Hide and Seek
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Dogs
By Gwen Cooper

Animals can communicate quite well. And they do.
~Alice Walker

Not long after we rescued our one-and-a-half-year-old Bloodhound, Hunter, we discovered his aptitude for tracking. His favorite game became hide-and-seek. He obeyed when we told him to "sit" and "stay," and then we would hide an item for him to find and bring back..

We started out with his plush toys. We would show him a toy and let him sniff it, and then we would "hide" the toy while he watched. He caught on to that instantly, so we began making it a little more difficult each time, hiding the toy behind pillows on the couch or inside an open box. We continued to make it more challenging over time, hiding the toy in different rooms, in drawers or closed cabinets, and then in the back yard or our garage. We were amazed at how easily he found the toy each time, no matter which toy we hid. It became one of his favorite activities, and he would often drop a toy at our feet and then sit at the ready for us to hide it. (Keep reading)