1. Find the Food or Hide Treats Around the House
One of the most stimulating odors for dogs, food! This would be definitely the most favorite scenting and tracking nose game of your dog. In this game, hide your dog’s treat in any part of the house and let him find it.
Once your furry pet located one of the treats, then he or she will know about finding other dog treats in any part of the house. Of course, the reward here is the treat he found! Easy right?
2. Pick the Hand
Here’s one simple interactive game with your dog. Select food or treat that your dog really loves. Place it in one of your hands and close both fists. Let your furry pet identify on which hand you put his or her favorite food or treat.
If your dog correctly identified which hand you placed the food, give the food or treat as a reward and praise him or her. Do this frequently to enhance your dog’s scenting instinct and at the same time improve the bond between the two of you.
3. Hide and Seek
This is one of the fun scenting and tracking nose games! Why? Because this game is similar to the “Hide and Seek” that kids love to play! In this game, the “IT” is your furry dog and he or she needs to find you.
Try this first at home and hide wherever you want (inside the closet, at the back of the door, under the bed, etc.). When your dog finally realizes that you are missing, he or she will try to look for you, and when your furry dog finds you praise him or her and give a reward.
Play this game frequently and if you notice that your dog consistently finds you, try it outdoor. This game not only stimulates the tracking and scenting instinct of your dog but it also improves your relationship with your furry pets.
4. Tracking the Person
This game is usually taught to K-9 dogs because they are usually used to locate criminals or victims. If you want your dog to know this game, try it first in an indoor set-up. Put a trail of treats that leading towards your used clothes.
Make sure that clothes have your smell. If your dog finally reaches your clothes let him smell it and give him or her a reward afterward. When your dog is already good at tracking your smell, try it an outdoor set-up to increase the potential of your dog in tracking a person.
5. New Animal Scent
This game is an easy game for dogs since their sense of smell is exceptionable. The mechanics of this game is similar to Tracking the Person Game.
The only thing that is different from the two is instead of using used clothes from humans, you will use a cloth that you will wipe with other animals (either in their skin, urine, etc.).
Again, they will track the trail of treats that leading towards the cloth that has the scent of the new animal. If your dog found the cloth, praise your dog and reward him afterwards. If your dog is an expert for indoors, try it in an outdoor set-up.
This video tutorial shows you how to activate your dog’s nose so you can track items, people, and scents!
6. Scent Trails
Dogs are interested in smelling almost everything. Unique scents such as essential oils can stimulate your dog and it can help to excite their tracking instincts. So how to test this game?
First is to get one of their favorite toys and put a minimal amount of essential oil into it. After putting drops of essential oil into the toy, play the toy with your furry pet and do it several times a day.
On the following day, while your dog is busy with some other stuff, hide the similar toy, then put an essential oil to several tiny pieces of paper and put it on the floor like it’s a trail leading to your furry pet’s favorite toy. Let your furry pet track the scent of his or her toy.
You will notice that your furry pet will smell the odor of the essential oil you used and he or she will follow the trail of the pieces of paper and eventually he or she will definitely find his or her favorite toy!
When your furry pet finally founds it, make sure to praise and give a reward to your dog. The next time you do it, slowly reduce the number of scented papers until he or she can find his or her favorite scented toy by himself. Once your dog mastered tracking his scented favorite toy at home, try doing it outdoors.
7. Where is my meal game
Dog owners tend to put the meal of their dogs in the same spot every day. What if you hid it in another spot, will your dog be able to find it? The answer is definitely yes! Dogs are food lovers too!
If you try to put the food bowl of your dog in a different place, he or she will look for it through using his or her sense of smell. Try to do this exercise every day to stimulate the smell of your dog.
8. Home Alone Puzzle Toy Game
It’s really sad for a dog to be left alone in the house, which is why this game should be taught to your dog! In this game, you need to buy a treat dispensing toy since this is the tool used in the puzzle game of your furry pet.
Before leaving the house put the favorite dog treat of your furry pet inside the “treat dispensing toy”. Let him discover through his sense of smell that his favorite treat is inside the toy.
This may be difficult for your dog, but when he finally solved the puzzle he or she will be rewarded with the treat that is inside the toy. This is a very good game to improve the mental exercise for your dog.
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