At wearwagrepeat.com you can also find me on social media, on Instagram, you will find me mystic, that’s T M I S T I C K and I would love if you sent me some pictures or videos of your dog or tagged me if you’re sharing some real of you and your dog trying out all the enrichment stuff that I’m sharing with you here on this podcast. So speaking of the dog Enrichment with Tori mystic podcast right now, season one is a limited series where I am releasing 10 episodes and in each episode we are taking a deep dive into the science behind eight different categories of canine enrichment. So so far we have already covered cognitive enrichment and food based enrichment and today we are diving into VIS enrichment. And I’m really excited about this topic because like I said, everyone always thinks of brain games and food puzzles.

Tori Mistick [00:02:12]:
But there’s a whole other world out there so we are going to get into it. In this episode today. A couple things we’re going to go over are what kind of movement your dog naturally likes according to science. We will also look at what colors your dog can see the best and how you might incorporate those colors into your enrichment routine or just your day to day life. And then number three, we will talk about one of my favorite things to do with Lucy, which was really to sit and watch the world go by and all the different benefits of that I have a quick listener Q and A at the end of the episode, and then I will share with you some fun products that you can use to get in on the visual enrichment fun. So let’s dive right in to this first study that I pulled up. So this was put together by a researcher named Carla Etherington and her colleagues, and it was a study that was done with movement on screens. What they found is that dogs are wired to notice and enjoy movement that feels natural.

Tori Mistick [00:03:21]:
So movement that follows the science and the laws of gravity was more engaging to dogs in this study than, like, random movements of things going all over the place. So this means that we should just embrace natural movement and also sort of calm and gentle movement. So it could be that your dog’s new favorite ball is a disco ball. And I don’t mean to have a crazy disco party, but what I like to do at my house, in a lot of my windows, I have prisms and disco balls hanging because it adds a lot of visual enrichment for my dog Bert, who’s sitting right behind me right now. But it also adds a lot of visual enrichment for me. I find it really fun. So we’re kind of both benefiting from this, but gentle movement of like a prism in a window or a disco ball gently reflecting off of some light in the window. It can just give some nice visual interest and some variety to your home.

Tori Mistick [00:04:21]:
So our dogs spend a lot of time indoors in our homes, and a really easy way, without redecorating, to change what they’re seeing in the room is to change how the light is reflecting. So a disco ball is a really easy and effective way to do that. Some other things you can do is play with bubbles for dogs. So there’s a lot of bubbles out there. And I’ll share with you a brand at the end of the episode that I would use and really trust for this. Bubbles are a great way. It’s not something that your dog encounters every day. And enrichment is really all about adding variety and novelty.

Tori Mistick [00:04:56]:
So bubbles are a great way to do that. And you can also enjoy in the autumn watching the leaves fall. In the winter, you can watch the snow fall, and I guess pretty much year round, you can watch the rain fall. So there are a lot of different ways that you can embrace letting your dog enjoy just the natural gravity of things or some gentle flowing movement. It’s really a vibe. You want to embrace that vibey kind of visuals if you want your dog to feel calm and relaxed. All right, moving right along to the second study that I pulled for you here in relation to visual enrichment is to pay attention to what colors dogs can see. And actually, I got this idea because I was reading my friend Chelsea Barstow’s book.

Tori Mistick [00:05:45]:
She has a book called Happy dog, which includes 101 canine enrichment activities. And I was flipping through her book today for some ideas. And right in the intro, she talks about how dogs can see blue, yellow, and gray the best. So they’re red, green, colorblind. That means things that are red and green kind of blend together into a brown, mushy color. So that is why dogs really are attracted to bright yellow things like tennis balls. A lot of dog toys that you will see are bright blue, and that’s because those are colors that dogs can see really well. So I’m just thinking in my mind to the different West Paw Topple toys that I have.

Tori Mistick [00:06:29]:
And those come in a lot of really great dog friendly colors and colors that they can see. So I do have a bright, like lime green, yellow, green topple. And I also have a beautiful blue topple. And we use those all the time. So those are great colors that you can embrace for your dog. And just so you have the science part of it, there was a study done back in 1989 that analyzed what colors dogs can see. And I think that’s, that’s so fascinating and so Wonderful. Back in 1989, they were studying what colors can dogs see and what are they picking up on.

Tori Mistick [00:07:04]:
So if you want to really lean into this, you could embrace having blue and yellow things around your house because your dog might enjoy that. Or maybe you just want to kind of pay attention to what you think your dog likes. Quick story that I have to share that just popped into my mind is that Lucy, her favorite color was neon green. And I always told people this. And now looking at that, there’s scientific proof that dogs do prefer bright yellowish colors like tennis balls. Lucy loved neon green. Neon green. And it was because there was a crossing guard in our neighborhood who handed out lots of treats.

