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How to Play “Find It” With Your Dog

Here’s how to create your own “Doggie Easter Egg Hunt.”

My beloved mutt Baxter is a mix of who-knows-what. But somewhere in there, I’m pretty sure there’s a hound. Dude looooves to sniff!

When we first adopted Baxter, I started playing “find it” to test his nose and to have fun together.

Basically, it’s a doggie version of an Easter egg hunt. So I thought, given that we’re a week away from Easter, I’d share it with all of you.

I’d love to hear what games you play with your dogs, and especially any nose games those of you with sniffy dogs play.

How to play “find it” with your dog

1. Select a favourite treat. Small bites are best.

2. Put your dog in a stay (or, for the advanced version, put your dog in another room).

3. Hide treats around the room. Under tables, behind chairs, or just along a wall. I like to make it a bit more challenging by varying the height of the treats, so I will put a couple on the fireplace hearth or on the TV stand.

How to play Find It with your dog

4. Hold a treat in your hand and let your dog get a good sniff. Feed him the treat and then tell him to “find it.”

5. If your dog is new to the game of “Find It,” you may find it helpful to escort him to the first treat.

6. Once your dog has found all of the treats, acknowledge his success with a “good dog” and scratches or a toy.

Here is a video Baxter playing Find It:

Click here if the video is not showing.

Do you play “find it” with your dog?

What other games do you play with your dogs? Any tips for games for sniffy dogs?

Let us know in the comments!

Julia Thomson is a blogger at Home on 129 Acres where she writes about her adventures of country living and DIY renovating. She and her husband live on a 129-acre farm in Ontario, Canada.

Mary Sue Brown

Sunday 19th of July 2020

Re: ‘Find It’- my golden boy loves to find pieces of kibble when I hide them in the folds of an old large towel; his favorite is when I hide a couple kibbles under numerous small paper cups, placed around a couple adjoining rooms. I let him watch me hide them while he waits for me to say “find it” and he usually goes to the cups in the same sequence he saw me hide the treats

Jen Gabbard

Wednesday 26th of April 2017

This is by far one of the best games ever. It's such an easy way to give them a mental workout and keep them busy. We play it a couple times a week and Laika loves it every bit as much as the last time.

Colby

Thursday 13th of April 2017

We did nosework with Stetson and on Easter week the instructors put about a hundred plastic easter eggs in our training room and only one had odor (I think we were doing birch). Stetson was pretty quick to find the correct easter egg. He loved nosework class. I'm hoping to get him back into it as soon as they start offering classes again.

Dave

Tuesday 11th of April 2017

Our Holly likes to play this game, then she hides our remote control.

Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Tuesday 11th of April 2017

Too funny. It goes both ways!

Sue LaBar

Tuesday 11th of April 2017

We have been playing this game for awhile now, great for rainy days.

Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Tuesday 11th of April 2017

It's great to have some exercises for those tough weather days.