Treat Hunting

What do you do after your toddler goes to bed for the night?  Treat hunt!!

I feel like since Charlie came around we have kind of cut back on spoiling Mic… so we make up for it by playing games with him every night.  Our favorite game, treat hunting! This game is perfect for nighttime because it using Mic’s doggie instincts to hunt, which means he’s to busy to bark! So its definitely not a hyper game.  Also, it’s a great game to play after a long day of chasing a (just learned to run) toddler around.

During the day I collect whatever doggy safe table scraps I can and put them in one of Charlie’s baby tupperware bowls with a lid, keep it in the fridge. If we don’t have anything doggy safe, I keep hot dogs in the freezer at all times… so I’ll just boil one up and cut it into little pieces. I don’t like to use store bought treats for this game because you go through quite a lot of treats, so something inexpensive that you can cut up works best.  And Mic loves hot dogs!!

This game is also great for training. Start out by picking a “place” for your dog. Mic’s is his doggy bed in the living room… this “place” is also great to use when people come over, your eating dinner, etc… Tell your dog “Mic, go to your place”! Once they are in their place, waiting patiently for your next command, start hiding the treats. Our set up is perfect because while Mic is in his place we hide treats in the other room, then while he’s treat hunting we finish hiding the treats in the living room!  This way he never sees where we are hiding the treats.  One tip… remember where you hide all the treats just in case your doggy misses one!  Once your done hiding your treats, give your dog their release command… ours is “OK, treat hunt”!

After the first treat hunt he knew exactly what to do. Now when he hears the phrase treat hunt he starts hunting around! This game actually wears him out and its so much fun to sit back with my feet up and watch him hunt around the house. Everybody wins!