Tori Mistick [00:07:42]:
And actually going back to the previous episode of this podcast where I was talking about food enrichment and how much dogs love variety and unexpected things, this crossing guard had a Ziploc bag in her pocket full of a real trail mix of treats. And there was all kind of stuff in there and you never knew what you were going to get. Could be something little, something big, something cheesy, something crunchy. And Lucy just loved this crossing guard. So much so that she started to associate the color neon green, especially people wearing neon green vests as people who have treats. And she would constantly drag me across the street to construction workers, police officers, and crossing guards in the hopes that they would have some treats. And nine times out of 10, we were really disappointed that they didn’t have any treats. And, you know, I explained.

Tori Mistick [00:08:34]:
Explained to them what she was looking for, and they would always, like, apologize really profusely that they didn’t have any. So I don’t know what that tells you, but more people should have dog treats on them. I think that’s the moral of the story, don’t you? All right, so that’s some Lucy wisdom to share with the world there. Now, speaking of Lucy, that transitions us perfectly to one of our favorite activities. So there’s not really a study that I could find on sit and watch the world go by, but I know it’s so powerful, so I had to include it here. There is sort of a study that was done in 2015 with shelter dogs. I believe there was 50 dogs that were part of this study. And it looked at the levels of stress and stressful behaviors the dogs exhibited when they were given some access to a window or some visual interest versus, you know, their regular kennels where they were looking at the same wall every day, all day.

Tori Mistick [00:09:37]:
And not surprisingly, the study found that the dogs that had access to watch something out the window watch people doing something to just maybe even watch something on tv. Having access to some sort of visual interest actually lowered the dog’s stress levels. There was less barking and there was less destructive chewing. At this shelter, the dogs also part paced less around their kennels when they were given some sort of visual enrichment and visual interest to look at. So I love this because it’s something that is really easy to do. Now, this is not the greatest thing for very reactive dogs. Um, so you don’t want to give your dog a nice window perch. If they are freaking out about every single thing that passes by, or if they are doing that, it’s not the end of the world.

Tori Mistick [00:10:25]:
You actually can totally condition them to be cool with it. Um, we can always rewire the neural pathways in our brains with some positive reinforcement training. If you’re curious about that, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to geek out on some of that, but I think maybe episode one, I might have touched on that a little bit. But it’s definitely possible for your reactive dog to enjoy looking out the window. But giving your dogs a vantage point, like a window seat, sitting on your front porch, sitting on your stoop you know, I love a good stoop sitting session. Those are all great ways to give your dog visual enrichment again, to just kind of calmly watch the stimulus in the environment. So we don’t necessarily want to be out there when there’s like a lot of crazy things going on, when there’s like a lot of traffic or a ton of people, or the school bus is loading, unloading and all that kind of stuff.

Tori Mistick [00:11:23]:
But when it’s just like a calming, very chill environment, maybe some people walking by, maybe a car here and there, some birds, a squirrel, something like that, is going to be very calming and visually enriching to your dog. So Bert personally loves to sit in the front window and he’s pretty singularly focused. He’s really looking out the window for me to come home. So this is. Whenever I go out, he’s always looking for me to come home. And that’s something that I love about Bert. But with Lucy getting back to her, something that we loved to do was sit and watch the world go by out at the park. And for Lucy, towards the end of her life, and you know, when she was getting older and less mobile, and then she had a big tumor and a type of cancer called hemangiosarcoma, so it was kind of risky for us to do any strenuous activities.

Tori Mistick [00:12:19]:
So we really embraced sit and watch the world go by. And I didn’t want her life to just be contained to our house and my backyard, because I still wanted her to see and experience the world. So driving over to a park and just sitting on a park bench and watching the birds and the squirrels and maybe there was people and other dogs walking by. This was really great visual enrichment. And again, it goes back to the type of visuals that dogs really respond to and enjoy, which is just like naturally moving things, things that obey the laws of gravity. So you’re going to see a lot of that when you sit and watch the world go by on a park bench. And another thing I want to point out about this activity is that if you have a very high energy dog and you are racing and running around the park or playing a really high energy game, fetch or something like that, doing a calming activity like this, kind of a cool down at the end of your walk is a really great way for your dog to understand that it’s time to mellow out, that it’s time to chill and watching these sort of calming things and just appreciating the world around them without necessarily having to go get into it or run around it. Teaching them that it’s okay to kind of sit and be calm at the end of the walk can really condition your dog to enjoy and like that downtime.

