Nina Ottosson games. Can your dog do them?

I bought a couple of Nina Ottosson games for Lana. First one is the Finder where she has to knock the bits over to get to the treats. At first I knocked them over with my finger so she did it with her paw. When I moved her paw away we had a little 'fight' where she hit me with her paw so we had a wrestling match, she got excited and wanted to play with her other toys.

Once we got back to the Finder game I got on my knees and pushed them with my nose saying see Lana push them with your nose and all that silliness. When I bring the game out she stands there waiting on me to uncover the treats. When I tell her find them she moves the parts back and forwards which then makes it impossible to knock them over, and doesn't seem to get how to knock them over with her nose so soon loses interest even although she'd normally do anything for treats.

Does anyone else have this game and can their dog work it out?

I haven't tried the second game yet as it appears to be more difficult.

Are these toys really good for dogs or is that all bumff or am I supposed to think I just have a stoopid dog?

I was going to buy one last summer when my pointer was confined for a couple of months, but in all that time she could never work out a simple game of hiding a treat under one of three upturned yoghurt pots. So we never progressed to even the most basic Nina Ottoson game. Sigh.

I'm not sure which game you have (I have tornado).. but can you try placing the 'lids' on so they do not quite fit.
So she can easily bash them to get the food from under them.
Once she gets the idea she needs to move them, you can progress to putting them on properly fully covering the food?

The finder game is small blocks, two in each row. One doesn't come out as it's under a lip and the other one needs nudged to the front or back. Lana keeps moving it to the side so it goes partly under the lip as well. She then tries to get it off with her paw, sometimes she succeeds but only down to luck. If the treat is good enough she'll try to bite the block and pull it off but if it's to the side under the lip she has no chance.

Here's an image and what the dog should do


The idea behind the ‘Dog Finder’ is for the dog to slide the removable bones to the wider section of the groove and dislodge it, in order to access hidden treats. With a little practise, he will soon learn to dislodge the bones and slide the covers to reap the hidden rewards.

I do leave it a few days in between trying as sometimes when I teach her something she doesn't seem to learn but if I leave it a week then she remembers it and does it well.

When I bring this game out she sits and looks at me hopefully so I will move the blocks and she can have the treats so I tell her to find and go into the kitchen where I can watch her. She tries with her paws, tries to lift them with her mouth and then gives up but all the time she's moving them to the side instead of pushing them forward so they fall out If I show her by flicking them with my hand she then tries with her paws, but at least that way we have fun as we end up 'fighting'

I also have casino which is pulling drawers out, then you put these blocks in and the dog has to knock the blocks out before the drawers open. I haven't tried it yet as I'm not sure she'll even learn to pull the drawers out.

I'm so disappointed as I had been looking at these games for a while and was happy when I could afford them. I think I'll have to give up with this game as Lana doesn't seem to get it but did wonder if it's only her or is the advertising for the games so good thousands buy them and then think it's just their dog who can't do them.

Thanks for the replies. GirondeDeb at least you had the sense to realise your dog possibly couldn't do it and saved your money.

WhichPets I've just checked out the tornado. Wow no way would Lana be able to do that one, it looks difficult even for me

Even though I have never had one, nor tried one, Louie is very smart so I reckon he'd work it out. However saying that he is used to things being the same all the time and has never quite got out of the habit of checking the kitchen drawers when I say "find it"

Hm that looks tricky! Is there any way you can teach her to push the little white bones on the floor first so she can generalise it to the board?

Otherwise if you really think she won't get it can you just wash it and return it saying its not suitable.. its a lot of money to waste if she wont manage it!

Kestral gets a bit bored with the tornado, she ends up just flipping the board over or randomly coming across the treats - I dont use it much as she isnt too excited about it. The bones are too slippy so she cant pick them up which seems to frustrate her.

I've tried the tornado one which Ted did struggle with to start with but mostly it was getting the bones out and he did just bat it with his paw when he was getting frustrated. Unfortunately i broke it

He also has the dog brick one which he found quite easy as he knew he had to remove the bones like the tornado and then he mostly uses his paws to slide them across. I also have a cheaper version of the dog casino which he found a bit more challenging and i did have to put it on top of a book as he struggled to pull the drawers out otherwise. It took a little while but he's pretty much mastered that now.

The one you have does look quite tricky so perhaps like Whichpets said you should try and return it for another one? Or try her with the casino one you may find she can work that one out easier. Ted started by using his paws to pull the drawers out but now uses his mouth i just left the draw open slightly to start with so he could get at the treat but just needed to pull it open slightly then went from there.

I had the spinny one and the dog brick one and Parker (nice but dim!) could do those fine. Just before we lost Cherry we got the Tornado one and Cherry (with one eye and poorly sighted in that) picked that up straightaway but Parker never did and Izzy wasn't good at it either so I sold it on e-bay.

You can get quite a good price on e-bay generally speaking for these games if you can't return it to where you got it from.

Cain finds them really easy, I have the other problem of him working it out too quickly!!!

Did you watch the DVD that came with it? It shows you how to introduce them very slowly
1. Let the dog simply eat out of the empty tray
2. Put the bone across it sideways (opposite the groove) so it's easy to dislodge. You can even only half hide the treat to start with
3. Put it in the wide end of the groove so the dog can pick it straight up
4. Finally put in the thin end of the groove so the dog needs to slide

If you start gradually Lana should work it out, just give it some time

You can also use the clicker to get her started. Click for touching the bone then for picking it up/pushing it etc. Reward even when the dog does it by accident at first. Or does she retrieve? Put the bones on the floor and ask her to being them to you, once she picks them up she'll find treats underneath and might get the idea.

If she's still not getting it, start with the plastic bones on the floor with treats underneath for her to find, so she makes the connection with food underneath.

I'm sure Lana will get it, she just doesn't understand it yet as it's new

As an aside, if you give up, if be interested in buying the Casino off of you. It looks like one of the hardest so I hope it'll keep Cain busy!

Just to add, you have bought two of the hardest ones. The difficulty rating is on the box.

Tornado isn't as hard as you think, it's a medium level one. Maybe start out with an easier one like Dog Magic or Dog Spinny? Perhaps you can exchange?

But I do think she'll get it, you just need to break it down into baby steps for her