For the primary few weeks of his restoration, Hoss went for brief assisted walks thrice day by day. As he recovered and regained bodily power, the walks elevated and physiotherapy workouts have been added in. These actions weren’t solely to assist in his therapeutic, but in addition to care for his bodily enrichment wants and assist tire his physique out!
We opted to additionally give Hoss at the very least six different actions every day to cross 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 resolve 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 underneath objects in a muffin tin, frozen into Kongs or blocks, smeared onto lick mats, and dispersed by way of sluggish feeder and puzzle feeder toys. After all, he additionally chomped on a number of bully sticks or different chews every week!
For some sensory enrichment not primarily based round meals, Hoss loved (clear) pop bottles crammed with completely different scents, comparable to animal fur or scat (shout out to volunteer Helene for gathering these things!) For social enrichment, he was handled to “spaw days” along with his favorite caregivers, appreciating music, massages, and stress-free time spent along with his human associates. To present him an outlet for his playful aspect, Hoss had a blast destroying mountains of cardboard!
