Hide and seek

[Raven oaktree]

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Willow is my 10month old GSD x (gawd the time has flown by ) we love to play games that train her brain, and make her think and keep her active . One of her favourite games is hide and seek. We show her the toy we are hiding, put her in he kitchen and hide the toy, then say Willow go find and off she goes. The problem is she finds it withing minutes. We have started putting her toy inside boxes under stuff so not only dose she have to find it she has to figure out a way to get it out but she is solving it very quickly..anyone any ideas how we can make it more challenging ? more fun?..We have even submerged toys in water and she has found them ...soooo how can i keep my clever little cookie intrested and active and take this game up a notch ?

 

[goldenbear2013]

I play hide and seek with Bear but with a tasty treat. As it's small you can hide it in really small spaces, or a little higher up to make it more difficult.

Give her a whiff of the tasty treat go off and hide it and then tell her to find the treat, just like you do with the toy.

It is more challenging for them as i had the same problem hiding Bear's toy.

Let me know how you get on!

It's funny watching them as if she is like Bear he sniffs so loudly its like a snuffling pig! lol! xx

 

[Raven oaktree]

hahahaha, yea Willow is the same..as she gets closer to the 'treasure' her snorting gets louder. We have used treats in the past but she finds them quicker than her toy hahaha, i guess the reward of liver or fish is greater than a toy . Honestly Sophie we hide things in all kinds of places, on the top of six foot shelves, under duvets , in shoes inside cupboards, in the bottom of BBQ's...in the water fountain partly covered with water, we have moved onto putting it in a bag or a box THEN hiding the 'treasure' and she STILL finds it. The time i was most impressed was a few weeks ago. I was having a few drinks and munchies outside with friends, and we were playing with her. The patio table has munchies like nachos, dips, olives and some meats and cheese for my friends (im vegan so i dont usually have this stuff). There was whisky and cider (all strong smells , the BBQ was lit and so was tthe fire pit Willow had been trying to snaffle grub all night understandably...but there was lots of smells and tempting stuff, I put her in the kitchen , showed her a toy and my friend put it in her back pocket and sat down . Willow checked all around the garden , sniffed all around he table..even though there was tons of yummyness for a dog on there she remained focused, she sniffed but wasnt at all tempted...despite all the smells that was on the patio that night it took her about 5 mins to find it in my friends pocket ...she was soooo excited too that night because she had lots of people (who she loves and adores) and she was still soooo focused and found it . she is a clever cookie, i tell you xx

 

[eingana]

Had you thought of teaching Willow scenting as an obedience discipline? She could do either the formalised type which is competed at various shows or less organised formalised scenting a human out in the big wide world exercises.

I'd move her onto a bigger scale than finding a toy in your home, and move onto playing with scent while you're out. Take a human that she knows and likes with you, and give her lots of smells of this human and then you walk off with her in one direction for a few minutes and this human goes off in the other way and secretes themselves behind a tree/bush/gatepost just a few yards away, initially. Bring her back to the place where you parted, point her nose to the scent your friend has left and tell her to go find. With a bit of luck she'll find her way straight to this friend, who will pop out from behind the tree/bush/gatepost with a big smile, fuss and treat for her, she'll get the message that this is a fabulous game and then you can work on all sorts of game shenanigans which get bigger and bigger.

For around the house, have you got her any interactive dog toys? There are lots of them made, which all depend on you knowing that she'll play with something in order to get a treat out of them. This is just one selection:

http://www.traininglines.co.uk/interactive-dog-toys/

It does sound like you've got a clever bunny on your hands, so maybe you've got a mountain rescue dog of the future?

 

[Raven oaktree]

oww scenting as an obedience? oww because we couldnt do agility and flyball till at least 12 months i hadnt really looked at what is out there for her to do, but this sounds fun..something she would really enjoy. I will have a look.

As regards the interactive toys, she has got 8 different ones now, we swap and change them all the time, but there are some on the link you gave me that look much more challenging for her so will start to save , or maybe sell some of her others and buy some harder ones ..yep, she is a clever girl, its very hard and challenging for us to keep her occupied and out of mischief but she seems to have matured in the last few weeks and is more happy to chill out than look for mischief to get up to