I know that many people look a little sideways when I
mention that my dogs get gifts at Christmas (Ari knew and loved how to
unwrap her own presents - and sometimes 'helped' with mine) but the raised
eyebrows really come out when I mention that I have Easter egg hunts for my
dogs. I suppose people think it's odd to do something for dogs that they can't
really understand and when I was younger I think I did it more because I didn't
have children. Now though it just seems natural, my stepchildren are 13 and 16,
far too old to hunt for eggs but just right to hide them; and as for the dogs,
it is instinct for them to 'hunt' for food - especially Luna.
It was the first hunt for all three of our dogs and I didn’t
quite know what to expect. I knew Luna would be game; she had even been
practicing balancing the plastic eggs on her nose the week before and was already treating
them like a (supervised) toy. Once she could smell the treats inside she would
be all over the yard hunting. Ella’s always up for just about any game,
although I worried that even if she found the eggs her mouth would be too small
to open them. As for Boots, well her eyesight isn’t what it used to be and she
stopped playing with toys a while ago.
In the end all three of them took to the idea on one level
or another. I was right about Luna, with little effort or encouragement from us
(after the first egg) she was on her own and certainly found the most. Ella
went crazy and would run around the yard with one in her mouth until it popped
open and then run around some more (I’m still not sure if she even bothered to eat
the treats). Boots needed help ‘finding’ the eggs, but once one was in front of
her she opened it without a problem. The kids had fun too – and I got some
amazing pictures!
Here’s some helpful tips if you want to host your own hunt
next year:
- Supervision, supervision, supervision. Those plastic eggs are easy to break and the little pieces can be dangerous. Know your dog, I always take away Luna’s ASAP where Ella really does just want to run around with hers – but she would start to chew on it when the running stopped.
- Small treats. I love the treat bar at Petco for all my hard treats and used one or two small bite sized ones for each egg along with a couple pieces of their regular dry food.
- Hide the eggs like you would for a toddler, taller grass patches work great.
- I use new eggs every year and discard the old ones. To cut back on costs I normally pick them up on clearance after the holiday or got to a craft store for their pre-Easter sale such as Michaels or Jo-ann when their supplies are 50% (or more) off.
