Watch Season 1 Episode 3 of the Sodapup Enrichment Lab Podcast Featuring Sanne Romijn from the Netherlands.

Keywords

dog enrichment, pet photography, Labrador care, dog nutrition, creative dog meals, enrichment ideas, dog care tips, pet lifestyle, dog training, dog owner advice, Sodapup, lick mats

Summary

In this episode of the Enrichment Lab, host Chris Chandler welcomes Sanne Romijn, a dog enrichment content creator, dog photographer, blogger, and R+ (positive reinforcement) trainer from the Netherlands. They discuss Sanne's journey into dog enrichment, the importance of offering variety in dog meals, and how to creatively engage dogs through food. Sanne also talks about how providing these activities for her dogs enhances her own creativity. The conversation emphasizes that enrichment doesn't have to be complicated and encourages dog owners to find joy in the process of caring for their pets.

Find Sanne Romijn–Dog Mom, Dog Photographer, Blogger, R+ Dog Trainer and Behaviorist

linktr.ee/dogblognl

Website: dog-blog.nl

IG: @dogblognl

All the images in the YouTube episode of the podcast are courtesy of Sanne.

Takeaways

Enrichment can be simple and doesn't have to be elaborate.

Dogs enjoy the process of enrichment regardless of presentation.

Variety in food is key to keeping dogs engaged.

Using seasonal ingredients can enhance dog meals.

Photography can be a fun way to document dog enrichment activities.

Patience and creativity are essential in dog photography.

Dogs have individual preferences for food and treats.

Engaging dogs in natural behaviors is enriching for them.

Enrichment can be a shared joy between dogs and their owners.

It's important to ensure dogs receive balanced nutrition.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Enrichment and Guest Background

09:52 Creating Engaging Meals for Dogs

16:01 Understanding Dog Nutrition and Preferences

26:01 Final Thoughts on Enrichment and Personal Reflections

Additional information:

More information about  PMOC as mentioned in the episode: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/proopiomelanocortin-pomc-gene-mutation

Always check with your vet about foods that are safe/unsafe for dogs.

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/people-foods-avoid-feeding-your-pets

Transcript:

Chris Chandler (00:28)
Hello everyone and welcome to the new episode of the Enrichment Lab by Soda Pup. Today we have Sanne Romijn is that right? Can you say your name for me? Romijn, Sanne Romijn. Thank you. So Sanne lives in the Netherlands and I'm going to let her talk a little bit more about specifically where she lives, but we are welcoming her today. She is an enrichment content

Sanne Romijn (00:40)
Romijn Sanne Romijn.

Chris Chandler (00:57)
content creator and enrichment guide for us today. She has a blog about dogs and dog enrichment and photography, and then she's also a dog photographer. So welcome and thank you so much for being here today. Can you just, yeah, can you just start out by telling us a little bit about...

Sanne Romijn (01:16)
Thank you and thank you for inviting me.

Chris Chandler (01:23)
where you live and then tell us about your dogs and how many, because I think that you are rich in dogs.

Sanne Romijn (01:31)
Yeah, I am. Well, I'm from a really tiny village in the Netherlands, in the southern part of the Netherlands. It's even for Dutch people, sometimes they can't even pronounce it. But I'm from Oottgensplaat I won't ask you to repeat it. It's a really tiny, tiny, tiny village.

Chris Chandler (01:53)
Thank you.

Sanne Romijn (01:58)
you can walk around it in less than an hour.

Chris Chandler (02:02)
Is that where you, did you grow up there or no?

Sanne Romijn (02:04)
No, no, no, no. We moved here about six years ago. We wanted to, we were living in a city and in a Dutch city, which is, I believe to American standards is still a village, still a tiny village. But for us, it was a big city and I wanted more, more space, more space for the dogs, more space for myself.

Chris Chandler (02:29)
Okay.

Sanne Romijn (02:32)
So we moved out of the city and into this tiny village. We're loving it here. And we have quite a few dogs.

Chris Chandler (02:37)
That's great.

You have, how many dogs do you have? I think I know that you have five. Is that right? Wow.

Sanne Romijn (02:44)
Exactly, yeah, yeah. Five Labradors all relatives. We have the oldest, and then we have, you know.

Chris Chandler (02:53)
I see a little head back there. So this is also going to be a video. So we're happy to see dogs as well. So who is that? We're seeing . . . I see two.

