I have a little game I play sometimes with Delilah. I have her sit and stay, then I take a toy and with her watching me, I ‘hide’ the toy. I give her the release word and say, “Go find the toy.”
This morning Delilah was bored. I could tell by the way she tried to climb into Hubby’s lap.
I was tired and didn’t have the energy for a morning walk. I decided to put a twist on our game. I remember reading about a lady and her dog (and I apologize because I can’t remember whose blog it was on;) I think the dog’s name was Lucy and the woman would take a piece of bacon out of the refrigerator when the dog was outside and hide it somewhere in the house. The she would wait and see how long it took the dog to find it.
I had the dogs sit with hubby and I took some baby carrots and ‘hid’ them around the house; in obvious places.
Then I said, “Find the carrots.”
At first they just looked at me, but after helping them each ‘find’ a carrot, they got the idea. The great carrot hunt was a huge success and kept Miss Delilah busy for about 20 minutes. 🙂
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What a fun game! I am going to have to try that with my girls 🙂
They enjoyed it Misty. I think it was a thinking/sniffing game for her. 🙂
My Mom gave me about five pounds of carrots from her garden, and tonight at dinner I was wondering if Lila could have some. Now I know dogs like carrots, and it will be fun hiding them and keeping her busy. Thanks!
My dogs love carrots! I thought it was less messy then hiding meat or something else. I think they have fun sniffing all over the house. 😉
I gave Lila a carrot tonight, and she chewed on it for a little bit, and didn’t like it at all. Bummer:( I guess I will have to keep trying.
I’ve tried that with various treats. My problem is that the same dog finds them all. And doesn’t share.
I can see how that would be a bit difficult. What do you do in that instance?
My Oliver has a terrific nose. We were at a reservoir one time and he stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air. About a mile away was a stand of trees and I couldn’t figure out what he was looking for. Suddenly he took off and ran toward the trees (no amount of my frantically calling for him stops him when he gets like this) and in a minute or less out of the trees popped a deer, with Oliver several yards behind it in hot pursuit.
Just goes to show you that he can sniff out a deer a mile away. But when I play “Find it” with Oliver (same as you, “hiding” treats in plain sight around the house) he can’t sniff those out to save his life. Yesterday I gave him a treat before I left the house but he dropped it. He wanted to go with me, not be left at home. When I returned home it was still where he’d dropped it. I figured that now that I was home he’d sniff it out and eat it, right? Wrong. I had to pick it up off the floor and hand it to him or he’d have never found it. Geesh.
A more successful version of “Find It” that we play is that I put treats under little cups and he goes around pushing over the cups to get the treats.
I wish Oliver liked carrots. He doesn’t like any fruits or vegetables (but gets them anyway, because I’m a mean mommy lol).
Giving them veggies isn’t mean. LOL
I can’t believe he sniffed out a deer from that far away! A couple of weeks back we were walking in the woods; Sampson stopped in the middle of the trail to wait for me, then he took a left. When I got to the spot and looked to MY RIGHT, there was a deer standing not 20 feet away! I am constantly seeing or hearing something before my dogs do, but somehow the little carrot trick kept her busy.
Hey Jodi…I shall definitely give this hide and find game a good go 🙂
Maybe your pups will love it like mine do Dr. Rayya!
Sounds like you are running a world-class K-9 Nose Work class at your house.
The best part is that they get that excited about carrots! For mine I’d have to hide something icky and meaty, and they’d probably not find everything anyway, and then in a few weeks I’d start noticing that “dead” smell….
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LOL yes my comment worked. I was so excited I almost went back and commented again!
I’m glad she will play for carrots too, that was also another reason I hid them in plain sight, just in case they didn’t find them and I had to go back and search. I remember one time at Easter the ‘bunny’ hid the eggs so well, that we missed one. 😉
I shall have to try that 🙂
Does he like carrots?
How clever. That’s similar to the nosework games we play with Honey. As she gained experience, we hid the treats in tougher and tougher places. It’s amazing how tiring a good sniffing activity can be. Great for rainy day exercise.
Good information Pamela, I was thinking once they get the hang of it; I can make it harder.:-)
I put up instructions for the first 3 nosework classes we took with Honey. I have 3 more lessons to post. You can find them on a page at my blog. Hope you’ll check it out.
LOL what a good idea. It is sort of like hunt the grouse but in the house. (Hopefully they didn’t try to flush and retrieve the carrots. ;))
No S & D are not hunting dogs. 🙂 They wouldn’t know a grouse if it sat up and bit them! LOL
Awesome post! What a great idea for a game. We will *definitely* try this with a bored Koly. With the rainy season hitting Vancouver hard, I’m going to have to get creative with entertaining stuff to do!
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Thanks Jodi, don’t they say neccesity is the mother of inventions? I would have to say laziness is! LOL Thanks for the invite to the blog hop, I hooked it up. 😉
great game! We do that on a walk with Fred through the neighborhood, I cant do it at home because he has a little food agression when haylie is around or else this would be a great idea! too cool
Makes sense Kari, if Delilah was food aggressive I wouldn’t be able to do it either. 🙁
Woof! Woof! I LOVE carrots … often my mom plays a game with me too. Lots of Golden Thanks for joining our TT Blog HOP. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Thanks Sugar! Besides carrots are there any other veggies you like?
What a great idea for a game. Flo hasn’t really shown any interest in carrots but I could use something else. I was laughing the other day, remembering one of your previous posts about Delilah, I tried to tempt Flo with a sugar snap pea… she gave me a confused look I’ve never seen her give before as much to say “do you really expect me to eat that?”
🙂
H and Flo
LOL Oh Flo!! She will learn. Yes I think I could tempt Delilah with any piece of food. So far there hasn’t been anything she won’t eat.