Enrichment for the Real World

#112 - Try It: Teach Your Dog "Find It" From Scratch

• Pet Harmony Animal Behavior and Training • Season 10 • Episode 112

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Looking for an easy way to enrich your dog’s life and support your behavior goals? “Find It” might be your new favorite go-to. In this episode of Enrichment for the Real World, Emily Strong (she/they) walks you through exactly how to teach “Find It” from scratch—even if your dog has never done scent work before.

You’ll get a step-by-step guide that starts with clear floors and easy wins, then builds up to more complex searches. But this episode isn’t just about tossing treats—it’s about being strategic and observant. Emily helps you learn how to tell when your dog is engaged, tired, distracted, or discouraged so you can adjust accordingly.

Whether your goal is to help your dog focus, relax, or stop scanning the horizon for spooky stuff, “Find It” might just be the multi-tool your toolbox is missing.

TLDL (Too Long, Didn’t Listen): 3 Key Takeaways
It’s all about the nuggets of wisdom. Here are the quick hits from this episode that will leave listeners feeling empowered and inspired.

  • “Find It” is a behavior toolbox MVP – Use it to support a range of goals, from helping your dog relax while you work to keeping them grounded when the world gets a little uncertain. 
  • Set your dog up for success from the start – Begin the game on a hard, clear surface so your dog can use all their senses to build confidence and momentum.
  • Use “Find It” strategically across contexts – Before creating a whole new training plan, ask yourself: could “Find It” help here?

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[00:00:00] Emily: So how do we know that the Find It Game is actually working? Why you're doing the game is going to impact what outcomes you're looking for, but there's three reasons that I'm typically playing find it with a dog, and and then of course how I know that my outcomes are what they should be in the context of these three goals. The first most common reason that I play find It with dogs, is that I'm using it as a foundational skill for more complex scent games, because I want all dogs to be able to play scent games. The second reason that I most, most often teach find it is providing enough mental and physical exercise to allow the dogs to rest. Boy, howdy. Am I using this game a lot with Miley right now because she is four months old at the time of this recording, and she is a little energizer bunny, so find it is how I'm getting my four month old puppy to be able to relax for the length of time that I have consecutive meetings back to back. The third most common reason that I teach find it to dogs is when these dogs will hyper vigilantly scan their environment with their eyes to their own detriment. Like they're, they're anxious all the time because they're constantly looking for Stranger danger or something like that. They're looking for a stressor and it's compromising their behavioral diversity because they spend way too much time just scanning the environment and I wanna turn their eyes off and turn their nose on. 

[00:01:21] Allie: Welcome to Enrichment for the Real World, the podcast devoted to improving the quality of life of pets and their people through enrichment. We are your hosts, Allie Bender...

[00:01:39] Emily: ...and I'm Emily Strong...

[00:01:40] Allie: ...and we are here to challenge and expand your view of what enrichment is, what enrichment can be and what enrichment can do for you and the animals in your lives. Let's get started.

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Enrichment for the Real World, and I want to thank you for rating, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:02:01] Emily: All right. Welcome to our very first Try it episode. Today we will be talking about how to teach find it to a dog who has no prior scent work experience. Last week we talked about different scent games that we enjoy teaching to dogs, and this week we're gonna talk about how to teach the very most foundational scent work skill there is, which we call find it, but that is not the game's only name. You can call the game whatever you want and find it actually can mean many things to many people. 

So for us find it is that very first foundational scent work skill of do you know how to find a piece of food when it is tossed on the ground using your nose, preferably, eyes are okay a little bit, but really we want you using your nose to find the food. So we call that game, find it. You can call that game whatever you want, because you have agency and there's no universal imperial law that says you have to call this game. Find it. Okay. So let's talk about the nitty gritties of how to play find it according to Pet Harmony.

First, we start on a hard surface because at the beginning, we're not trying to teach the dog how to use their nose, we're just trying to teach them that the, the cue means. Put your nose to the ground to find food. So we don't actually start with their nose, we start with their eyes. So, we'll start on a hard surface where it's easy for the dog to find the treat with their eyes.

And then you say your cue, which for us is find it, but again, your cue could be whatever you want it to be. It could be strawberry milkshake, it could be Winston Churchill. I don't care what your cue is, our cue is find it. So we say find it, we toss a treat. Then we repeat that a few times until you feel confident that your dog knows the cue.

And this typically looks like when you say find it, the dog will immediately start looking on the ground for the treat before you've even tossed it, but that's not true for every dog. So, sometimes it just looks like when you say the cue, the dog gets really excited because they are like, oh my God, yay, food food's about to rain from the sky. 

So, I'm going to leave it up to your best discretion to assess how your dog looks when they know the cue. But we wanna repeat it until the dog knows the cue and, and this usually takes very few repetitions, maybe five to six repetitions for most dogs to learn that find it means I'm about to drop a piece of food on the floor.

