Teach your pup to search for objects

Let’s talk about teaching your dog to look for hidden objects.🧦👕🧢
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Your pup can search for things both at home and outside.
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You’ll need an assistant who will be holding your dog. Alternatively, your pet should exercise impulse-control and sit calmly.
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In order for your dog to understand his/her task, stand at some distance from your pet, show him/her a toy and put it on the ground. Then say “Search!”, after which your assistant should let the dog run to the toy.
As soon as your dog gets hold of the toy, praise him/her.
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Ask your dog to give you the toy. If your pet isn’t familiar with the “Give” command, you can exchange it for a treat or another toy.
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The next step is hiding the toy somewhere close-by (behind a tree while your dog is looking, for example). So, he/she can’t see the toy itself, but can see that you placed it there. Then say “Search”, your assistant should let the dog go and find the hidden object.
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If your pup is having trouble finding it, you can help him/her by indicating in which direction to go with a gesture.
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Then slowly complicate the task and hide toys in places that are not as easily reachable.😊
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Your assistant can also turn the dog away from you, so that he/she doesn’t see where you are hiding the “treasure”.
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Another harder option is to leave the dog in order to hide the toy, then come back and tell him/her to search, after which your pup should return to you with a found toy.
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However, remember to only raise the difficulty of the task once your dog has mastered the previous difficulty level. If you don’t do that, your furry companion might lose all the motivation having faced too many complications.
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Make these training sessions short (no more than 10 minutes long, at first – 2-3 minutes will be more than enough).
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🐶And don’t forget: it is a game, and should bring joy to both you and your four-legged friend.