Sanne Romijn (03:02)
This one is Freyja The other one is her daughter, Idunn And then right before, can't see her. There she is in the bottom here.

Chris Chandler (03:04)
Freyja.

yeah, yeah, the chocolate.

Sanne Romijn (03:17)
No, she's Fox Red. Yeah, that's Herja And then we have Juno and Skadi. And they're all relatives. We started with Juno, sorry.

Chris Chandler (03:19)
beautiful. Yeah.

How?

How old are they all?

Sanne Romijn (03:34)
Juno is 11 years old. She was my first dog and our first Labrador and I was one of those people who said I want to breed and I want to have puppies as well and the breeder said well we'll see but here they are. We bred two litters with her and Freyja from the first litter, Skadi from the second and then we have Idunn.

who's a daughter of Freyja and then Herja is Idunn's daughter. So they're all four generations.

Chris Chandler (04:12)
And so 11 years old and then that's okay.

Sanne Romijn (04:14)
Sorry, I'm sorry. Freyja is almost nine years old. Skadi is seven years old. Idunn is five years old and Herja is almost three years old.

Chris Chandler (04:27)
Wow, so about two years apart for them all. Wow, wow, you have a busy household then. So can you tell us how you got started with enrichment?

Sanne Romijn (04:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, we do.

It's quite a while ago. It started when Juno was our only dog and it started with that other brand, which I won't name. At the time, that was the only option available in the shops here in Holland. And we wanted to give her something to do whenever I was at work. She used to go with me to my photo studio.

Chris Chandler (04:55)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (05:09)
And when I had a photo shoot, she was in the back and she needed something to do. So that's how I started doing enrichment to keep her busy at times when I couldn't keep her busy myself. And from there it kind of exploded.

Chris Chandler (05:26)
What were the first kinds of things that you did and then how did it progress for you?

Sanne Romijn (05:31)
First things were really, really easy stuff, just peanut butter in something, in a toy. And then from there, we started with putting things like egg in it and little pieces of bread, her kibble, her meat. We...

feed raw, so, and kibble. So we vary between them. And sometimes I used to put that in there as well. So that's how it started. And then when the lick mats came along, we started with those as well. And then I think we used to start with peanut butter again, just

put some peanut butter on it and here you go have fun with it and from there it slowly started to evolve into what I do now.

Chris Chandler (06:28)
And so can you tell us what you do now, how you do it, what kinds of products or food products that you use, and just tell us about your process, even like down to your prep and how how you think it through.

Sanne Romijn (06:45)
Well, it starts with the meal, of course, because nowadays our enrichment revolves around their meal time. So it starts with what I'm going to give them as a meal. So that's either kibble or raw. And from there, I just look at what tastes are there.

what I can add to make it different, make the textures different, make the scents different, all kinds of types of enrichment for them.

Chris Chandler (07:21)
So you're focusing, one of your focuses is on variety, it sounds like, for interest. Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (07:25)
Yeah, yeah, Yeah. And also what I can get, what's in season, especially with vegetables and fruits and stuff. It varies depending on the season. My significant other hunts, so sometimes we give them the... What's the name?

What's left after slaughtering? Yeah. So necks and stuff. Pieces of meat that we don't eat. The dogs get. And then I vary through that and put some vegetables on it, put some fruits on it. Snacks.

Chris Chandler (07:55)
leftovers.

Mm-hmm.

Sanne Romijn (08:13)
If there's mostly soft stuff like with raw meat, I like to put some chewy snacks on top of the meats and all just to give them different textures to chew on.

Chris Chandler (08:27)
Okay, so you're going for a variety of, it sounds like texture, taste, and then just a variety of foods and nutrients depending on what you have and on what is available.

Sanne Romijn (08:40)
Yeah. And then lastly, looks. It's partly for me as well, because I just like to create pretty stuff with their food. I don't get to play with my own food, so I get to play with the dog's food. I just really enjoy creating stuff with it and putting nice colors together and baking cookies in shapes.

to whatever I feel like. We love watching movies and stuff so I really like creating cookies for them in movie themes for example. So their enrichment gets a little bit of a theme which doesn't really add anything for them but that's just for me because I like it.

