It is raining, your dog is 11 months old, and they have already had a walk. You are being stared at. Another game of fetch down the hallway is not going to end well.
This is the indoor version of using your dog's nose. It is not the same as letting them sniff lampposts on a walk. That one is about the pace of the walk.
Why scent games leave a dog calmer
Fast repetitive games raise arousal. A dog who has sprinted after a ball 40 times is fitter and more wound up, and the evening gets harder rather than easier.
A searching dog moves slowly, breathes differently and works one problem at a time. You get concentration instead of speed, and concentration is what tires an adolescent dog out.
Relaxation is trained as a behaviour in its own right, in short repeatable sets below your dog's threshold. Scent games are the easiest thing to put in front of a settle, because your dog is already at a walking pace when they finish.
Scatter feeding, 5 minutes
Take a handful of your dog's dinner, or 20 small treats, and scatter it across a 2 metre square of carpet or lawn.
Say find it once, then stand still and stay quiet. Your dog does not need help and commentary makes it harder.
Let them work the whole area, including the bits they have already searched. The second pass is where the concentration is.
Do it at the point in the day your dog is worst, which for most owners is late afternoon rather than bedtime.
Which hand, 3 minutes
Sit on the floor with 10 treats. Put 1 in a closed fist and hold both fists out at your dog's nose height.
Wait. When your dog sniffs or noses the loaded hand, open it and let them have the treat.
Say nothing when they pick the empty hand. Close both fists, reset, and offer again.
Stop at 10 reps, while your dog still wants an eleventh. Ending early is what keeps the game worth playing tomorrow.
Hide the toy, 10 minutes
Start with your dog watching. Put a favourite toy behind a chair leg 2 metres away, release them, and pay the find with a short game of tug.
Once that is easy, put your dog behind a door for 10 seconds while you hide the toy in the same room.
Make it harder in 1 direction at a time: further away, or better hidden, or a room they have not searched. Never all 3 at once.
Build up to hiding it under a towel or behind a cushion, so your dog has to use their nose rather than their eyes.
Reward-based methods are what the veterinary behaviour guidance recommends, and searching games are reward-based by design. The find is the reward, so there is nothing to enforce.
How to fit this into a day
Feed 1 meal a day as a scatter feed rather than from a bowl. Same food, more work, no extra calories.
Put 3 minutes of which-hand in the gap between the walk and the part of the evening where your dog paces.
Save hide-the-toy for the days the walk was short. It is the one that takes real concentration.
Finish every session with a chew on a mat, so the searching ends in a settle rather than in a request for more.
Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement together. Scent games are the reinforcement half of a calmer evening, and the mat and the chew are the management half.
Safety note
An adolescent dog who has suddenly gone off their food needs a veterinary examination rather than a better game. Sudden behaviour change warrants that appointment, and pain frequently presents as a change in behaviour rather than as obvious lameness. Keep scatter feeding away from a dog who guards food from people or from another dog in the house, and read the guarding articles first.
Tonight's version, in one line: scatter half your dog's dinner on the kitchen floor and say nothing for 5 minutes.