Tori Mistick [00:13:44]:
So I think this is a struggle for a lot of people with high energy dogs. And dogs who are very reactive to stimulus in the environment is encouraging them to calm down even when there are stimulus and triggers around. So doing a little five minutes of sit and watch the world go by is a really great activity to do, and it’s very visually enriching. Some other things that you can do are in your home, just provide some different places where your dog can access to look at the world. So there was another study that I had pulled up that showed that dogs who had access to a platform really enjoyed going up there so that they could get a different vantage point on the world that they rolled over. So that might be your living room or your backyard or wherever it is, but giving your dog different levels that they can explore. Um, and again, it really all ties back into choice. So remember that choice is really important when it comes to dog enrichment.

Tori Mistick [00:14:44]:
So animals and dogs who are given small choices throughout the day and the freedom to make their own choices generally have lower stress levels and more positive feelings and emotions. So by giving your dog the choice of, hey, do you want to sit in the window today? Do you want to sit in the backyard today? Do you want to sit at the park today? Giving them those little choices to make can actually boost their confidence, help them feel more positive and feel less stressed. So visual enrichment works really great when your dog gets to choose what they see. And it might be something subtle. You know, dogs don’t typically sit and watch TV like we do, but they are taking in a lot of different visuals. Sight is not their strongest scent sense, so their sense of smell is definitely your dog’s strongest sense. But I think giving them the opportunity to tap into all five senses, including, including sight, is a really great way to enrich their life and to strengthen the bond that you share with each other. Let’s dive into a quick little recap here.

Tori Mistick [00:15:53]:
I have on screen a couple of different ideas to just remember what we’ve discussed here in this episode. So number one is to add vibey visuals. So those are the prisms in your window, a disco ball watching the leaves go by. Maybe you have a candle lit somewhere and it has a nice little flicker to it or something like that. Just, like lean into that chill vibe, because that’s exactly the kind of visuals that your dog naturally enjoys. And then you can Embrace blue and yellow. So when you are out buying dog toys, try to look for ones that are blue and yellow because your dog is going to be able to see those colors most clearly. You might want to consider decorating your dog’s living area with some blue or yellow pillows or a dog bed or a blanket or something like that and just see how they respond.

Tori Mistick [00:16:45]:
It might be subtle, but once you do a lot of these enrichment things on a regular basis, you are really going to deepen the communication connection that you have with your dog and you’re going to be able to understand, hey, my dog really likes that yellow blanket I put on their bed the other day. And then we have sit and watch the world go by. Bert wanted to kind of chime in for this one. So if you’re not watching the video for this, there is a video version of all my podcast episodes on Spotify and on YouTube and wherever you’re listening, let me just put it out there right now. Please, please subscribe or follow this show wherever you are. This is a brand new podcast series and I’m really trying to get as many people to listen as possible so that we can make a positive impact on every dog in the world. Every dog should have access to all of this great enrichment stuff. So, okay, let’s finish this, this recap here.

Tori Mistick [00:17:33]:
So we have sit and watch the world go by. Again, you can do that inside your house on little perches, you can do it on your porch, your backyard, you can go to the park, you can go all kind of places and sit and watch the world go by and then finally give your dog choice. So with of the enrichment in this episode and this entire season of the podcast, choice is really such an important factor in your dog’s enrichment. Now let’s get into a question that I received from one of my followers and I was like, oh my gosh. This ties in really well with visual enrichment. So this question comes from my friend Tiffany and she sent me a DM that said, tori, do you have any recommendations on random ramps for old dogs? Alan is getting up there and I want him to still be able to get on the bed and in the car. I wrote back to Tiffany right away, but I’m putting her question here on the podcast too, so other people can benefit. This is such a great question.

Tori Mistick [00:18:29]:
And what’s really important is that with, with ramps or stairs or anything that you’re using to get your dog on the bed or the couch or in and out of the car, first of all, it’s protecting Your dog’s joints. So I would encourage everyone to start sooner rather than later. Start using these tools. Your dog needs them. The ramp that I really love for indoors, there’s a brand called Carlson Pet Products. I love all of their stuff. They have really great, reputable products. They’ve been around for a ton of years.

Tori Mistick [00:18:59]:
I have a lot of their products, their pet gates, their crates, dog beds, and they also have a really great indoor ramp that’s very sturdy. So with ramps, you want to make sure that they’re very sturdy. The ramp that I had for my car that Lucy hated and that Bert eventually broke in two, basically, it just was not sturdy. It had to fold in half in order to work for the car. And that joint where it folded just got broken down by Bert repeatedly jumping up on it. And so that did not work for us. So this Carlson Pet Products indoor ramp is a really, really great option. And then for the car, I actually moved on to collapsible stairs.

