There has been a long held belief (substantiated with research findings) that commercial dog toys (sometimes known as “enrichment toys”) improve the cognitive, emotional and physical well-being of dogs–especially those animals kept in laboratories and those kept in shelters awaiting adoption. But when it comes to toys, not all dogs are alike. The results of a recent study found toys for pet dogs did not have the same effect as toys do for dogs kept in shelters.
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Backstory
Researchers examined the effect of introducing new toys to companion dogs (pets). Retail dog toys are often provided to companion animals to provide cognitive and physical stimulation and improve the animals’ quality of life. These toys, sometimes known as “enrichment toys”, have been shown to play a role in increasing appetite and activity levels and decreasing undesirable behaviors (e.g., barking, self-isolating behaviors) in some dog populations.
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Study specifics
In this study, researchers evaluated the effect of toys on dog appetite, activity levels, and positive affective states as measures of well-being in companion dogs. Behaviors were compared before and after regular interactions with different types of toys over twelve days.
More specifically, researchers collected data on the length of subjects’ daily eating time, their activity rate, and their cognitive bias before and after the introduction of the specified toys. Following given instructions, daily food consumption information was provided by the subjects’ persons. Activity rate was gauged by FitBark 2 dog activity monitors (Kansas City, MO, USA) using their proprietary activity measure. Subject cognitive bias was gauged through the cognitive bias test. The cognitive bias test is commonly used to observe how animals perceive and choose to interact with ambiguous stimuli and infer how internal states influence such behavioral responses. In particular, it is used as an indication of subject welfare.
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Results overview
The results showed a slight improvement in some positive welfare measures in dogs who received more complex toys when compared to dogs who received less complex toys and those who received no toys. However, this difference was not statistically significant and researchers found no differences in subjects’ eating rate or activity levels. While previous research has found that toys may improve the welfare of kenneled dog populations (shelter- and laboratory-housed dogs), the results of this new study did not find the same to hold with pet dog populations…
Researchers found that provisioning companion dogs with toys did not significantly alter their activity level, rate of food consumption, or cognitive bias. While dogs who received more complex toys showed a slightly improved cognitive bias, there were no significant differences in behaviors between the subjects who received “less complex” toys (e.g., a bone, ball) and “more complex” toys (e.g., puzzle toys). In short, in the current study, the provision of toys in the intervention induced no significant changes in companion dogs (pets) among any behavioral measures of interest. One possible explanation is that dogs coming from a richly provisioned home and living with human family members may not experience the same effects of adding a toy to their environment as kenneled or shelter-housed dogs would.
Journal reference: Chan, K., Arellano, C. & Horowitz, A. Here Puppy, Chew on This: Short-Term Provision of Toys Does Not Improve Welfare in Companion Dogs. Animals 2023, 13, 3340. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13213340
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