Your Dog’s New Favorite Game: An Easter Egg Hunt!

Surprise! We are sharing some of Challenge 2.0 so you can teach your dog how to do a scavenger hunt for some fun and low cost enrichment.

Things feel pretty heavy out there right now — especially here in the U.S. So we wanted to send a little joy your way... and maybe give you an excuse to bring some extra fun into your dog’s day too.

In our e-course, Challenge 2.0, one of our favorite lessons is teaching your dog how to search for hidden things around the house — basically, turning them into a little scavenger hunt pro. And with Easter right around the corner, we thought: why not turn that same idea into a DIY dog-friendly egg hunt?

Below, we’re sharing a sneak peek straight from Day 9 of Challenge 2.0 — including the full lesson and videos on how to teach your dog to search and find hidden treasures. We’ve never shared e-course content like this publicly before, so we hope you love this little preview.

And don’t worry — you don’t need actual eggs for this! (We know egg prices are WILD right now.) You can totally use toys, treats, frozen Kongs, or anything else your dog loves to sniff out and “hunt” for.

If you give it a try, tag us on IG so we can cheer you on! And as always, hit us up in the subscriber chat if you have questions or want some extra tips.

Happy hunting!

Intro: We’re Going To Have Our Dogs To Search for Hidden Food or Toys

It’s easy to see super fancy Toppls as you scroll through Instagram and think that is what enrichment is. While that is one example of enrichment (and yours doesn’t have to look fancy unless that is something you enjoy doing), there are so many other categories to pull from (e.g. social, sensory, physical, etc.). Enrichment is really about providing environments rich with reinforcers that allow our dogs to practice using their behavior to produce desired outcomes. Today, you’re invited to play a treasure hunt game that allows your dog to search for food or toys that you have hidden around a yard or home (toy is a good option if you’re looking for non-food enrichment).

Note: You can likely find public areas to play this game too using a longer leash. You probably just need to find areas where there aren’t a ton of other dogs or animals present.

How To: Teach Your Dog To Find Items or Food That You've Hidden When You Cue Them To Search

If searching for items or food you hide is new to your dog, this is your chance to teach your dog how to “hunt for hidden treasure” (i.e. to find and eat the food you hid). You will start intentionally easy, so your dog can contact reinforcers and get the basic gist of the game. You’ll be able to advance pretty quickly (and will be ready to shake it up in no time!). You can choose to teach this with food or toys (I suggest using something your dog is likely to WANT to access and allows you to do multiple reps). See “⏭️ Ideas on How to Progress” below steps for ideas on how to modify the steps if you want to use a toy.

🥇 Goal

• Teach your dog how to search for items or food that you have hidden when you cue them to search.

• Optional: Practice having them wait while you hide the food or toys (you can use a gate, pen, or leash if “wait” isn’t in their repertoire yet)

🧰 Supplies

• “Treasure” – either some treats/food or a toy (I am going to show this using food, but you’re welcome to use a toy)

  • Note: If I play this game with toys, I tend to only hide one toy at a time (because my dog wants me to play with the toy once he’s found it). If I play with food, I hide food in multiple locations (follow steps below to get to that point).

📍 Location

• Somewhere low distraction (I recommend starting indoors, but if your dog is likely to engage with you outside, that works too)

✔️ Steps

• Teach them to access a single, visible treasure on cue.

  • Have your dog station somewhere while you place a couple treats down on the ground a few yards away from them in a single spot. Your dog should be able to watch you place the treats down without getting up (aka it’s not so much “hiding” them at this point since they can see them; you’re teaching them what to do when you say “go search”).

    • Tip: If your dog cannot station on a mat or lie down and wait while you put treats on the ground, no problem. You can use an x-pen, crate, or baby gate (assuming they are comfortable with those things) or a leash. You just want your dog to be able to watch you put the food down.

    • If you want to work on having your dog wait/lie down until you cue them to go access the food/toy, here are some posts we’ve created on the topic:

      • Errorless leave it

      • Leave it & take it

      • Ideas for teaching take it

      • Training your dog around distractions

      • Teaching one dog to wait while you train another

  • Return to your dog. Say your new verbal cue to search (“go search”) and then point to the treats on the ground.

  • Your dog should get up and go eat the treats (you can physically prompt them more if needed). You can celebrate a little after if that is something your dog enjoys. Then tell them “all done” or use some other phrase consistently that indicates to them that they found all of the treats (i.e. “you found them all!”). This becomes more helpful when you hide more than one treasure at a time.

  • Ask them to station again and repeat. This time, put the treats in a new location - perhaps slightly farther away from your dog. Cue them to search.

• Teach them to find a single, hidden treasure on cue.

  • Eventually, you will place your treats just out of your dog’s view (remember, your dog is watching you hide them, so they should still know where they are). Cue them to search. (Help them out if they struggle with some physical prompts like pointing.)

  • Repeat but in a new location that is out of view (your dog is still watching where you hide the treats).

• Teach them to find multiple hidden treasures on cue.

  • While your dog watches from their station, hide treats out of their view in two different locations (they should be able to watch where you are walking to hide them). Cue them to search.

  • Repeat. Try hiding treats in 3 different locations. (You’re teaching them to keep searching after they find one. This is where having some cue to indicate to them that they found all of the hidden treasure is helpful. If nothing else, your celebration is likely to start to convey this info. Feel free to say “keep searching” or “go search” again if they stop after finding the first treat.)

⏭️ Ideas on How to Progress

• Ready to hide treasure while your dog is not looking at where you hide it? Proceed to today’s Shake it Up!

• Did you train this with food and want to try it with a toy? Start simple again and place one toy out on the ground (start visible just like described in the steps section) and then cue your dog to search. You can decide what the criteria for reinforcement is (i.e. do you want your dog to lie down near the toy, to pick up the toy & bring it to you, etc.). I use play as the reinforcer for searching & finding the toy. I keep it simple and my dog grabs the toy and bring it to me for some tug (he decided that, not me lol).

🛠️ Troubleshooting Tips:

• If your dog is stopping after finding one treat, try placing your treasures close together so their eyes or nose will catch the next one.

💡 Things to Think About

• Bad weather day? This is one of my favorite ways to serve part of my dog’s meal. I will hide almost an entire meal all over my entire house and send my dog out to find it all. I only get involved to check that he didn’t miss any of my harder hides. (I tend to feed part of their meal in a bowl first to make sure they aren’t super hungry and frustrated that they can’t eat more quickly.)

Shake It Up: Have Fun With a More Difficult Search