Why Do Dogs Love To Play With Leaves In The Fall?
The change of seasons can be a good opportunity to play differently with your dog. Have you ever noticed that your dog particularly loves autumn? We’re sure you’ve wondered: why do dogs love to play with leaves in the fall?
The game of smells
The most important and most developed sense in dogs is the sense of smell. Not only do they use it to communicate and explore the world around them – smell is essential to their mental and physical health.
One of the funniest and most useful games you can offer your dog is to use his nose. Dogs love to use their sense of smell to find hidden food, to track down, or simply to identify smells around them.
Smell-based games aren’t just for fun – they’re also very useful. The sense of smell is an instinctive need for dogs, it allows them to learn more about the environment around them, it is an activity that relaxes them and facilitates concentration. Do you think that dogs that do not use the sense of smell tend to have an aggressive behavior because they do not vent their instincts.
Let it smell freely
Only by letting your dog smell whatever he wants, without giving him orders or asking him to stop, will you really be playing with him. Because this is the essence of games: to play a pleasant activity freely and without orders.
Games may have limits, but you shouldn’t punish, fight and correct your dog while he is sniffing something. For example, you can urge your dog to play in a specific place, or without making noise, but you should do it in a friendly way, teaching him how to do it instead of punishing him when he violates your orders.
For a challenging mental exercise such as using the sense of smell in the situations that we will describe below, about 10 minutes a day is enough. Using your sense of smell for longer can tire or stress your dog, so don’t overdo it.
Why dogs love to play with leaves
Dogs love to play with leaves in the fall because they trigger a lot of smells. If you have the opportunity and the space, try to make him play with the leaves and let him run freely between them: he will be enthusiastic and his health will benefit.
Walk in the parks
With autumn many smells emerge in the environment: there are different flowers, the fruits of the trees dry up, the leaves fall and ferment on the ground … Parks, from the point of view of smell, are completely new places for your dog .
A fun game for your dog and peaceful for you can be a simple walk in a park: enter the park with your dog and, with a long leash, let him decide where to sniff and for how long. We are sure that you have often gotten stuck because your dog has stuck his nose on something!
During the collection and examination of odors, your dog is likely to leave his own odors, scratching on the floor or urinating, for example. Therefore, the rest of the dogs that come next will have new smells to pick up.
Why do dogs love to play with leaves in the fall?
If there are no parks near your home or your dog does not want to move because he has stuck his nose to the ground, you can encourage him in a very simple way: take the food he likes, distribute it on the ground and let him look for it on his own initiative. .
Pieces of sausage or dog biscuit crumbs will remain on top of the leaves, others will hide underneath, others will enter the grass… so your dog will have to use his sense of smell thoroughly to find them. Plus, every time he does it right, he’ll get a reward in the form of a tasty piece of food.
If you have a large garden, you can create real olfactory paths for your dog: spread the remains of chicken broth or some other tasty liquid and create paths. Think that your dog loves the most difficult games that stimulate his sense of smell and will not be able to take his nose off the ground until he has deciphered all those new smells.
The smells are very attractive and positively stimulate your dog’s sense of smell. To play with him and surprise him in a pleasant way, you can take advantage of the arrival of autumn. Here’s why dogs love to play with leaves in the fall.
