Exercise, training, fun, reward, and a wonderful chance to observe and learn about your dog all come together in the cookie hunt game. Watching your dog play the game gives you a peek at how your dog perceives the world, and also an opportunity to observe dog body language. It’s quick, easy, and in many cases will work with multiple dogs at the same time.
Though you can do a cookie hunt in an open area with your dog on a leash, it’s more fun in a confined area off the leash. A fenced yard is ideal. You can do it indoors if desired. Unless the indoor area is quite large, it’s probably best to play indoors with one dog at a time.
If you want to play the game outdoors without a fence, you’ll need a non-restricting chest harness (a tracking harness), and a line between 20 and 40 feet long. This length allows you to stay far enough behind the dog that you can see the dog’s body language. A line longer than forty feet is unwieldy and prone to incredible tangles.
When working a tracking dog on a line, it’s very important not to guide the dog. You want the dog to have the opportunity to work out the scent problem. There is both art and skill involved in handling, and the dog learns to guide you. The dog already knows how to track. Communication between the two of you deepens with practice.
The cookie hunt works without training the dog at all. If you have multiple dogs, you will want to give each dog the experience of a few tracks without any other dogs before you consider having them run a track together. The dogs need to be extremely compatible. You want them so busy tracking that they don’t think to compete over the food. There needs to be plenty of food on the track so it won’t seem to the dogs to be a scarce resource.
If you’re not sure if your dogs are able to safely run a track together, just run them individually or in small groups. It’s not an extremely time-consuming activity. This would also be a good way to manage the situation of dogs being on different diets.
Track Preparation
The very first time you do a cookie hunt with your dog, let the dog watch. This proves to the dog there is food to be found and a general idea of where to search. In the future you’ll not let the dog watch, so it will be a true “hunt,” but first you want the dog to understand the situation.
Prepare the treats. They need to be food that is on your dog’s diet and a total quantity suitable for the dog to eat quickly without getting sick or being at risk of bloat. Pieces need to be just large enough that you can see them as you walk slowly along the track. Place them in a convenient container to carry around the area.
Change your shoes if you have been outside at all in the last few hours. If you’re barefoot, putting on shoes or even just socks will do. Changing to a different pair of shoes will work, or removing shoes and walking the track barefoot or in socks. If you’re going to do the cookie hunt indoors, the same footgear changes apply. You want the dog to be able to locate this fresh track even though your scent is in the area from earlier walking.
Slip outside without your dog following, but if possible let the dog watch through a window or glass door. You could have someone hold the dog, but only if they can do it safely. The first time is the only time you’ll allow the dog to watch. For subsequent cookie hunts, let the dog see you prepare the treats, and then confine the dog to a room where the dog cannot view you walking the track.
The pattern of your track around the yard is important. You will need to remember where you walked, and you will need to avoid walking back over the same area any more than is absolutely necessary. Remember to keep the track short. It is extremely easy to harm a dog by overheating with tracking or searching. In warm seasons, do it only at cool times of day. Ten to twenty minutes is a long time for a dog to track; too long in some cases.
A “loop” pattern around the yard, starting out the back door and walking back around to the back door works well. But put in some turns that will allow you to watch the dog find changes of direction and so that the dog has reason to track rather than just follow the fence line. You can make a satisfying track in a small yard.
If you are not sure you can remember where you walked, draw yourself a map for reference later as you watch the dog. Since tracking is extremely strenuous exercise, though, and the dog will be eating, it’s best to keep the track short. You will probably find you don’t need a map to remember it.
You’ve prepared a quantity of treats appropriate for your dog to eat at one time, so you know how much food you’ll be putting on the track. As you walk along, space the treats so the dog doesn’t have too far to go before the next one. When you run out of treats, make your way back inside without walking back over the track any more than necessary.
It is possible to do a track with only one treat; but the dog might just run out and hunt by the treat’s scent, never noticing the scent of your footsteps along the ground. That’s not as interesting to watch as a dog tracking. If eating only one treat is a better option for your dog’s health, though, that’s the way to do it.
The Fun Begins
It’s ideal if you bring the dog to the start of the track, interest the dog in the scent on the ground, and release the dog to run the track right from the start. Don’t be concerned or let your fun be spoiled if it doesn’t work this way!
