Using a towel or a blanket as a mental enrichment activity for your dog is quick and easy. Lay down a towel flat on the floor and scatter treats or kibble evenly across it. Roll it up tightly and encourage your dog to search for the treats! Your dog will use their nose, body and be mentally enriched whilst searching.
Step-by-Step Quick Start Guide to the Roll Up Towel Puzzle Game
Want to skip the details and get down to playing with your dog? We get it. Here’s our step-by-step guide to getting started:
- Select the right towel or blanket: The bigger the towel, the harder the game. If your dog is small a normal bath towel or even hand towel will be sufficient, but if your dog is a larger breed (like a Labrador) a blanket might be a better choice.
- Prepare the food reward: To start with, using actual treats is likely to work your dog’s brain more and encourage them to look for the food. Over time you can move to a 50/50 mix of kibble and treats and eventually down to kibble only when your dog knows the game well. If your dog seems unmotivated by only kibble it might be best to stick to treats, just lowering the amount.
- Get your dog to sit and wait: Making your dog sit and watch you load the towel up can help them to understand the game, that there is a reward inside the towel and teach them patience.
- Prepare the towel: Lay the towel or blanket flat on the floor, scatter treats or kibble over it and evenly distribute the treats. You can always play a 2nd round so you don’t need to use it all at once.
- Roll and fold: For an easy game roll the towel up tightly and then let your dog get to work unrolling it. If you want to add some difficulty, you can fold the towel up and roll it in different directions to add folds and creases.
- It’s finally time: Let your dog sniff away! Give your dog a release command and encourage them to search for the treats. Praise them as they are going and when they find treats so they know it’s the right way to play.
- Game over: Once your dog is done, praise them and either load the towel up again or give your dog the “game over” command if food time is over. Sit back and enjoy your well enriched dog.
This game is mentally stimulating, teaches your dog to work with their nose and can feed them their breakfast or dinner all at once. Poppy goes to check her blanket every morning now hoping we’ve loaded it up for her!
What Are The Benefits of the Roll Up Towel Mental Enrichment Game?
The Roll Up Towel Mental Enrichment Game is more than just a quick pass time for your dog – it’s a mental challenge, a puzzle and a multifaceted enrichment tool all-in-one. Providing your dog with enrichment activities can significantly enhance your dog’s life through:
Mental Stimulation: Your dog is engaging their brain and their nose when playing this game which can reduce the risk of cognitive decline in ageing dogs as well as developing your dog’s brain, regardless of their age.
Sensory Enrichment: The game uses your dogs superior sense of smell, encourages safe foraging and provides strong sensory stimulation. By using different treats the smell will be amplified and over time from using the same blanket it will start to take on the smell.
Behavioural Benefits: Mental enrichment and regular brain exercises can help to mitigate common behavioural problems such as excessive barking, howling or chewing by redirecting their boredom into fun enrichment activities.
Physical Exercise: The towel game is not the most physically engaging activity but it still has the benefit of allowing your dog to use their paws and some safe digging, when you evolve to adding knots into the game your dog will need to use their paws more so to open up access.
Increased Difficulty For More Fun: This game can be made more and more difficult as your dog understands the game, becoming a staple that you can play together daily.
Safe And Suitable For All: As long as your dog is able to stand and move around in a small area, this game is suitable for them. It’s easy to play in small spaces in your home and great for senior dogs who can no longer run around extensively.
Feeding Enrichment: Does your dog inhale their dinner so quickly you wonder whether you actually gave it to them at all? When we used to feed Poppy with a bowl, you would turn around to walk away and she’d follow behind you as she was already done eating, looking at you as if you hadn’t fed her at all. This game makes eating a slow and fun experience that slows their meals and can help to prevent issues related to quick eating.
Cost-Effective: Using old towels or blankets means you don’t need to spend out on expensive toys, you can use your dogs regular food and an old blanket you don’t need anymore.
The Roll Up Towel Enrichment Game can become a staple in your dog’s daily enrichment routine. You can use this for any of their meals in the day for part of or all of their food. This is not just a quick boredom buster, it’s an enriching activity that will tire your dog out and fulfil their life.
Tips For Encouraging Your Dog To Play
Your dog may not understand the game at first and that’s ok! Dog’s who are food motivated will find this game easier to pick up but all dog’s can enjoy it with some encouragement and positive reinforcement. Focus on using a positive tone and rewarding your dog with verbal praise and pets when they do well. Try not to touch your dog whilst they are searching to let them focus.
Start simple by letting your dog watch you roll the towel up and do not add in any knots or folds so your dog only has one goal, which is to roll the towel back the other way.
Play frequently with lots of treats so your dog has time to learn about the game and with a lot of treats the smell will be much stronger and more encouraging for your dog to seek them out.
Let your dog decide if they want to play or enjoy the game. At the end of the day there is no point forcing it if your dog is really disinterested, there are plenty of other enrichment activities you can play with your dog!
Variations Of The Towel Puzzle Game For Every Skill Level
Level 1: Roll
Roll the towel up from one end to the other with treats inside, simple and fun for your dog to learn with!
Level 2: Fold
Introduce folds so your dog has to work through the layers to play the game.
Level 3: Twist
Twisting the towel up at the centre can create many nooks and creases for your dog to try and find treats in.
Level 4: Hide It
Put the towel inside of a box, under another blanket or somewhere that your dog has to find it first before they can unroll or unfold it.
The Lasting Benefits of Enrichment In Your Dog’s Life
The towel game is an innovative, fun and cost-effective way to introduce an enrichment activity to your dog’s life. It’s a versatile activity that you can add to any part of your dog’s day whether you want to turn their usual meal time into an enrichment session or just work their minds a bit if they need stimulation during the day.
From boosting problem-solving skills to slowing down eating speed, this game has it all. It’s a great example of how repurposing household items into DIY enrichment toys is easy and fun to do.
Supervise your dog when playing, slowly increase the difficulty to keep your dog learning and remember to engage with your dog, providing praise and positive reinforcement to keep them playing and having fun. Enjoy watching your dog use their senses, tap into their natural instincts and tire themselves out!