{"id":20682,"date":"2021-02-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/?p=20682"},"modified":"2021-02-06T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T06:00:00","slug":"snuffle-mats-saturday-6th-february-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/06\/snuffle-mats-saturday-6th-february-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Snuffle Mats &#8211; Saturday 6th February 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-snuffle-mats\">Snuffle Mats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Today in our Brain Games and Tough toys series (canine enrichment) we\u2019re looking at a Snuffle Mats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Basically a snuffle mat is lots of pieces of soft material woven together to great an area that you your human can hide your foot or treats in. Getting food out of a bowl is quick. Having to find it from different places around the snuffle mat takes much longer. It can also be used to be a fun game or incentive, but I\u2019ll come back to that in a moment. You don\u2019t have to spend a lot of money. You can make your own mat and you can find out how to do that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dogstrust.org.uk\/news-events\/blog\/2019\/how-to-make-your-own-snuffle-mat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alternatively, you can buy one. The one Shadow has was a birthday present for her a few years ago and came from Ruffle Snuffle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rufflesnufflemats.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-using-it-with-food-or-treats\">Using it with food or treats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is best to put the dry food on the snuffle mat somewhere away from the dog who is going to be using it. Even if we sit nicely and watch what you are doing, we may have a tendency to drool everywhere as we wait. However, as Mum found out, if you load it up and have to carry it very far there is a risk you will leave a trail of food behind you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_0852-scaled-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"20683\" src=\"https:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_0852-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20683\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_0853-scaled-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"20642\" src=\"https:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_0853-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20642\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Snuffle Mat before and after adding treats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-who-is-it-for\">Who is it for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is not difficult. You don\u2019t have to be Canine Mastermind to work this one out. You just need to have a reasonable sense of smell to be able to work your way around the mat hunting for the treats. It doesn\u2019t take a huge amount of time, especially if you are hungry so you don\u2019t have to be the world\u2019s most patient dog either. You do need to be a little bit gentle. If you start throwing this around the room to get the treats to fall out then there is a risk of breaking an ornament or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-shadow-giving-a-demonstration\">Shadow giving a demonstration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It took Shadow quite a few minutes to find all her lunch. She felt quite a sense of satisfaction once she\u2019d got them all. She did not miss a single one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Brain Games for Dogs - Snuffle Mats\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Exk1FxGr4iQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-other-ways-to-use-the-mat\">Other ways to use the mat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If your dog is nervous at the vet or dog groomer you can use a snuffle mat with hidden treats to keep them occupied while you are there. High value treats will guarantee our attention, but even our normal kibble will keep us looking and sniffing. Sniffing takes quite a bit of energy too, so it is more exercise for us than it looks. I know it looks as though if there are a few treats they are easy to find, but there is always that one elusive one that we don\u2019t want to miss and we\u2019ll keep working until we find it. You can make sure you tuck some as deep as possible just to keep us going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-finally\">Finally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It would be very remiss of me not to wish dear Shadow a very happy twelfth birthday. She is having a special birthday tea and has some cards and presents to open. That reminds me, although you can wash your snuffle mat it is best to only use it with dry food! Happy birthday to her brother Rocky too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilma<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Today in Brain Games and Tough toys for dogs Shadow is demonstrating her snuffle mat. It is a very good and extremely simply way to keep a dog amused.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,61],"tags":[164,107,50,27,60],"class_list":["post-20682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canine-enrichment","category-training","tag-brain-games","tag-canine-enrichment","tag-entlebucher","tag-shadow","tag-training-2","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}