We have been blessed with some fabulous sunny weather over this Spring and Summer, so mostly our dogs have enjoyed being outside, walking, sniffing, playing and having new adventures.

When the weather changes (we are officially into Winter now!) and it gets a bit colder and it rains (and boy is it raining!), it can be really useful to have some scent and enrichment games indoors to keep your dogs occupied.

All dogs can benefit from sniffing and using their noses, some obviously have more scent receptors than others, but sniffing out treats or any enrichment activity is a great way to help your dog self sooth and relax, and can reduce anxiety, especially on those days when we don’t want to be out for as long.

I outline below a selection of my favourite easy games for you to try.

Our house is usually full of old boxes of various shapes and sizes, these make an excellent and cheap way to set up a search exercise for your dog.

Most days one of our dogs will have a box with old wrapping or newspaper scrunched up with various treats hidden inside.

Some might be easy hides and some they might need to work a little harder to rip the paper open to reveal the prize!

I love this simple activity as it can keep a dog engaged for a good 10 minutes and remember it’s a great activity to help release that all important chemical dopamine that helps your dog feel good about herself.

Another variation on using old boxes is to use one specific box to hide a treat in (out of sight of your dog) let them come in and give lots of praise for finding the treat.

Then, introduce another box (empty) next to the original box with a new treat in.

Send the dog in to search for the treat in the right box. When they get the idea, you can gradually introduce more boxes so that the dog has a mini search area to sweep to find the box with the treat in. If your dog isn’t treat motivated, use a prized toy to find instead.

The Hide and Seek game is a good one to play in the house. Let someone else in the home hold your dog while you go and hide somewhere, (make it easy at first) then get the person to release the dog with a ‘Find mum!’ let the dog come and find you with lots of praise when she seeks you out. As the dog gets better at finding you be creative and hide behind curtains or under beds. Let the dog use its nose to find its human!

Find the treats game. This is where the dog is in one room and you are in another placing treats in various places, under a coffee table, on the seat of a chair, in a box, put some in an old wrapped up towel, on their bed, use an old empty biscuit box to put some in too. Then let the dog in to find all the treats. This creates an activity that allows them to use their nose to sniff out things at a low level, slightly higher, use their skills to get a box open, unravel a towel. If the dog stops, be encouraging and guide them to search out more.

The flowerpot game. I know some of you will be saying don’t encourage my dog to be interested in flowerpots! Ok, so we can use something else, plastic beakers ߘ? with this one, you let the dog see you place a treat under a pot and ask them to find it. After a few repetitions, add in more pots, hide a treat under one (with the dog out of sight) and ask them to find the right one.

Finally, dig out your muffin tin and find a few tennis balls! Place a treat in all the open bottoms of the muffin tin and then cover them over with a tennis ball. For this one I would use a tasty treat like sausage or chicken. Let the dog investigate and sniff out the treats and either knock the tennis balls out of the way or pick them up to get to the treats.

All the above are suggestions that don’t cost a lot of money and it’s a great way to enrich your dog’s life by playing these effective scent games.

There are a lot of things you can buy, kongs, toppls, likimats, mind toys and various snuffle toys which can also add to your dog’s activity schedule for sniffing and searching but if you are looking for a simple option on a rainy day, then try out some of the above.

Happy sniffing!

Tracey Prall

MAPDT (01223)PPG Full Member, CAP 1

www.canineconnections.co.uk

Kennel Club listed

07735401076