, gathering a selection of different size carboard boxes, and putting them inside each other, with a sprinkle of food between each layer, just like pass-the-parcel.

Predatory Play

Lots of dogs would like to hunt. Some just want to chase, others want to kill what they catch. There are also breeds which we have selectively bred to be especially keen on this behaviour, like ratting terriers, and those which we have bred to do only specific parts of the predatory sequence, like collies chasing but typically not catching prey.

Stopping our dogs from chasing other animals will not make this urge go away, in fact it is likely to make it greater. Instead, we want to think about how we can help them play out this predatory sequence in a safe and appropriate way. Depending on which part of the hunt your dog is most interested in, the sniffing and finding, the chase, or the catch, you can tailor the activities to them.

At home you can hide toys in the garden and encourage them to find them, then turning this into a game of chase, and tug, before allowing the dog to win the toy and finishing the game with some food, like a chew for example.

There are also dog sports and training classes which provide great ways to perform some of these predatory and herding behaviours in a suitable way, such as Barn Hunt UK and Sheep Ball.