Toby and Lucy have plenty of toys. Lucy has roughly 6 Squirrely Squirrels. (For more info on said Squirrels, go here.) Toby will not admit to liking the S. Squirrels. He pretends they do not exist. Toby and Lucy also have myraid other doggie entertainment toys.

But their favorite game? Hide-and-Seek.

I was reading online or in a book (I’m constantly reading, so all the words and pages run together after a while) that dogs like to play Hide-and-Seek. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of that. I’ve always considered myself to be hip to dog parenting.

So I tried it. I told Toby and Lucy to wait, and I hid behind the study door. I called to them. “Come and find me! Where am I?” Silence.

More silence. I then went back to the family room. I realized that although I taught T & L the “wait” command, I hadn’t taught them how to break the wait command.

So I had an adult-to-dog talk. “See, I hide, and then you come find me. It’s okay to break your wait command. Totally okay with me.” Both dogs looked at me with an expression of “Whoaaaa.”

So I hid again. I called to them again. And they were off. Toby looked behind (and in front of) everything in the house.

A word of caution: If you are hiding behind a halfway-open door, exit your hiding position very carefully . Your dog might be on the other side of the door. I think Lucy jumped about 5 feet in the air.

When Toby found me, he was in complete joy. Both dogs were estatic. And Toby, (in true Toby style), promptly walked over to the Puparoni canister on the kitchen counter. He wanted to get paid for his search-and-rescue efforts.

So sometimes the free stuff is so much more fun than the expensive stuff. It’s like on Christmas morning where the kids are ignoring their new toys and playing in the boxes instead.

Tags: Dogs, hide, Lucy, seek, squirrel, Toby