Are you looking for a way to challenge your dog and extend the fun of treat time? Puzzle toys, which are interactive, reward-based toys, can be a great way to amuse your dog and appeal to his natural hunting instincts as he “finds” the food.
Dog Finder is one of the Nina Ottosson puzzle toys, an excellent way to add enrichment to your dog’s day.
Last year, we had the chance to review a Nina Ottosson’s Dog Tornado, an interactive toy that requires your pet to turn each level to expose hidden treats. Not only did one of our dogs love it, but one of our cats couldn’t get enough of it. Our dog Tiki and our cat Felix spent many winter hours mastering the Dog Tornado (and almost always playing the game together!)
So we jumped at the chance to review another Nina Ottosson toy when we were offered the opportunity.
The Nina Ottosson Collection now includes three new games: the Dog Finder, Dog Twister (a circular puzzle), and Dog Casino (a game with an all-new level of difficulty with pegs to remove followed by the opening of a tray to reveal a treat.)
We received the Dog Finder to review, a toy that’s more challenging than the Dog Tornado.
The game works by placing treats under plastic “bones” that slide in a channel. The dog must slide the bone along the channel—some channels require pushing the bone while some require pulling—before lifting the bone and revealing the treat.
To make the game more difficult, a second bone can be added in each channel so your dog has to move a bone to free up the bone and unveil the treat.
We gave it a try. We’ll be honest…it took us a few minutes to figure out how to load the game with treats.
Tip: the treats go on the little paw-shaped indentation; the plastic bone goes over the treat, and then you slide the bone into position. It’s easy once you see the pattern. (One channel slides down while the next slides up. End channels slide side to side.)
Would Tiki be able to master the Dog Finder?
With the toy loaded with her favorite treats (tiny treats intended for dogs about 50 pounds lighter than Tiki), the Dog Finder went on the floor.
Rubber feet prevent the toy from sliding around, even when on a hardwood floor like ours.
Within minutes, she quickly had mastered the channels that required her to push the bone to reveal the treat.
The channels that required Tiki to pull the bone toward her to lift it and reveal the treat took a little more work but soon she had it figured out.
After playing with the toy for a few days with a single bone in each channel, we progressed to two bones in a channel.
At first, we placed a treat under each of the two bones to motivate her to slide and remove each bone. The double bone configuration slowed her down a little and challenged her mentally (especially on the end channels that require the dog to slide the bone side to side).
Partway through the game, she stopped and thought about her strategy:
But then she was back at work:
Once Tiki got the hang of the double bone configuration, we dropped back to a treat only beneath the second bone.
Just as intended with all the toys of the Nina Ottosson Collection, the Dog Finder challenged Tiki mentally and has already provided us with hours of fun watching her learn and exercise her natural hunting and seeking skills.
The game is easy to clean (dishwasher safe) and the bones nest within each other for easy storage.
A definite paws up!!
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