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Find It !

It’s easy to teach your dog to find hidden treats. Just have someone hold her and let her watch you put a few treats on the floor.  When the person releases your dog say ‘find it’ and let her run over and sniff out the treats and eat them.  When she has the hang of the game you can put her in another room, out of sight, while you hide a few treats.

 

When you introduce the Find It game, start out by choosing hiding spots that allow your dog to find the “hidden” treats easily. Try placing treats behind the legs of furniture, partially in view. After you’ve hidden the treats, go get your dog and say “Find it!” right as you let her into the room. Encourage her to look around for the treats, but try not to point them out to her, or help her too much or she will just come to rely on you instead of using her nose. As your dog becomes better and better at finding the treats, you can hide them in more difficult places, like behind pillows or underneath objects. Then you can play the game in the garden, or even on walks.

You can also play Find It with your dog’s favorite toy. Follow the directions above, but hide the toy instead of treats. When your dog finds it, you can play a game of tug or fetch as a reward.

 

‘Sprinkles’

To put it simply – it is throwing and sprinkling small amounts of tiny morsels of moist food over a large area of grass, without your dog seeing what you are doing. You then allow him to take as much time as he needs to search and find the Sprinkles (which leave molecules of scent, even when they have been eaten) without prompting or distracting him in any way. Sprinkles tires your dog mentally, fulfils his working instincts and drives, builds confidence in his abilities, and promotes deep natural healing sleep – all of which help to lower dogs long term stress levels.

HOW DO I SET UP THE SPRINKLES SESSION?

In your back garden on the grass –

  1. Distract your dog to the front of the house, close the kitchen door and take the Sprinkles outside – making sure that your dog cannot see you.

  2. Check that the grass area is free from dog poo, that there are no slugs or snails, and that no children's toys etc can accidentally be eaten.

  3. Make sure you have very tiny morsels of different types of moist food and throw and sprinkle them over as wide an area of grass as possible. Avoid paths and hard surfaces as the food will be too visible, and avoid flowerbeds as your dog may feel the urge to dig if food is left there.

  4. Return to the house and, depending on your dog’s state of arousal, either let him into the garden or sit down and have a drink before letting the dog out.

 

WHEN & HOW OFTEN DO I DO SPRINKLES?

Your dog must not be tired or recently fed. An ideal time to learn do Sprinkles is first thing in the morning in the back garden while you are having breakfast. Then, if you need to, take him for a shorter walk than normal - although many dogs are reluctant to go far after a session of Sprinkles as they are mentally exhausted from the task. How many times a week you offer your dog a Sprinkles session depends on your dog’s mental and physical needs. I recommend experimenting with every other day, or 2 or 3 times a week, once or twice a month, to see how your dog responds. I must emphasise that doing Sprinkles every day may be far too much for the average dog and that Sprinkles will lose its novelty and challenge if done too regularly.

 

Please go here for full article and details (including a downloadable pdf of the full article)  … http://www.dog-games.co.uk/sprinkles.htm

All scent-work games are excellent for dogs who tend to be over-excited and ‘silly’ – so that’s most dogs!  They are also excellent for building confidence in shy or anxious dogs. There are some very good, fun scent-work resources – check out the following for more information

www.scentworkwales.co.uk

we offer classes, workshops, taster days, one to one training and scent trials – visit the website to find an instructor near you.

http://scentworkuk.com/

UK-wide scentwork association with a list of instructors and information on scent trials.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Canine-Kingdom-Scent-Activities/dp/1929242727

a nice book, lots of fun activities, easy instructions.

http://www.suzanneclothier.com/the-articles/scent-games-educating-your-dogs-nose

useful article with ideas to get you started

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6sdQl9je2o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxG--4t3SU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Parker-Videos-Started-Nose/dp/1617811106 - a dvd

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Try-Tracking-Puppy-Primer/dp/1929242182 (definitely not just for puppies)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Dog-Knows-Science-Perceive/dp/1451667329

Interesting book on training and working with a specialised sniffer dog.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Dog-What-Dogs-Smell/dp/1849835675?ie=UTF8&ref_=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3

General good book about dogs including sense of smell …

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