My two are pretty rubbish at finding treats on the floor, even when they're smelly (frankfurter, cheese, liver) and right under their noses. They also never seem to use their eyes. Clearly this isn't a "problem" as such, but it really surprises me that they can't find these treats sometimes.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! I used to use my foot to point right next to the treat to help Harley. She picked it up pretty quickly and can now sniff one out of long grass that she hasn't seen me throw Do you ever play 'find it' at home? I hide treats all over the room, under blankets, in toys, under toys etc (whilst she is out of the room), then send her to find them. We started by making it obvious to see and gradually made it harder.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! A Lab that has difficulty finding food? I've never heard that one before We play this game with Holly using apples instead of treats. One of us will rub an apple over our hands, then hide it somewhere in the house or garden. She only needs to be offered a hand that smells of apples and she knows that the hunt is on. She's very persistent, and usually homes in on the apple quite quickly.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! Bob's a bit like that too when there are treats on the floor... I usually put my foot nearby to signal where he needs to be sniffing. We've played a bit of 'find it' in our lounge too with a ball which he's quite good at. Although he's learned to look in all the usual places and I'm fast running out of new places to hide it now!
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! We don't play find it at home, I admit. It's a bit more of an issue with two doglets, but I think I might give it a go this afternoon. It must be good for honing their natural instincts, too.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! We did a scent class with Bob a little while back (it was offered as a freebie as the trainers had c*cked up our previous course so we'd paid for 8 lessons and there was only 7) It was quite good fun. Basically you'd put a treat under a basket and encourage the dog to sniff around it. When they offered a behaviour, like a sit or a down we clicked to mark it and then opened the basket so they could have the treat. So the dog learned to do that behaviour again the next time. You can build it up to having more than 1 basket and only putting the treat under one of them. It was quite fun! And it's easy to do in the living room at home too. Lou x
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! We have 2 versions of 'find it'. No 1 and husband's favourite. Kibble is scattered in the long grass at the edge of the lawn. Molly is released and goes on a kibble hunt. Hubby likes this because it allows him to leave the grass unmown "for the dog" No 2. Molly sits in kitchen with me whilst small person goes and hides treats in other parts of the house. Molly isn't restrained at this time so it teaches her control. Small person dashes back yelling "Go find" then rushes around supervising the hunt.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! Last week we had someone in our "marketplace" at work selling marshmallow guns. I was tempted. I could imagine myself sitting at the edge of the field firing marshmallows into the long grass while Holly runs around trying to find them.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! Thankfully Buster loves finding treats, especially in the arden while the weather's nice, i can scatter them round and he finds them, keeps him occupied for a short while. My son has also got him to find money which is pretty cool.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! I just put Bob in a sit/wait and scattered a load of treats in the garden for him. He went crazy trying to find them afterwards it was such fun! I had to guide him into the regions where I'd scattered them, but he was so excited when he found them! Going to do that a lot more from now on Lou x
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! If you check clicker gundog, there is a clicker exercise for getting your dog to hunt and find food outside, to line them up for hunting later...just think through your find it cue first - what do you want it to mean? Hunt round your feet? Over a large area, a small area, or only at the end of a retrieve etc.
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! Thanks Julie. I've not read that yet; I'm slowly working my way through my stack of books when I get two minutes to myself!
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! This is an interesting one - I know what you mean as I've had times when I've thought MY dog has a dysfunctional nose, as she's just not getting the treats in front of her. Firstly, they have to know what it is they're looking for! Sounds obvious, but if they sometimes get sent to look for treats and sometimes for toys, how do they know which one it is now? (Well, surely they'd always eat a treat if they find it you say, but it turns out no! I made an ill advised diversion once into using biscuits to teach direction control, after already doing a bit with dummies. Just the one time - poor dog was going over and over the ground looking for a dummy ignoring the biscuit completely : And she's a total Hoover for anything vaguely edible normally ) Secondly, indoors there's not much wind. And treats obviously don't lay a ground track! So it might take a while for diffusion to do its thing- much longer than outside where air is moving around and a dog can air-scent up the 'scent cone' (she says, showing off her new search-dog knowledge ;D) However, I think that once they get tuned in to what they're up to, they'll get much better at it. As with everything, start ridiculously simply before adding complexity. [quote author=Mollly link=topic=10645.msg157715#msg157715 date=1429532331] No 2. Molly sits in kitchen with me whilst small person goes and hides treats in other parts of the house. Molly isn't restrained at this time so it teaches her control. Small person dashes back yelling "Go find" then rushes around supervising the hunt. [/quote] Cuuuuuute !
Re: A bit rubbish at hunting for treats! Oooh, ooh, just thought of another thing! You know how we need two eyes to locate the position of an object in 3D, and two ears to tell which direction a sound is coming from? Well, we, and dogs, only have one nose. So although they can smell something, I think they essentially have to do a bit of a 'hotter', 'colder' exercise going back and forth to work out which direction makes the smell stronger in order to locate it. This is why the scent cone is useful, they can go across it until they 'lose' the scent, then work back across it in the other direction and so on and so on, working further in. Also, I think when a Lab is in 'sniff' mode, they can't really see right under their noses too well. Not sure how close up they can focus. So they end up looking dafter than they are ;D
