Dachshund Rain hammered the windows for the third day straight, and by 4 p.m. your dachshund had already shredded a magazine, barked at the dishwasher, and started that slow, restless pacing that means trouble is being invented somewhere in the house.
That pacing has a cause. A bored dachshund is a dachshund with a working nose and nothing to point it at.
Here’s the good news: the fix takes about ten minutes, costs nothing, and turns your living room into a scent puzzle your dog was genetically built to solve.
Why the "Find It" Game Works So Well on Dachshunds
Dachshunds were bred to follow scent trails underground, into badger dens, without backup. That job required an outrageous nose and the stubbornness to keep using it long after a sensible dog would have quit.
Both traits are still in there. They just have nowhere to go when the biggest challenge of the day is a squeaky carrot.
Nose work burns mental energy at a rate physical exercise can’t match. Fifteen minutes of hard sniffing can leave a dachshund more satisfied than a forty minute walk, which matters a lot when your dog has a long back and joints you’d rather not overwork.
A dog that gets to use its nose on purpose stops using it on your laundry basket.
There’s a confidence angle too. Shy or reactive dachshunds often loosen up considerably once they have a game they know they’re good at.
The Body Benefits Nobody Mentions
Sniffing lowers heart rate. It’s a self soothing behavior, which is why anxious dogs relax during a good scent session.
For a breed prone to back trouble, that’s a real advantage: you get a tired dog without a single jump off the couch.
What You’ll Need Before You Start
Very little, honestly.
Grab a handful of treats your dog would sell you out for. Freeze dried liver, tiny cheese cubes, bits of chicken. Kibble works for some dogs but the stakes need to feel high at the beginning.
Cut everything small. You’re going to run a lot of repetitions and nobody wants a dachshund who’s full after round three.
Pick a quiet room with minimal traffic. Turn off the TV.
That’s it. No special gear, no scent kits, no equipment that requires assembly.
Step 1: Teach the Word
Your dog doesn’t know what "find it" means yet, so the first session is purely about building the association.
Sit on the floor with your dachshund in front of you. Show them a treat, let them sniff it, then drop it about a foot away where they can clearly see it land.
Say "find it!" in a bright, slightly ridiculous voice as they go for it.
Repeat this maybe eight or ten times. The dog isn’t searching yet, they’re just learning that those two words predict something wonderful happening near the floor.
Keep the session under five minutes. End while they still want more.
A Quick Note on Your Voice
The phrase needs to sound different from your everyday talking. Dachshunds tune out background noise from humans with impressive efficiency.
Pick a tone you can reproduce every single time and stick with it.
Step 2: Hide in Plain Sight
Now you introduce the tiniest bit of difficulty.
Place a treat on the floor a few feet away while your dog watches, then release them with the cue. Still visible, still easy, but they have to travel to get it.
Once that’s smooth, put the treat just behind a chair leg or partially under the edge of a rug. Visible if they look, invisible if they don’t.
Let them struggle for a few seconds. The moment of searching is the entire point, and rescuing them too quickly teaches your dog that you’ll always solve the puzzle for them.
If they truly stall out, walk toward the treat and tap the floor near it. Don’t pick it up and hand it over.
Step 3: Take Away the Visual
Here’s where the game gets real, and where most dachshunds suddenly get very interested.
Have someone hold your dog, or put them behind a door for ten seconds. Hide three or four treats around the room: behind a table leg, on the lip of a shelf they can reach, tucked into the corner of a dog bed.
Release them. Cue the game. Then stand back and let them work.
Watch their body language during that first blind search. The head drops, the ears swing forward, the tail starts doing that fast little metronome thing. That’s a dog running its factory settings for the first time in a while.
The goal isn’t a dog who finds treats fast. It’s a dog who enjoys the looking.
Resist the urge to point. Every time you help, you shave a little value off the game.
How Many Hides Per Round?
Three to five is plenty for a beginner. Any more and you’ll have forgotten treats fermenting behind your bookshelf, which you will find in August.
Count what you hide. Count what they find. Simple as that.
Step 4: Add Difficulty Gradually
Once your dachshund is clearing a room confidently, start layering in challenges. One new variable at a time, never two.
Raise the height slightly. A treat on a low windowsill or the seat of a dining chair forces them to sniff upward, which is a genuinely different skill.
Try scattering treats in a towel that’s been loosely rolled. Or a cardboard box with crumpled paper in it.
Move to a new room. Familiar rooms become memorized routes, and a dachshund who’s memorizing has stopped sniffing.
Then take it outside. Grass is a phenomenal scent environment and it changes the game completely.
When to Back Off
If your dog gives up twice in a row, you went too fast. Drop back a level, run three easy rounds, end on a win.
Frustration is fine in small doses. Failure that repeats is not.
Step 5: Turn It Into a Real Cue
At some point you want "find it" to work anywhere, not just during structured practice sessions.
Start using it opportunistically. Toss a treat into the grass at the park and cue the game. Scatter a few pieces in the kitchen while you’re cooking.
Use it as a redirect: your dachshund starts barking at the mail carrier, you toss three treats across the room and say the magic words.
This is the part that changes your daily life. You now have a portable, instantly deployable way to reset your dog’s brain.
Building It Into Your Week
You don’t need to do this every day, though most owners find they want to once they see the effect.
Three or four sessions a week, ten minutes each, is a serious enrichment schedule for a small dog.
Rainy afternoons are the obvious slot. So are the twenty minutes before dinner when your dachshund typically becomes a small tornado of unmet needs.
A reasonable rotation looks like this: easy scatter on Monday, blind hide on Wednesday, outdoor session on Saturday. Adjust to whatever your week actually looks like rather than whatever seems ideal.
Feeding Meals Through the Game
Once your dog is fluent, try scattering half their dinner instead of putting it in a bowl.
Portion control stays intact, mental workout comes free, and a meal that took nine seconds now takes eleven minutes.
Common Mistakes to Sidestep
Using boring treats. If the payoff is dull, the searching will be too.
Hiding things your dog physically can’t reach. Nothing kills enthusiasm faster than a scent they can smell but never get.
Playing too long. Sniffing is genuinely tiring and a dachshund who’s mentally cooked will start wandering off mid search.
Twelve good minutes beats forty mediocre ones, every single time.
Repeating the cue over and over. Say it once, then trust your dog to do the work.
And finally, forgetting that dachshunds are opportunists. Once they learn treats appear on floors, they will investigate every floor they ever encounter. That’s a fair trade for a calmer household, but you should know it’s coming.