The Dog’s Nose Knows – sniffing games for dogs

 

Did you know that domestic dogs have evolved from scavenging animals? That probably explains some of your dog’s behaviour!

Instead of your dog getting his scavenging-jollies by counter surfing and stealing, let’s give them an acceptable outlet for this behaviour with our scavenger-hunting games.

Today’s Games

Time Allowance:
Each game will take you 30 seconds – 3 minutes to set up. Your dog does all the work!
Try two or three of these games today and tomorrow.

Family Participation:
Fun for all the family – children will love to scatter food (it’s just like making a mess that someone else cleans up!), hide food and set up sniffing courses.
Always supervise child-dog interactions and make sure children learn to leave the dog alone while he works on his puzzle.

Top Tip for Today’s Games: 

Add a cue to these games so that you can ask your dog to search. Say “go find it” just before releasing your dog to search.

Scatter Feeding

The easiest way to feed your dog, while still providing them with a challenge, is to have them sniff out every piece of food.

Take your dog’s food and instead of feeding them from the bowl toss their food on the ground.

Beginner Level ideas:

• scatter your dog’s food on hard flooring

• scatter your dog’s food while he’s watching

Advanced Level ideas: 

• scatter your dog’s food in grass

• scatter your dog’s food when they are in another room, then release them to sniff out each piece

Link

Dinner Trails & Scavenger Hunts

A slightly more formal version of scatter feeding involves setting up specific hiding places for your dog’s food.

Beginner Level ideas: 

• hide food in plain sight or in easy to spot places

• set up a dinner-trail in the house, garden or on your walking route – this is a great game for puppies!
  Drop a piece of your dog’s dinner every couple of steps you take. Go back and get your dog and lead them (make sure to let them find each piece though!) along the trail so that they can find each piece as they follow you.

Advanced Level ideas:

• hide stuffed or lined Kong toys (piles of kibble or frozen wet food if you don’t have Kong toys) in increasingly tricky places

Check out our video guide to simple Kong stuffing:

Link

Sniffing Course

You and your dog are probably hooked on scent games by now – YAY!

How about setting up a sniffing-games course? Use various household items such as boxes, overturned chairs, cones, plant pots or dog beds.

Set up each course while your dog is in another room and then release them to search.

Beginner Level ideas:

• hide food in one spot in each course and make sure that there is nothing in front of it or over it that may block the scent reaching your dog

Advanced Level ideas:

• have a number of hides in each course

• make the courses trickier as your dog improves by placing hides behind and under parts of your course

Sniffing games are perfect for rainy days or for dogs on limited activity!

Link

Well done!

That’s Day 1 done – introduce these games today and tomorrow and we will have new games for you and your dog on Wednesday.

Now, don’t forget to share how you are getting on – we would love to see video and pics of your dogs sniffing out their dinner and see how you have come up with ways to challenge your dog’s nose!

Go on, show off….