May Enrichment: The Lost City of Puplantis

In May 2026, Metro Animals daycare dogs in Fort Worth and Plano started The Lost City of Puplantis, a four-week under-the-sea enrichment adventure with scent trails, shell and sand textures, and tide pool exploration.

During the final sweep of April’s Easter temple, a member of our daycare team found an old map, folded in on itself and tucked away where no one would normally think to look. Laid out flat, it looked like an ordinary world map, except for one thing: a stretch of land in the middle of the Atlantic, about the size of two Texases stacked on top of each other, arranged in rings of land and water. No modern atlas shows it.

A few days later, the team cracked it. The map shows the world as it actually looked thousands of years ago, and the writing around it was set down by the ancient philosopher Pawto. It tells of a city of dogs, long forgotten by dog-kind, that lived in harmony with the land and the sea: the Lost City of Puplantis.

The legend of Puplantis

According to Pawto, Puplantis was an enrichment paradise where dogs fed their natural instincts, a society built on scent exploration, physical activity, harmonious socialization, intellectual debate and plenty of playtime. Over time its dogs neglected those instincts, and the city was lost in a great flood. What survived was not the truth, but the legend.

So in May the dogs of Barksville set out to find it. And if you want to find a lost city of dogs, you first have to learn to live like the dogs who built it. While the expedition took shape, our daycare pups were measured for their specially designed scuba suits and got acquainted with everything aquatic.

The month ahead

• Week 1: Echoes Beneath the Surface — scuba training begins by listening.
• Week 2: The Language of the Sea — moving with intention and finding balance in motion.
• Week 3: The Search for the Sacred Sea Bone — trails where scent, movement, social awareness and problem-solving work together.
• Week 4: The Tide Turns — exploring the ruins freely, and discovering that true enrichment isn’t something you find; it’s something you practice every day.

Week 1: Echoes Beneath the Surface

Puplantis was never built through brute force or speed, so it can’t be found that way either. Instead of diving straight into the ocean, the explorers began by listening. The map doesn’t point clearly to the city; it reveals echo points, places where something once existed but has long since faded. Reading those clues meant reading the environment.

So the first week of scuba training was all about taking in new scents, textures and spaces, and learning to stay settled within them. On the menu:

• Fishy Trail Feed — a light fish-based scent trail leading to small food drops along the route.
• Tide Pool Textures — shallow trays of sand, pebbles, shells and seaweed-style fabric to explore.
• Reef Flip Panels — nudge or flip the right panel to earn a reward.
• Tide Pool Together — handlers and dogs investigating a small area slowly, side by side.
• Sand Splash Scatter Dash — stepping over and weaving between soft toys, foam blocks and cups at their own pace.

Daycare turned into an ocean floor of shells, sea creatures and sand dunes. Goggles went on, noses got to work on the trail that might lead to the lost city, and the tide pools gave everyone a closer look at the mini ecosystems they might meet in the deep. A group trip “to the coast” had pups nosing through trays of shells, and plenty of explorers learned that familiar ocean feeling of something touching your foot as they scavenged the sandy floor for everything hiding there.

Watch the week

This month’s adventure

• The story begins (week 1) (this post)
• Week 2: The Language of the Sea
• Week 3: The Search for the Sacred Sea Bone
• Week 4: The Tide Turns

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!

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