By Emma Judson
The aim of the game is for your dog to choose to take him or herself away, to locate a simple, non-frustrating puzzle. It should be out of sight of you, and he should know the location of it. He completes it at his own pace, and comes to find you when he is done, or when he needs you.
Use a puzzle, or set up a DIY puzzle, that is easy to complete and does not wind up your dog. It should not be easy to just pick it up and fetch it back to you.
Snuffle mats, muffin tins with treats under tennis balls, simple Nina Ottoson style puzzles are all good to use, as long as your dog has done them before, and you know that they are quite easy.
If your dog has never done such a thing before, start out by setting the puzzle up with you in the room. Let your dog figure it out, helping as necessary, until they are familiar with it.
Assuming your dog is familiar with a puzzle, then set it up, let them see where it is, and then remove yourself and your dog to another room. You sit down and release your dog to go back to find the puzzle and complete it.
You can vary how far away the puzzle is, and to what degree it is out of sight. For a fairly confident dog it can be out of the room, down the hall, or in another room. For a new or less confident dog, or a dog that you have doubts over being able to do this, just put it around the doorway. Your dog’s head will be out of sight of you while they do it. Build the distance up later.
If you can observe your dog doing this on camera, that would be preferable. We want to see normal body language, soft, relaxed (but if your dog normally does puzzles fast and hard, that’s ok, we want ‘normal for them’), rather than rushing/snatching at it. That can signify that your dog is actually finding it hard.
If your dog can’t do the puzzle, comes back to you repeatedly, or appears frustrated, then you need to scale back by bringing the puzzle nearer to where you’ll be waiting, therefore making the puzzle easier.
The idea is that your dog makes a choice to leave you. In doing so and solving the puzzle, he is rewarded for independent thinking without you present. This is one of the skills he needs for coping alone.
With very new dogs or puppies, you can start this game just with food and without the puzzle element. It is (I think!) the act of THINKING and solving something, rather than just the reinforcement of finding food, that really helps.
