Nosework: Teach Your Senior Dog Step by Step

This is an easy nosework game that senior dogs can learn, even those who have mild dementia. Finding food is pretty hard-wired into dogs and most animals.

Dogs with moderate to severe dementia can’t learn much, if anything, but some may still enjoy using their noses in a simpler version. See the last photo of Cricket at the bottom of the post.

Nosework is one of the most enriching activities you can offer your dog, and there are dozens of ways to do it. Dogs love to use their noses! I teach my dogs to search for a little packet of food. I use some kibble folded up in a cardboard paper towel roll. I start off very, very easy, putting the food down in front of them and using the cue “Find it!” You could say anything; they learn the cue as part of the training process.

Cricket was able to learn some nosework games as a senior dog at the age of 13, even though she was beginning to have dementia.

My dogs graduated from being able to find the kibble in a small room, to a big room, to somewhere in half my house, to my whole house, to my back porch, to my whole yard! We built up the behavior over years. The most important thing is not to rush. Don’t try to “challenge” them or brag about how hard you made them work. Keep it easy for a long time. Add challenges very gradually, and only when you see that the actual search part is bringing them joy, even before they find the food.

The step by step instructions for this enriching game are in the video and also in the transcript below it.

Transcript for “Find It” Video

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>>EILEEN VOICEOVER This is how I teach dogs a food-finding nose work game that can be done indoors or out. It can be kept simple or made challenging over time.

For dogs who like their kibble, that’s what I use. You could use higher value treats if your dog is less interested in kibble. I start with 3 or 4 pieces. I place them on the floor with the dog watching, and say “Find it!” and then I let the dog go and eat the kibble.  I do this several times with the dog watching.  I put the pile of kibble just a few feet from the dog.

Then I use an indoor room with a door that I can shut. I go inside the room, keeping the dog locked out. I put the kibble front and center where the dog can see it as soon as I open the door. I open the door, say “Find it!” and let the dog in. We do this several times, with the dog locked out while I place the kibble each time. At this point they are probably just seeing the food rather than sniffing it, but that’s fine. They’ll use their noses soon enough.

After I have done a number of reps like this, over at least two days, I put the kibble slightly out of sight. I don’t mean hide it. I mean that when they come through the door they won’t see it straight ahead. It will be a simple left or right turn. Then I do this many times, over several days. 

Now, this is not the time to give them a challenge. We are building a behavior. We want them to find the food in several seconds and build up many wins. Add to the difficulty very very slowly. There is no hurry!

This is our first big left turn. You can see that the food is not that far off the path.

This time I put the food into a shadow, and Zani can’t see very well. I made it a little too hard for a beginner dog.

After you can put it anywhere in the room and they can find it, then you can branch out and release them into a hallway that accesses several rooms. 

The first time you do this, you know what to do. Put the food just inside one of the doorways. Do this several times before gradually moving the food farther into the room. 

They will be having fun from the very beginning of the game, so you don’t need to rush!

At some point, I switch from a little pile of kibble to putting it in a folded-over paper towel tube. Every dog I’ve played this with seems to love ripping up the cardboard to get to the kibble. Obviously, don’t do this if your dog eats cardboard. My Clara has been known to do that, so I leave her tube open on one end so the food generally spills out. And I confiscate the tube if she gets interested in eating it.

Here’s Zani with an easy hide, and you can see how much she enjoys ripping up the tube. By the way, Zani always tucks her tail when she’s working on a food toy. She’s not upset about anything; she’s just concentrating. Thanks for watching!

End transcript

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Tips for Nosework Challenges

• If your dog isn’t excited about kibble, use something higher value like homemade treats, soft dog food roll, roast meat, or commercial treats. Once they come to love the search, you may be able to drop back to kibble. I’m all for giving dogs special treats, but nosework is so fulfilling for dogs that the search itself usually becomes exciting for them.
• Use a verbal cue (or a unique hand signal for deaf dogs) consistently from the very beginning. Remember, you are going to make it easy enough that they can find it every time. So to your dog, the verbal cue will quickly mean, “Hey, there’s some food for me to find!” (Tip-within-a-tip: once you start using the packet of food, seeing you prepare it will teach your dogs that nosework games are about to happen! Then you don’t even need the verbal cue.)
• If your dog can’t find the food you have hidden (which usually means you made it too hard), sometimes they will come “ask” you for help. Do not take them to the food and show them. In this game, we want to gently encourage them to search independently and use their noses. If you “help” them too many times, they will learn to quit and ask for help. (And that means you are making it too hard.)
  If they are struggling, one thing you can do is stroll over closer to the hide area.  You will act as a lure, and your dog will usually follow and start searching that area. But try your best to build difficulty very gradually so you don’t have to do this often. Be sure your hides stay within your dog’s skill level and your dog doesn’t get frustrated. 
• Don’t elevate the food. Keep it at ground level. Odor spreads differently when it is not on the ground and this adds a whole level of difficulty. I started elevating the food only after a year or so, when my dogs could easily find food that I put anywhere in my whole yard on ground level. Don’t try it at the beginning!
• Likewise, don’t put the hide in a hole or even a dip or gully. Often, not much odor will come out. Holes can be even harder than elevating the food.
• All my dogs were able to find the hidden food even if I was sloppy and had some of the exact same food in my pocket. If you start them off right, and teach them that the cue means there is some food on the floor for them, they will learn to distinguish that from the odor coming from your pocket. (Just don’t give them any food from your pocket, or they may decide to work you for that instead!)
• If your dog has dementia, her capabilities of finding food will likely diminish. Then you can reverse the process and make the “hides” easier and easier. Here’s what it looked like for Cricket near the end of her life. I hope this gives you an idea of how easy you can make an enrichment game and still have it be pleasurable for the dog. Cricket was losing her coordination about eating but still seemed to enjoy “finding” a little trail of treats. (She would not have been able to open a packet and she had long since lost the ability to search methodically.)

On the other hand, this is how skilled my dog Summer got at it after a couple years. This was a difficult hide: it was in a hole and under a propped up kiddie swimming pool. She was 11 years old in this clip, confident, and running at full speed (the video is not sped up). Don’t try one this difficult early on!

Again, there are dozens of ways to play nosework with your dogs. I like this method because I didn’t need to teach them an odor. Food odors are intrinsically interesting! Using another odor is a fun training challenge, but if you are just looking for an easy way to have fun with your dogs, food works great! And it is so cute when they tear open the little packet.

Copyright 2019 Eileen Anderson