Why Find It Is One of My First To Teach Cues

If you read “Tracy’s Top Five Behaviors to Put On Cue” you would know that Find It is one of the first behaviors I like to put on cue. The cue tells the dog that there is food on the ground to find and it could be a single kibble or treat, a few, or a big handful. What I want to see is when I say the cue, the dog immediately focuses their head to the ground and starts to search for the food.

So why is this a fav?

There are a lot of ways to use Find It. For example when I needed to draw See Kao’s attention away from the squirrel running down the street, I’d say find it and toss some treats in the opposite direction as the squirrel. I use Find It with Boon when I need to keep her moving through an intersection, I toss one ahead to keep her forward momentum going. When I have had to stealthily get into a kennel run at the shelter, I’d cue Find It and toss the treats to the back of the kennel to open the door and get in safely. Easy peasy.

Find It is a great way to encourage nose work by getting your dog to snuffle in something grass or moss to find the treats. This is particularly useful for dogs who may have some pent up energy at the start of a walk. At the shelter, I’d take a dog out of the kennel and at the first patch of grass, I’d toss a handful for the dog to forage to bring it down a notch. Sometimes I’d observe that it might take a few rounds of this, kind of like needing to take multiple deep breaths after a stressful situation. For purposes of decompressing, it’s important that the dog use their nose vs sight to find the treat. I always did multiple rounds of Find It throughout walks with See Kao as she found the outside world just a little disconcerting.

It’s such a simple behavior to teach. Simply drop a treat on the floor where the dog can easily see it then say Find It. Gradually start dropping the treat in carpet or grass where they cannot easily see it but have to start using their nose. Then start practicing with minor distractions. Our goal is a very fluent or automatic response where you say Find It and the dog immediately drops their head and starts sniffing for the treat.

Happy Find It’s!

Tracy