Chris Chandler (09:31)
Right. And so, you know, so much of what we see when we repost mostly user generated content on our Instagram. And the thing that we have been so amazed by and impressed by is the creativity that people bring to it. And that was something that has been surprising to us is that to find out that

I mean, people are doing it for their animals, for really great care and enrichment for their animals, but people are also doing it for their own enrichment and creativity. And that's what you just spoke to, that you just really enjoy making a beautiful presentation with the food. Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (10:19)
Exactly, Definitely, yeah. I mean, the girls eat it in 30 seconds or less. Yeah, exactly. And I often spend 30 minutes creating it, but that's my enrichment. And they get the enrichment when I put it on the floor and they get to eat it and sniff it and smell it and...

Chris Chandler (10:29)
Well, they're Labs so.

Right? Right.

Sanne Romijn (10:44)
So it's for everyone's enjoyment.

Chris Chandler (10:49)
So I know that some people pre-prepare their, like they may do like a week's worth of food or something like that. Do you do any pre-preparation or are you usually doing yours just in the moment and then feeding? Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (11:07)
in the moment, yeah. With five dogs, pre-preparation is not really an option. I simply don't have the freezer space for it. If I would have, I would probably. Sometimes I do. I like to put kibble in water and then when it swells up, then I put it inside toys and I do freeze those.

Chris Chandler (11:18)
Right.

Right.

Sanne Romijn (11:38)
So I do a little bit of meal prepping for them, but not often, no.

Chris Chandler (11:44)
Okay, so you said that you're using what's available, but do you have things that you rely on sort of as a base? It sounds like you do use some kibble, and then I'm also wondering, are there things that you use super commonly? And then just like, are, so for people who are maybe new to this, what are the kinds of things that you,

that you offer to your dogs for food.

Sanne Romijn (12:15)
Well, apart from kibble or raw, I always have, I'm not sure how I pronounce it, kefir, kefir, kefir, we call it kefir. We always have that in the fridge, Greek yogurt. So I give them either Greek yogurt or kefir.

Chris Chandler (12:24)
Kefir yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm assuming that you're using unsweetened. Yeah. Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (12:45)
Yeah, unsweetened, yeah. Human grade, so it's just from the supermarket. We use it ourselves as well. But that's always there. And then usually some sort of fruit puree, and that's often baby food. You have those little pouches of baby food, which contain 100 % pureed

Chris Chandler (12:50)
Yeah. Yep.

Sanne Romijn (13:12)
fruit basically, which is just as good for dogs as it is for babies. You do have to check the ingredients of course, if there aren't any ingredients there that the dog shouldn't eat. Usually with apple puree or blueberry, stuff like that. That's usually okay for dogs, I use that almost always. And then often we use bee pollen.

Yeah cottage cheese, they really love their cottage cheese so that's something we have in the fridge most always. I think that's the main ingredients.

Chris Chandler (13:55)
Yeah. And then do you use, like, what are other, are there other sort of special things that you use, maybe either like kinds of like fish or meats or other things that you might add?

Sanne Romijn (14:10)
Well, stuff from game. Leftovers. Sounds so... Basically, yeah, leftovers. We like to use everything. So sometimes we have like ribs or something that we don't eat and the dogs get them. So I sometimes put that on the enrichment as well. And fish.

Chris Chandler (14:18)
But yeah.

Okay.

Yep. Do you have a certain kind of fish that you buy or that, what is it? I'm sorry. Sardines. And are those fresh or canned or both? Fresh. And they're raw.

Sanne Romijn (14:38)
Sardines mostly. Sardines mostly. Yeah, yeah. Those I get fresh. Fresh. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes canned, but mostly fresh. Well, fresh from the freezer. We buy them frozen.

Chris Chandler (14:56)
Right. And then, so when you say, and again, I'm just wanting to kind of clarify for people that might be new to this. So when you say that you use raw food, so you're buying commercial, you're buying it commercially, right? It's commercial raw dog food. Yeah.

Sanne Romijn (15:13)
Yeah, yeah, we don't prepare our own foods. I'm a little bit scared to do that. I know people who do it and who are really knowledgeable and do it really safely, but I'm really afraid to make mistakes and do something wrong for my dogs. So I really want them to have all the nutrients they need in their meals. So I buy commercial food, food, yeah.

Chris Chandler (15:42)
Right. Yeah. And then, so how, I suppose maybe you've, you've just learned it over time, but, how, how do you determine the, the right amount of when you're, when you're feeding like this, the right amount of food for your dogs?