Every time you play the game, the dog will get better at it. Experience with the track teaches the dog the game. Dogs already know how to track. Watching your dog play this game will help you learn to recognize other times your dog is tracking something. One time you’ll observe this is when a worker was on the property and the dog wasn’t out there at the time.
So, get the dog to the track, encourage the dog to notice the ground scent, and let go. Or just open the back door and let the dog out to discover the track. If the dog misses the start, that’s fine. The dog will run around, figure out the track leads to cookies, and eventually work back to the start.
Chances are the dog will miss some of the cookies. So when the dog stops searching or greatly slows down, you will walk the track from the start and stop at each cookie you find. Call the dog over and point to the cookie. Your dog gets a reward for coming to you!
While the dog tracks, you get to stand back and study the process. Notice that as the dog approaches a treat, there’s often a head movement as if the dog’s nose was being “hooked” by something. When you see this, it’s a good bet the dog was following your scent on the ground and picked up the scent of a treat. Those are two different scents. A dog working a track seeking articles other than food often shows this same indication.
You can also see the dog realize the scent doesn’t go straight ahead, and follow your foot track where you turned. It’s really fun to watch this, so be sure to put some turns in when you walk the track.
Some dogs search instead of tracking. You increase the chances of the dog tracking by keeping the treats close to your footsteps and dropping them every few feet. As the dog develops the habit of tracking you can space the treats farther apart and the dog will still track. The dog will have learned that tracking is the most efficient way to find the treats.
Variations
Once your dogs all know the game individually, and if they are good buddies, you can likely run two or three at the same time. Put out enough treats to keep them too busy to even think about mugging each other over any pieces. If one dog is a slow eater, try to get the dog to bring found treats to you. When enough treats are collected, you protect the dog from being bothered by the others, to eat the stash in peace. Of course it takes an extraordinarily obedient dog to bring you the treats. But that’s your dog, right?!
You can throw the treats out instead of walking a track, and just let the dogs hunt for them by treat scent in the absence of any track scent to follow. This may work well indoors on the kitchen floor with plenty of tiny pieces scattered around the floor. It’s only safe for some dogs.
You can throw one treat out for the dog to find. You can also use a toy or other item instead of a treat. If you wish, you can give the dog a food reward for bringing you the article. You can also walk a track and drop an article for the dog to find.
If you drop more than one article on the track, you may want to follow fairly closely and have the dog bring you each article as found. You can give a treat, play tug for a second, praise the dog, pet the dog—experiment to see what rewards your dog likes best. Staying near the dog helps keep the dog ready to restart along the track and move efficiently to the next article.
Now you’re getting into more sophisticated tracking. At this point, consider doing something with the skills you and your dog are learning together, such as American Kennel Club tracking titles or training for search and rescue work.
Dogs can track on all sorts of surfaces, so experiment with whatever is available to give both of you experience with ground changes, cement, etc. If you get a chance to track in snow, that’s great fun. Perhaps you can make a tradition of a winter holiday track with your dog. Springtime is a beautiful time to do it. If you carry the treats in a basket, you can play Easter Bunny!
Whenever you set up the scent game for the dog, the treats and articles should have your scent on them. If someone else is available to set it up, your dog will get to work on their scent. In that case, avoid touching the items yourself.
If you do the cookie hunt with one dog, it’s fun to get the dog really excited before starting and as the dog works. When doing it with multiple dogs, though, keep your voice low-key. They will excite each other quite enough without encouragement from you. Too much excitement can provoke a dog fight.
Give It a Try!
Dogs learn the cookie hunt game quickly, easily and with great pleasure. It’s one of the safest ways to let your dog get a real burst of exercise. Tracking will slow the dog down enough to reduce the risk of joint injury, but the respiratory labor of scenting burns a lot of calories.
Remember the safety precautions of appropriate food (the right type and amount for the particular dog), appropriate temperature, and only a highly compatible group of dogs if you run more than one at a time. Make sure the ground where you let the dog run doesn’t have chemicals or other harmful substances on it. Stay in a fence or use a line connected to a chest harness designed for the dog to pull (not to a collar or head halter).
You will quickly be hooked on cookie tracking, even if you only do it on special occasions. The dog doesn’t forget fun like this, and will be thrilled to see you get out the familiar items and make the usual preparations. When you release the dog from behind a closed door, you may decide it’s more fun to step aside and let the dog find the start of the track. Hanging on to such an excited dog can be quite a challenge!