December 15, 2025 · Enrichment

Santa’s Lost List, Week 3: Santa’s Workshop in Shambles

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 3 of Santa’s Lost List (December 2025), Metro Animals daycare dogs in Fort Worth and Plano balanced across pretend ice floes, solved puzzles, followed gingerbread scents and foraged like reindeer.

With Santa’s Nice List still under repair, week 3 asked Barksville’s pups for balance, brain power and their very best manners. And the Chaos Cats were not finished yet.

The story

The Chaos Cats left Santa’s workshop in shambles, and every puzzle the pups solved fixed a broken toy. Then the cats struck again, leaving gingerbread scents everywhere. A festive blizzard sent boxes tumbling and surprises vanishing, but our dogs dove right in and sniffed out every last toy. By the end of the week, the Nice List was almost restored.

What the pups did

Day 15: Ice Floe Challenge, stepping carefully from “ice floe” to ice floe while showing off balance, focus and their best tricks.
Day 16: puzzles in Santa’s workshop, each one solved fixing a broken toy.
Day 17: sniffing through the gingerbread scents the Chaos Cats left behind.
Day 18: Mistletoe Manners Match, calm greetings, soft eyes and paws on the floor under the mistletoe, with every polite greeting earning a spot on the Nice List.
Day 19: a festive blizzard of tumbling boxes, and a search for every missing toy.
Day 20: The Toy Maker’s Trail, following scent clues through Santa’s Workshop to track down hidden hints.
Day 21: Reindeer Feed Forage, searching, sniffing and foraging just like Santa’s reindeer getting ready for takeoff.

It was a week of busy minds and wagging tails, and it set the pups up for the final push to Christmas Eve.

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
Week 3: Santa’s Workshop in Shambles (this post)
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!