Sanne Romijn (16:03)
Yeah, it's by eye. I don't weigh anything, so it's really just by doing it really. At first I started out really small with just the peanut butter and then adding something to it and at first, especially, you know, was a little bit big.

Chris Chandler (16:05)
Okay.

Sanne Romijn (16:28)
when she was younger. So with her I really had to be careful of what I was feeding her. So when she got a little bit more snacks she would usually get a little bit less food. But again that would possibly create a nutrient problem in her diet. So I was really careful with that and usually back then I would just give less snacks.

Chris Chandler (16:57)
So I probably know the answer to this question since you have Labs and we have a long history of having Labs and for anybody who hasn't had that breed they I think are pretty exclusively highly food motivated. Is there anything that your dogs will not eat?

Sanne Romijn (17:22)
Well, the sardines I was just talking about. The little white one over there. When I present her with the sardines, she looks at me as if I punched her in the face. Really goes like, no. She doesn't want to eat it, no, no. And Skadi really isn't a big fan of fruits.

Chris Chandler (17:28)
huh.

She's not, she's not keen on that, but the other ones like it. Okay. Yeah.

Okay.

Sanne Romijn (17:47)
I've got the one over here that's lying over here, Idunn. She has, I don't know if you ever heard of it, but there's this gene in Labradors that makes them want to eat more. I think it's called the POMC gene, but I'm not sure.

And it's a gene that prohibits them from feeling full. So they will just keep eating, eating, eating. And she will eat literally everything. Even cardboard. Yeah. So with her, it's really anything I give her, she's happy with. But I really have to...

Chris Chandler (18:23)
dear.

Sanne Romijn (18:32)
keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't overeat.

Chris Chandler (18:36)
Yeah. So do you do other kinds of enrichment besides food enrichment? Are you mostly focused on food based?

Sanne Romijn (18:44)
Mostly food based, but we do do other kinds of an enrichment Things like olfactory enrichment, scent walks do scent work. So that's enriching for them We do little searches with food, food puzzles Which is mostly food of course again, but it's Labrador so

Chris Chandler (18:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sanne Romijn (19:12)
There's always food involved. Apart from the olfactory it's mostly allowing them to do what they like and what they love. And with gundogs, it's working. So I think allowing them to do what they were born to do is also enriching for certain breeds. And in case of the Labrador, it's retrieving.

Chris Chandler (19:14)
Thank you.

Sanne Romijn (19:42)
working them, if it's either with a dummy or in the field, that's really enriching for them as well.

Chris Chandler (19:48)
Right, so giving them opportunities to do, like sanctioned opportunities to do the things that are natural to them in the wild. Yeah, yeah. So can you tell us a little bit about your Instagram? And just because for people, we're gonna add, so we also do a video version of this on our YouTube channel and we'll drop in some...

some pictures from your Instagram because they're really, really beautiful. But for people who are just listening, can you just tell us a little bit about your Instagram and what you offer there?

Sanne Romijn (20:27)
No, of course. Well, I started it in, I think it was 2022 and it was when I quit my shop. I used to have a web shop and on that website I would put blogs about enrichment and stuff and also about training and all kinds of things but I

was going to quit it and I didn't want the information on the blog to get lost. So that's when I decided to make Dogblog and create an Instagram account along with it. And I just treated it as my little...

little space to put everything about my dogs and everything that I like about my dogs and about my life with my dogs. Just write whatever I wanted without having to push products or something. Just write whatever I like, whatever I love, instead of pushing everything that I had in my own store and not having the opportunity to talk about stuff that I didn't have in stock.

So it was really liberating to be able to just post anything. And I started doing enrichment, the elaborate enrichments at around the same time. And it was fun. So I just continued.

Chris Chandler (22:03)
So I just want to say, so I mean, you are a photographer, a dog photographer, and your skill and talent with photography also shows up in your Instagram page. The photos are beautiful of the enrichment on different trays and bowls and things, but also of your dogs and maybe other dogs and

Sanne Romijn (22:19)
Thank you.

Chris Chandler (22:31)
I was wondering also if you could just tell us a little bit about your photography practice and, and how in the world you do it. mean, I've, the, photos are so amazing and I would, we'll, we'll put a link to your photo website to, all your information, but to your photo website in the show notes. And I really want to encourage people to go look because the, photos of the dogs, the photos are just beautiful, but they're also so.

so joyful. There are so many of the dogs, you know, running along or leaping. And I'm just amazed that, well, that you can catch the action shots, but then also that you can get them to be still. So I'm just curious if you'll tell us a little bit about just your photography and how you do what you do.

