How to Teach a Dog to Find

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By Jerrie Dean
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Tara waiting for command to find.

It's fun to teach your dog how to find things. You can teach them to find their ball, your child, a treat or even you car keys. Here is how you teach your dog to find.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Thing you want them to find
Dog Treats

Step 1

You want your dog to be in a sitting position before you start, put treats in your pocket, have the object you want them to find and you are ready to begin. Let your dog see and smell the object.
Step 2

Place your object, lets say it's a ball a few feet away from the dog. Don't let them go after the object until you tell them to find it, by saying, "Find, ball". If they bolt away, return them to the same spot and have them sit and try again, until they successfully go after the ball when you say "find, ball." Give them a treat. This step may take a while to do, but it is necessary to stick with it before you go to the next step.
Step 3

Take the ball and put it farther away this time. Have the dog sit, put the ball farther away and then tell them to find ball. Repeat this step going farther away each time and rewarding with a good dog and treat.
Step 4

Let your dog smell the object and have another person hide it. Tell your dog to find, ball and watch as they search for it. It may take some encouragement from you to get them to keep searching, but once they catch on they will be able to find it, it will become a fun game for them.
Step 5

Found you!

Follow up by doing the trick every day for about a week. Then introduce another object. We were successful in having the dog find the cat, and our son (hide and seek) and many other things at our house.