Next, we move to a more difficult location like carpet or grass, where the treat is hidden in stuff, so they do actually have to start using their nose to find it. We will move to that location, say find it, toss a piece of food in carpet or grass or whatever surface you're using, and what we're hoping to see this time is that the dog will actually start using their nose.

You can tell that they're using their nose in a few different ways. If you're able to hear, then a lot of times you can hear the, the snuffling sound that they're making. That's one of the things that I actually do, is I listen first for that snuffling sound. However, you can also see if you're able to see you can see the dogs nose the little sides of their nose, rapidly moving in and out, it's like fluttering and you can see their rib cage moving in and out much more rapidly than like breath, right? Breathing is kind of a deep and even thing, and even when it's fast breathing, like panting, it is rhythmic, it is, it happens at predictable intervals, whereas with sniffing you don't really see that predictability. The, the breath, we'll go sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff. So there's so it's not as rhythmic type of breathing, and you can see that when you watch their rib cage. And I also sometimes will watch their abdomen. 

So if it's a really longhaired dog where it's hard to see their rib cage moving, I'll watch their abdomen and I can actually see how their coat, their hair coat is moving to assess, what their breathing looks like. So, those are the ways that I typically rely on, I listen for the snuffling sound and I look for those ribs moving and that tells me that the dog is actually using their nose to find the treat. 

So we have found a successful substrate for getting the dog to start looking for the treat with their nose instead of their eyes, or with their nose, primarily with the eyes along for the ride.

We repeat this process until the dog is able to predictably and reliably find the treat without your help when you cue it. And again, in my experience, this usually just takes a few repetitions where I say find it, I toss the treat in the grass, and they don't need help within three to five repetitions because they, they figured it out.

And usually most dogs have pretty good noses. They just have to learn how to use them. Once I can see that the dog is doing that well, you have two different options from there. There are two different methods. I don't really care which one you use, I think they're both great. I use them both interchangeably.

One method is you start tossing more than one treat at a time, so usually like two to six treats in the same area that you have been just tossing one treat. So you say find it and toss a handful of treats, not a handful, that's too many. A pinch full of treats, like I said, two to six treats. That's one option. You, you cue, you toss two to six treats. You wait until the dog finds all of them. You re-cue you toss two to six more treats, et cetera. 

The other method is you continue just tossing one as at a time, but as soon as the dog finds the treat they're looking for currently, you toss another one away. I typically don't like to toss one right in front of the other because then I've found that the dog will use their eyes.

So I'll usually toss the, the treat around the dog's flanks or around the dog's hips. So that they don't see where the new treat lands and they really do have to use their nose to find it. But you just do this continuous string of as soon as the dog finds one treat, you toss another, and then you just keep doing that until they get tired. So those are the, the steps to teaching Find it that we use at Pet Harmony. 

And let's dig a little deeper into, the ways that, that people typically struggle with this game is that I, I've found that humans struggle to differentiate between when a dog is getting distracted, when a dog gives up because the treat is too hard to find, and when a dog is getting tired. So, let's talk about those three things and what they look like and how to respond. 

So distraction looks like the dog was in the zone, scenting for the treat, following that scent trail until something in the environment grabs their attention and draws them away. And so, if you see that, if they're distracted, give them time to process whatever is distracting in the environment, don't worry about trying to regain their attention. It's actually really valuable for them to spend some time taking in that new information in their environment. And especially if the dog has a history of reactivity and they're not being reactive, they're just distracted. That is the sweet spot. Let them process that. That's so, so good. If they are reactive, then work with a behavior professional to address that reactivity, separately from the game, we're not gonna talk about reactivity in the rules of the game because that's not the point of this, this episode, right?

But if they're just distracted by something, let them process it, give them time. And then when the distraction has passed, reque the find it behavior with whatever cue you use. It can be Winston Churchill for all I Care. And then let them continue where they left off. Just pick up the game where they left off as if nothing happened.

Giving up looks like the dog is following some other scent trail away from the treat. And so they, they, they can't find the treat, they're not following the correct scent trail to the treat. They've gotten sidetracked by some other scent, and then they just followed away from the treat and eventually they just stop sniffing and they start to do some other activity instead because they're like, oh, dang it, I lost the scent trail.

Right? So if they give up because the treat is too hard to find. Req the find it behavior and point to the general vicinity where the treat is. You don't wanna point straight at the treat and give away the location 'cause we're not trying to, to give them the answer, you just wanna narrow down the search field for them um, so that it's easier for them to find.

It's within the scope of their current skillset. So I usually point about maybe two to three feet away from the treat. So, I'm giving them a general direction of, of where to look to find the treat. Look with their nose, obviously, but where to look to find the treat. Tired. Looks like they've been doing this for a few minutes or however long their current capacity is, and they're struggling to follow scent trails that they, that were easy for them earlier in the session.

