Dog really gets to use its nose when searching in the dark.
Nose work is very efficient way to drain a dog’s energy. In the autumn and winter we have long dark nights here in Finland. Sometimes when it’s dark outside I turn the lights out and just sprinkle the kibble on the floor and let Miki use his nose to sniff out where the kibble are.
When I sprinkle about half a cup of kibble on the floor, it takes Miki about 3 minutes to find them all.
We sometimes play this fun game, where I toss very small pieces of treats on the floor and let Miki search them. I only toss one to three pieces at once and I always toss them in different directions, so that Miki really needs to use his nose in order to find the treats.
Last time we played this game, I had about 20 soft and small treats, which I had cut in eight parts each. That makes about 160 very small pieces of treats and the game lasted about 25 minutes.
You can do the same thing if you have a windowless room even if it’s bright outside, just shut the door and turn the lights off.
You can also play this game outside. But when it’s dark outside, these is a possibility that your dog also eats something else he finds that you can’t see, like paper tissues. So we let Miki search treats outside mostly in the daylight, not in the dark. But if you have an own yard, go ahead.
