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?

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

We play this game : " find it", but use one of her toys. I have her in a sit stay, I go hide the current toy she is playing with. And then release her to " find it". Once she got good at it, I sometimes pick up another toy on the way, and hide them together to see of she'll bring me the correct toy. 9 times out of 10 she does. LOL...the other day, she brought both!
For Christmas, our son bought her a puzzle toy, that you hide treats and she must lift the piece to get at the treat. One, she has never been food motivated and 2). She just has no desire to even try. Even with really high value treats!

[Rose Coward]

That to me seems to indicate a pretty smart dog.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

I've been trying to work on toy recognition with Ragley through clicker training. I swear- some days she knows exactly what I am saying and then the next it's like I changed languages on her hah oh the joys of training!

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

We play find it too, but not on this level.  When we are going out to play ball - I tell them to go find a ball, or baby or whatever I want them to bring with us.  Your idea is great to play inside when there is bad weather, or even outside when nice.  For some reason, I did not think of "find it" in this context.  Thank you for the suggestion!

[Karen and Bosco]

We are learning toy names right now....If I call one out he will go get the correct one. He loves the puzzle balls that roll a certain way and treats come out.

[Rose Coward]

Wow!  We're a long way off from that kind of specificity!  We're still working on, "that's a sock leave it alone".  lol

[Doris]

Bodi likes this game too!

[Camilla and Darwin]

That sounds like a really fun game! I would love to see a video of that!

[Rose Coward]

I'll see what I can do, no promises.  I'm no videographer.  I'm having to charge my tablet right now to do it. ...and clean my house  :)

[Rose Coward]

Okay, I uploaded a video of me and Molly playing the game. <br /><small><a href="http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/video">Find more videos like this on <em>DoodleKisses.com</em></a></small><br />

[Elaine Leitelt]

We play "Go Find".  Maddie sits in the kitchen while I hide 5-6 small treats in the livingroom, waiting for me to clap my hands and tell her to Go FInd.   We'll go through the routine 2 or 3 times each time we play.  She loves it.  It's a great game when the weather is bad and we can't get out for a walk.

[Christy&Riley]

Similar to Ro. We have her down stay in the kitchen, show her a toy, hide it, then release her to "find it." Amazing to watch her tear around the house checking previous hiding spots. You can actually see her thinking. Sometimes I'll say "go get a toy" and 70% of the time she picks one and comes running back. No names for the toys yet though i said get your ball the other day and she did so maybe she is learning that one. Best one is "go see Eric" and she'll run to my husband. No clue how she learned his name. :-)