Sanne Romijn (23:12)
No.

Well, thank you very much. It's really nice to hear when people like my work. I started photographing in 2011. Well, before that I was a little girl when I started photography. But I started my business in 2011 and back then it was really everything.

So I did weddings, families, babies, all kinds of animals. And after a few years, I came to the conclusion that I really don't like photographing people without pets. Why? I decided to just drop all the weddings and families and babies and stuff and focus fully on pet photography. And about five years ago,

I decided to drop cats and horses and just focus fully on dog photography because that's where my passion is, that's where my heart is. And it's so much fun, like you said, the jumping and the action photography, but then also create a beautiful portrait for people to hang on the wall. It's awesome.

Chris Chandler (24:34)
So you have any like little tricks of the trade of, know, how do you get them to sit still or how do you, I don't know. I just find it amazing that they're just sitting there all attentive. But what? Patience, okay. A lot of patience.

Sanne Romijn (24:44)
a lot of having a lot of patience, lot of patience, snacks, snacks at the ready and Photoshop skills with dogs that don't know how to sit that well. I mean my own dogs are used to it so they whenever I grab the camera they're like

Chris Chandler (24:59)
Okay.

Sanne Romijn (25:10)
this. But other people's dogs don't usually aren't usually that responsive to my camera. Sometimes I just have to photograph them on leash and have people keep the leash straight up behind the head and then I could just photoshop it out. So the owner is like

Chris Chandler (25:12)
I'm supposed to...

Yeah.

got it. Okay.

Sanne Romijn (25:38)
50 centimetres away, half a metre away and just outside of the shot and the leashes behind the head. And then when I'm done with my Photoshop magic, it looks like the dog was sitting there in a beautiful environment all by himself, just being pretty and obedient.

Chris Chandler (25:40)
Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Okay.

That's funny. Okay, that's great. Well, that makes that'll make a lot of us feel better about the behavior of our dogs when we're trying to take photographs of them. So I have two more questions for you. The first one is, is there just, is there anything, well, maybe it's three questions. Is there anything that I haven't asked you about that you

Sanne Romijn (26:06)
yeah. yeah. It can be horrible.

Chris Chandler (26:25)
want people to know about enrichment or sort of your favorite thing to pass on to people.

Sanne Romijn (26:34)
Well, it doesn't have to be really difficult. Sometimes people can be really overwhelmed when they look at other people's Instagram pages and they can be like, I can't do this. Enrichment can be just putting a bit of peanut butter and a bit of meat and some kibble and some stuff on a lick mat or inside a toy and giving it to your dog. Your dog doesn't see

Chris Chandler (26:44)
Yeah.

Right.

Sanne Romijn (27:00)
all the pretty placements. The dog just enjoys the enrichment. It's okay. So when you don't have that much time, just put something together. It doesn't have to be great for pictures or great for Instagram. Your dog will love you no matter what.

Chris Chandler (27:06)
Excuse me, sorry.

sneezed again, sorry. I really appreciate that. I think that is really important because when we see things on social media from people who've been doing it for a long time and then particularly people who are so good at photographing it, can feel like hard to live up. So it's good to be reminded that

Sanne Romijn (27:25)
Bless you.

Chris Chandler (27:46)
You know, even if we do something that's really simple, it's still really enriching for our dogs. So my last question for you is if you were a dog, what kind of dog would you be?

Sanne Romijn (27:51)
Exactly.

Chris Chandler (28:00)
I figured. I figured. I'm like, this is pretty strong preference here.

Sanne Romijn (28:01)
You

I think I'd be a Labrador.

Chris Chandler (28:08)
Is there a way in which you are like a Lab?

Sanne Romijn (28:11)
I love food.

Chris Chandler (28:13)
Perfect.

Sanne Romijn (28:14)
You

Chris Chandler (28:15)
Well, I so appreciate you being here with us today and really appreciate all your information. And I just want to encourage people to check out Sanne's all of her socials and those will all be posted in the show notes.

Sanne Romijn (28:20)
Thank

Thank you so much.

Chris Chandler (28:34)
Thank you.