They give up more quickly. They're getting distracted more easily, even by things that aren't actual distractions, like the dandelion that has been there the whole time, but suddenly they're like, oh, dandelion. So if you're starting to see those. Things that's generally a sign that you've hit the end of their stamina for scent work.

And they're tired. So if they're tired, give your end of session queue for me. I go, all right, that's it. And then I put a small pile of treats in a really obvious place that doesn't require them to use their nose to find it. So, for example, like on a hard surface next to the carpet or on the concrete next to the grass or in their food bowl. The whole room is carpeted, right? So that you just wanna signal to them like, you can stop using your nose. Now the game is done. Here's a little snack. Good job. You did good work. And that's how we can gradually increase their stamina and their ability to be more persistent as they, as they get better at scent work in general, but obviously find it in particular.

So how do we know that the Find It Game is actually working? Well, obviously the outcomes you'll be looking for depend on your goal for the game, like why are you doing the game? That's obviously, why you're doing the game is going to impact what outcomes you're looking for. But these are usually the reasons I play find it.

There's, there's three reasons that I'm typically playing find it with a dog, and and then of course how I know that my outcomes are what they should be in the context of these three goals. 

The first most common reason that I play find It with Dogs is that I'm using it as a foundational skill for more complex scent games, because I want all dogs to be able to play scent games, and so more often than not, I'm using find it as, as a, a gateway to start teaching them other more complex scent work.

And the way that I know that the Find It game is doing its job is that I can see that the dog has the skills they need to start learning those other games. So those skills typically look like they know what a cue is to, they know what cues mean. Use your nose. When they hear that cue, they drop their nose to the ground.

They immediately start using their nose. I can see and hear the sniffing, and they're able to find, follow a scent trail to a piece of food. Those are the skills. If they've got those skills, that means that the find it game did what it was supposed to do. 

The second reason that I most, most often teach find it is providing enough mental and physical exercise to allow the dogs to rest. Boy, howdy. Am I using this game a lot with Miley right now because she is four months old at the time of this recording and she is a little energizer bunny and if I have four hours of meetings back to back, I need her to, to be able to rest during that time or entertain herself. I don't want her to feel anxious and restless and climbing the walls and pacing because that tells me that I'm not meeting her needs, but also I'm in the middle of a meeting so I can't meet her needs, so find it is how I'm getting my four month old puppy to be able to relax for the length of time that I have meetings, consecutive meetings back to back, right? 

So in that context, what I'm looking for is after the game has ended, the dog is able to just slow their role and chill out and maybe even fully sleep. Like right now, I can record this podcast episode because I played a long game of Find It before I started recording. And Miley is totally passed out on the nest right now. 

The third most common reason that I teach Find it to Dogs is when these dogs will hyper vigilantly scan their environment with their eyes to their own detriment. Like they're, they're anxious all the time because they're constantly looking for. Stranger danger or something like that.

They're looking for a stressor and it's compromising their behavioral diversity because they spend way too much time just scanning the environment and I wanna turn their eyes off and turn their nose on. And so I'll use find it for that at least as a foundational skill to other scent work games. But what I'm looking for to know if find it did its job in that context, is that at the end of the session, they're able to go on, enjoy other activities instead of returning to scanning the environment. So I wanna see that, find it did its job of signaling to that dog. Look, you've done your job, you've done a good job of scanning the environment and looking out for baddies and your job is done. Now you're off the clock and now you can go do other things. So I wanna see that after the find it game, they're able to go do other things. Let's quickly recap the steps for teaching the game. 

First, start on a hard surface where it's easy for the dog to find the treat with their eyes, say your cue, then toss the treat, repeat it a few times until the dog knows the cue, move to a more difficult location like carpet or grass, repeat the process until the dog is able to find the treat, using their nose after hearing the cue, and then increase their ability to find more treats for longer periods of time using either of the two methods that we discussed.

Alright, that's it. Those are our step-by-step instructions on how to play what we call find it. Please share videos of you trying this activity with your dog, or dog in your care on Instagram at Pet Harmony training. Happy training.   

[00:16:24] Allie: I hope you enjoy today's episode and if there's someone in your life who also needs to hear this, be sure to text it to them right now. If you're a pet parent looking for more tips on enrichment, behavior modification, and finding harmony with your pet, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Pet Harmony training. If you're a behavior or training professional dedicated to enrichment for yourself, your clients, and their pets, check us out on TikTok and Instagram at Pet Harmony Pro.

As always, links to everything we discussed in this episode are in the show notes. Thank you to Ellen Yoakum for editing this episode and making us sound good. Our intro music is from Penguin Music on Pixa Bay. Please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That helps more pet lovers and professionals find us so they can bring enrichment into their world too.

Thank you for listening, and here's to harmony.