December 8, 2025 · Enrichment

Santa’s Lost List, Week 2: Stockings and Candy Canes

Why enrichment? Enrichment gives dogs an outlet for their natural instincts (sniffing, searching, solving) and works their brain, not just their legs. A few minutes of sniff-and-search or puzzle work takes real effort, so dogs go home happily tired: body exercised, brain satisfied, confidence a little bigger. How our enrichment works

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In week 2 of Santa’s Lost List (December 2025), Metro Animals daycare dogs in Fort Worth and Plano sniffed out surprises in stockings and wrapped presents, wove through a candy-cane course and posed in elf hats.

Week 2 brought the first good news of the season: names were starting to come back onto Santa Paws’ Nice List. The Chaos Cats were still out there, though, and Barksville’s pups had plenty of work to do before Christmas.

The story

The stockings were hung and the sniffing began, each one hiding a surprise. Our pups struck back at the Chaos Cats one festive pose at a time, used clever noses and paws to uncover the surprises hidden in wrapped presents, and by the weekend they were following scent trails through daycare, closing in on the cats who tore up the list.

What the pups did

Day 8: checking each hung stocking to uncover the hidden surprise.
Day 9: the candy-cane course, weaving the poles with quick paws to earn official Nice List stamps.
Day 10: a festive photo adventure with elf hats, antlers and scarves.
Day 11: wrapped presents hiding surprises that only clever noses and paws could uncover.
Day 12: Frozen Treasure Hunt, icy puzzles that hid treasures and called for focus and patience.
Day 13: scent trails winding through daycare as our detectives tracked the Chaos Cats.
Day 14: Winter Wonderland Walk, crunching through snowy textures, sniffing piney clues and ringing bells in the frozen town square.

In Fort Worth, the pups showed off their Enrichmas challenge in the Santa’s Workshop set, proving that a Nice List dog looks the part, too.

Dog in a fleece collar smiling on a plaid blanket by the rocking chair and snowman

Hound lying on a plaid blanket in front of Santa’s sack and the nutcracker backdrop

Black dog sitting up on a plaid blanket beside Santa’s sack and wrapped gifts

Yellow Lab licking its lips on a plaid blanket among wrapped presents

Wide-eyed dog in a Santa hat and plaid scarf by the Christmas tree and wrapped presents

Watch the week

Watch this reel from Metro Animals on Instagram

This month’s adventure

The story begins (week 1)
Week 2: Stockings and Candy Canes (this post)
Week 3: Santa’s Workshop in Shambles
Week 4: The Final Chapter

How to join the next adventure

Enrichment is an add-on to any daycare day at Metro Animals — ask for it at drop-off, by the day, the week or the whole month. It’s part of the program that earned us the highest score in the country at the 2024 Dog Gurus Daycare Games. Read more about how our enrichment works, and if your pup is new to the pack, find your nearest location — every new dog’s first day is free.

It’s a great day to play!