Dachshund Five minutes. That’s roughly the length of one pop song, one round of coffee brewing, or one very determined dachshund attempting to burrow under a couch cushion, and it happens to be all the time you need to change how your dog behaves for the rest of the day.
The game is called Find It, and dachshund owners have quietly turned it into a daily ritual.
It works because it uses the one thing your dachshund was actually bred to do: hunt with its nose.
Why Five Minutes of Sniffing Beats a Long Walk
Dachshunds were developed to track badgers underground. That job required a nose that could work a scent trail in the dark, in a tunnel, with a very stubborn animal at the other end.
That nose is still in your living room. It just has nothing to do all day.
Scent work is mentally exhausting in a way physical exercise isn’t. A dog processing smells is running a complicated computation, and the brain burns through energy fast.
A tired body sleeps. A tired brain settles.
Owners report the same thing over and over: after a short sniffing session, the dog that was barking at the mail carrier and body-slamming the baby gate suddenly finds a sunbeam and stays there.
What You Need (Almost Nothing)
Here’s the part people don’t believe. You don’t need equipment.
You need treats, a room, and about the same commitment level as making toast.
The Treats
Use something smelly. Freeze-dried liver, small bits of cheese, tiny pieces of chicken. If you can’t smell it from arm’s length, your dachshund will still find it, but the early lessons go faster when the scent is loud.
Cut everything small. You’re going to use maybe fifteen pieces per session, and a dachshund back doesn’t need the extra weight.
The Space
One room. A hallway works. A cluttered living room works even better because the clutter creates natural hiding spots.
Avoid the kitchen if your dog already counter-surfs. No reason to reward that particular hobby.
Step 1: Teach the Word
Sit on the floor with your dachshund. Hold a treat where they can see it, say "Find it!" in a bright voice, and toss the treat about two feet away.
They’ll trot over and eat it. That’s the whole first step.
Repeat this five or six times. You’re not teaching them to search yet. You’re teaching them that a specific phrase means good things are on the ground and they are yours to hunt.
Keep Your Voice Consistent
Say it the same way every time. Dogs are terrible at generalizing and excellent at pattern-matching, so "find it," "go find," and "find your treat" will register as three different sounds.
Pick one phrase. Stick with it.
Step 2: Make Them Use Their Nose
Now hide the treat while they’re watching, but put it somewhere they can’t see it from where they stand. Behind a chair leg. Under the edge of a rug. Tucked beside a shoe.
Say the phrase. Let them go.
The first few times, they’ll walk to the general area using their eyes, then hit a wall. Watch what happens next: the head drops, the nostrils start working, and the tail goes into that low, fast wag that means the brain has switched on.
The moment a dachshund’s nose hits the floor, you’ve won the game.
Don’t help. Don’t point. Don’t say "over here, buddy" in an encouraging voice.
Struggling is the exercise. If you solve it for them, you’ve turned a puzzle into a delivery service.
Step 3: Hide It Out of Sight
Put your dachshund behind a door or ask someone to hold them. Hide three or four treats around the room while they can’t see.
Start easy: floor level, open areas, nothing that requires climbing.
Release them and give the cue. Watch them grid the room.
The Two Minute Rule
Most dogs find everything in under two minutes at this stage. If your dachshund is wandering aimlessly for longer than that, your hides were too hard, or the treats weren’t smelly enough.
Back up a level. Make it easier. Nobody learns anything while frustrated, including dogs, including you.
Step 4: Add Difficulty in Small Doses
Once your dog is clearing an easy room fast, start layering on challenge. Do this gradually, because a dachshund who fails repeatedly will simply quit and go stare out a window.
Try these, roughly in order:
Raise the height. Put a treat on a low windowsill or the seat of a chair, somewhere the nose has to travel up to find it.
Use containers. Cardboard boxes, an upturned mug, a folded towel. Now they have to work out how to get at what they’ve located.
Add distance. Hide treats in two rooms instead of one and let them work the whole space.
Introduce a decoy. Rub a treat on a surface but don’t leave it there. This teaches them to distinguish between residual scent and the real thing, which is genuinely difficult and satisfying work.
Read the Tail
You’ll learn to see engagement. Ears forward, tail active, nose down, occasional pause to reassess: that’s a dog enjoying itself.
Ears back, wandering, sitting down to look at you: that’s a dog telling you the game got too hard. No shame in it. Just make the next hide easier and finish on a win.
Step 5: Build It Into the Day
Five minutes is the sweet spot. Long enough to tire the brain, short enough that the dog stays hungry for it.
Pick a time that solves a problem. Before you leave for work, so they settle instead of pacing. In the early evening, when the zoomies usually arrive. Twenty minutes before a video call you actually need to be present for.
Consistency beats duration every single time.
Five minutes daily will do more for your dachshund than a forty minute session on Sunday.
The Rainy Day Advantage
Dachshunds and weather have a complicated relationship. Many of them will look at wet grass and simply decline.
This game solves that entirely. Bad weather stops being a behavioral crisis and becomes a normal indoor day.
Common Mistakes That Kill the Game
A few things go wrong often enough to be worth naming.
Playing after a big meal. A full dachshund has no interest in hunting. Play before dinner, not after.
Using boring treats. Kibble works eventually, but if you’re starting out and your dog seems uninterested, upgrade the payoff before you assume the game doesn’t suit them.
Hiding things too high. Long back, short legs. Never place a treat somewhere that requires jumping down from height. Keep hides at floor level or on surfaces they can already reach comfortably.
Talking too much. Give the cue, then be quiet. Chatter pulls their attention back to you and away from the search.
Running it too long. Ten minutes is not twice as good as five. Stop while they still want more.
One Dog at a Time
If you have multiple dogs, separate them. A confident dog will hoover up every treat while the shy one is still thinking about it, and the shy one learns there’s no point trying.
Two sessions of five minutes. Everyone gets to win.
Turning It Into Something Bigger
Some owners stop here, and that’s completely fine. The game does its job.
Others discover their dachshund is frighteningly good at this and start looking into scent work as a sport. There are formal nosework classes and titles in most areas, and the low, determined, ground-hugging build that makes dachshunds terrible at agility makes them excellent at this.
Your living room floor is the same starting point every competition dog began from.
A Note on Older Dachshunds
Senior dogs benefit enormously here. Their joints might be finished with long walks, but their noses work fine well into old age.
Lower the difficulty, keep the hides at floor level, and give them something to think about. Mental work in older dogs is associated with better cognitive health, and it gives a slowing dog a job it can still be brilliant at.
What Changes After Two Weeks
Most owners notice a pattern within about ten days.
The dog starts anticipating the session and gets visibly excited when the treat bag comes out. That anticipation itself is enrichment: something to look forward to structures a dog’s day.
Barking at ordinary household noises tends to drop off. So does the low-level restlessness that makes a dachshund follow you from room to room, sighing.
And the dog gets better at the game, which is the part most owners don’t expect to enjoy as much as they do. Watching an animal solve a problem you designed is quietly addictive.
Five minutes. That’s the whole ask.