find the treat
- Thread starter dogsarebetter
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Ohh I just read this in The Culture Shock. If you want to teach him to play hide and seek, you have to start easy.. leave it out in the open and say "Where's your toy!!" and give him hints if you have to, but when he picks it up, reward him. Then keep doing it until it seems like he knows that he's supposed to be searching for something and hide it better, and even hide treats with the toys or inside the toys (like kongs and stuff). Eventually you should be able to hide smelly treat-filled toys and just hide them all over, and when you give the command "Where's your toy!!", they'll know good things are lurking around and they'll hunt for them. If treats are hidden inside toys, it should be even better because they're automatically rewarded for finding the toy. The book even talked about hiding a bunch of things for them before you leave for work (if you give your dogs free roam of the house) and this game can keep them busy for hours.
Hope that helps.. you should really read The Culture Shock by the way, it's an awesome book!! I'm learning how to teach my dog to play games with me.
Hope that helps.. you should really read The Culture Shock by the way, it's an awesome book!! I'm learning how to teach my dog to play games with me.
First of all, please don't call it a "stupid #$@@$ exercise" until you've TRIED it, try to be a little bit open minded.
And no, I don't believe your dog would learn to be destructive by doing this exercise. Know why? Because dogs can SMELL. They're going to smell the sofa to see if there's anything in it before they waste their time chewing it to pieces. They're going to smell your closet before scratching a hole in the door trying to get in. They're only going to resort to destructiveness if they really think there's going to be a reward for it.
I will say, yes, they might learn to get into the garbage, but you should have your garbage puppy-proofed anyway.
And no, I don't believe your dog would learn to be destructive by doing this exercise. Know why? Because dogs can SMELL. They're going to smell the sofa to see if there's anything in it before they waste their time chewing it to pieces. They're going to smell your closet before scratching a hole in the door trying to get in. They're only going to resort to destructiveness if they really think there's going to be a reward for it.
I will say, yes, they might learn to get into the garbage, but you should have your garbage puppy-proofed anyway.
My dogs have always known objects by name ....Daddy's slippers ...( gotten ) other slipper , ( gotten ) and all toys by name ........Being Retrievers they sure saved me a lot of steps . We lived on 8 acres and if Tom was working on a fence or something and needed something ( more nails , hammer , beer etc ) he'd call and I'd give it a dog and say " Go take to Daddy " ...Worked great when kids needed something from the laundry which was 3 floors down . Looking back , their earned their keep !
actually the game can keep dogs from tearing the house apart because it stops boredom. Ideally the treats are not left in places where the do will have to tear the house apart and a dog is not going to randomly tear apart the couch if he does not think there is a treat hidden in the cushions, so he'll have to see or smell it to go for it. I used to leave them on the end of chairs, the coffee table and things like that, throw some in the crate for a nice surprise. You could also in one room set up props like plastic cups with a treat under it, a closed empty binder with a treat in it, pile of his toys with a treat hidden in it, over turned box, inside a paper towel tube (if he won't eat the tube) and any other obstacle you can think of that won't be dangerous. Hope he enjoys the game!
How now brown cow?
I had a friend one time, A girl. She had a couple of dogs. After seeing me train several dogs to open the fridge and grab something out ...She thought after we conditioned those to retrieve it would be a good idea for her to use it at home. My 50+dogs that I have trained to do this particular task will not attempt to do this without me present ...Hers will. How now brown cow?
I had a friend one time, A girl. She had a couple of dogs. After seeing me train several dogs to open the fridge and grab something out ...She thought after we conditioned those to retrieve it would be a good idea for her to use it at home. My 50+dogs that I have trained to do this particular task will not attempt to do this without me present ...Hers will. How now brown cow?
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