Tori Mistick [00:19:42]:
And the brand that I got and that I’m really, really loving is Owl. Now, you’ll see this online. It’s not cheap, but I got it on Facebook Marketplace. So if you search on your local Facebook marketplace, there are usually a ton of dog ramps and stairs that you can find that people got and tried, and their dog didn’t like it, probably because they weren’t doing enough positive enrichment training to get their dog used to doing the stairs and the ramps. Tiffany has a lot of experience as a dog trainer. But for those of you who are listening who are not a dog trainer, please start small with your ramps and your stairs. So it’s a lot to ask your dog from to go from never using these things to immediately going up in the car. So make sure to start small, just do like, a little incline, and then gradually get bigger.

Tori Mistick [00:20:30]:
But the visual benefit of these things is that you are giving your dog access to a different viewpoint. So if you’re using this in the home and your dog hasn’t been able to access the bed or the couch, by getting a ramp, you’re giving them access to a whole different perspective on the kingdom that they look over in your home. And same thing with the ramp for the car. You know, as our dogs get older, their world usually shrinks when they can’t get out and about and go on as long of walks. So by getting some sort of ramp or collapsible stairs, like I like to get your dog in the car, you can actually take them on little adventures. You could take them to a whole new park where they could sit and watch the world go by. So I thought this question tied in really, really well with the visual enrichment theme of today’s episode. So thank you, Tiffany, for sharing that with.

Tori Mistick [00:21:19]:
Now, finally, one last thing I want to share with you before we end this episode today is the product spotlight. So again, you got to embrace the Vibey visuals. And where did it go, Bert? Oh, no, here it is. Bert is hiding what I want to share with you. And if you’re watching the video, it’s just this little prism. This is just a tiny little guy. It’s like 2 inches tall. It’s this little prism.

Tori Mistick [00:21:43]:
I probably got this at a craft store or on Etsy or something like that. And I have all kinds of things like this, this hanging in my windows because it really reflects the light and gives me some cool colors and little rainbows and stuff. It’s visually enriching for Bert. It’s also just pretty to look at. For me, I don’t have any room in my house that does not have either a prism or a disco ball hanging in the window. And I really encourage you to try this out. You can find these very inexpensive. It’s probably under $10.

Tori Mistick [00:22:18]:
To get a couple of them. To just buy one at the craft store might be like $2 or something like that. And it’s a really great way to add that natural, just calming, vibey visual enrichment to your space. And the other thing that I want to mention are the dog safe bubbles. So there is a brand, it is called Atomic Bubbles Puppy Love and it’s available on Chewy. I’m going to put all the links in the show notes. So don’t forget, go to torinosedogs. That’s where I have literally hundreds of blog posts, over 600 blog posts, a ton of them about canine enrichment, product reviews, all kind of stuff.

Tori Mistick [00:22:57]:
But if you go to torinosedogs.com podcast it’ll take you directly to the page where I have all the show notes for this limited series podcast. And I’m going to link to these Atomic Bubbles Puppy Love bubbles on Chewy. Again, they’re really inexpensive. They come in different flavors, they’re non toxic, all natural, made in the U.S. they’re a really great, trustworthy brand that I would recommend. And if you have a dog that would be excited to watch some bubbles or maybe chase around some bubbles, this is a really fun enrichment activity that you can do that is fun and easy and inexpensive and that is what I am all about here on this show. So don’t forget, check out my website, check out the show notes and wherever you are watching this podcast, please, please follow, subscribe like share, comment, vote, I don’t know, do all the things. Because like I said, I’m trying to get this podcast out to as many pet lovers as possible to share with the world that there is more to dog enrichment than just stuffed kongs and puzzle toys.

Tori Mistick [00:24:03]:
There is a whole world. I’m going to talk about eight different kinds of enrichment here on the podcast. Today was visual enrichment. Next episode is going to be about auditory enrichment. So hopefully that perks your ears up because we’re going to talk about all the different ways that you can enrich your dog’s life through sound. Thank you again for listening here. If you are on Instagram, you can find me tmystic if you try one of these things. And if you buy a prism especially, I want you to send me a video of it in your space because I love seeing prisms reflecting the light light and it might reflect some really cool light on your pet and you might get some really cool photos.

Tori Mistick [00:24:44]:
So just a thought, just an idea. Thank you guys so much for listening again. I’m Tori mystic and thank you for being here and I’ll see you on the next episode.