Several times a day Duggan will make his rounds through the house. He goes into every room and basically smells himself around the perimeter of our home. I'm thinking of he's than nosey then I should work with him on this. How do I teach him to find hddden kibble rewards of or even whatever I want him to?
To play a 'sniff out the treat game' it's best to follow a kind of routine, so he knows when to look for treats and when not to bother. Here's what we do: - get out our treats (we always use pieces of dried liver for this game which we get out of a specific cupboard). This is a cue that the game is starting. - put Obi in the study and shut him in so he has to wait while we hide the treats elsewhere. This is another cue that the game is starting. - hide little pieces of treat around the room(s). We always use the lounge/living room and the dining room only, so he knows where and how far to search - open the door and say "Go seek!" - let him sniff out the treats on his own. We don't provide any direction as if you do the dog starts relying on you to do the searching (intelligent tool use of humans ) Just be patient and let him discover the treats in his own way and time. If you do some version of the above Duggan should catch on quickly If he's not then let him watch you hide the treats the first couple of times.
We play this game with Holly. Sometimes we hide a few treats, other times we hide a small apple without the stalk. We use the whole house except bathrooms. It gives us a bit of peace when we sit down for our afternoon cuppa!
Thanks, sounds easy enough. Could you expand this to find a particular item. Like you see on tv. Where they smell an item of clothing and find a child or does that kind of task require much more advanced professional training?
My dogs love this game and it's especially exciting as normally they are not allowed beyond the kitchen. I hide a small sachet of catnip somewhere under a cushion or behind a curtain while they wait in the kitchen and swop it for a treat when they bring it back to me. The younger one has got really good at this and can pretty much find it straight off. I've worked out that he is listening to my footsteps and works out which room I've been in or whether I've gone upstairs. I'm just going to have to make it harder. I started that game with a rabbit covered tennis ball in the same room and gradually worked further away in the house. I stopped using the rabbit ball when I saw that they could just go to the door of a room and sniff to know if it was hidden in there or not!
