Easter is this Sunday and what better way to celebrate with your dog than getting them involved in the family Easter egg hunt? Dogs have a great sense of smell making them the perfect candidate for an egg hunt! Before you begin your egg extravaganza, here are a few tips to get your started. 

1. Safety first 

Keep the size of your furry participants in mind when purchasing the eggs you’ll be hiding. You want the eggs to be big enough that nobody will accidentally swallow one. Find some plastic eggs that are small enough for the pups to pick up, but not too small that someone will choke!

2. Pick out treats

Chances are, the dogs won’t care about plastic eggs if there isn’t a yummy treat inside! When choosing the treats you want to hide, find some that are extra “smelly”. Bacon or fish flavored treats should work well. You can also smear some peanut butter or spray cheese on the outside of the eggs to help the pups sniff them out. 

3. Consider using real eggs

Hard boiled eggs are a great, healthy treat for dogs! Consider hiding a couple hard boiled eggs along with the plastic ones for an extra yummy treat. 

Note: Egg shells are safe for dogs to eat and provide an excellent source of calcium. However, if you’re concerned, you can always peel the eggs before hiding them.

4. Separate egg hunts

If you have dogs of various sizes you might want to consider hosting separate hunts to give everyone a fair chance. Likewise, if you have a pup in the group who is known to resource guard you’ll probably want to let them have their own egg hunt once everybody else has finished.

5. Remember where you hid the eggs

Keep track of where all of the eggs are hidden to make sure that they’re all found before you call it quits on the egg hunt. Nobody wants to find a month old hard boiled egg or a rotting, fishy treat. This will also keep your dog, or another animal, from finding it later and chewing on it unsupervised.