Find the treat

[Rose Coward]

One game that I like to play with Molly is hiding her treat and getting her to sniff it out. I would give her a sniff of her treat and then closer her in the bedroom, hide it, then let her out and tell her to go find it.

She caught on quite quickly. I started with hiding it in a place she would find quite easily and almost without trying, so she could grasp the concept of the game. Now I hide it really well, including high places, rolled up in her towel, etc Of course never in a place that I wouldn't want her to ever try to take things from like the counter top or table.

It's a rewarding game for her, I usually play it after I groom her as a kind of reward for her patience.

I began to do it after watching an episode of Cesar Millan when he showed concern that a dog needed to use it's nose more. I remember thinking Molly seemed to have a bit of a deficiency in that area.

Anyone here play any similar games with their dudes?

[Rose Coward]

I would love Molly to learn people's names around here.  It would be fun to get her to run errands.  Tie something to her and tell her to take it upstairs to Peter.  lol

[Christy&Riley]

Now there's an idea! I usually tell her to go see Eric when she is getting in my way. Kind of running an errand in a way. :-)

[Deborah Brown]

We play "Find It" with all three dogs.  They love it. They wait their turns behind the baby gate and search individually.

Wayne takes a Canine Nose Work class which is basically an extension of this game.  In Nose Work, he has to find different scents in different environments including outdoors, in containers and on cars.  It is a great confidence builder for dogs and has a natural reward when they find the treat.  ;)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

That sounds fun!

[Pat and Traveler]

That sounds like a great game, Rose--fun for both of you, and good nose training for Molly.

Deborah mentioned Nose Work, and that's something Trav and I do also.  It's Trav's favorite thing to do, and I'm always so proud of his ability to concentrate and search in strange environments.  We have classes in Home Depot and some other stores, and in parking lots, etc.  He just loves having a job of his very own!  When we play at home, I just tell him to "Go wait," and he runs into his crate until I tell him to search.  So cute!  Even if we're out in the yard, if I tell him to "Go wait," he'll run into the house and go into his crate to wait.  He just came up with that on his own--I never sent him into his crate.

[Rose Coward]

That is so cute -the wait in his crate idea. 

[Emily, Bentley, & Maserati]

Our doodles love playing these kinds of games! Mental stimulation is so important!