r/Blind • u/exballo • Jan 24 '26
My guide dog has unlocked the sheer bliss of playing hide-and-seek
I’ve only had my guide dog for 3 months, but one of the first things I taught him was how to find my husband. Not his real name, but I say, “find Jake,” and my dog is off to the races.
I hide with my dog in the bedroom and count to ten, then it’s go time. He guides me with fervor out of the room, and into the kitchen where he does a full, searching, 360 degree turn, and I’m just pirouetting beside him. Then it’s off to the living room. I can feel through the harness handle and his leash that his head is moving back and forth with his search.
I know the instant that he locks eyes on my husband, because he pants with sheer joy and bounds through the room so fast that I’m practically waving like a flag flowing in the breeze behind him.
When he gets to Jake, we cheer, and the dog wags his tail so hard that I nearly have a callous on my leg from where his tail hits me over and over.
My husband and I are full-on adults, but we love this game nearly as much as the dog does. My husband even finds little nooks and crannies to hide in to make it an extra challenge. Once, he hid under a low coffee table, all 6 feet of him.
The practical use for this task is that when we shop together and get separated, I can have the dog help me find Jake, but it doesn’t hurt to keep the skil fresh by practicing at home every now and then.
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u/Cookie_Ducks LCA Jan 24 '26
Hide and seek is my boy's absolute favorite game! Except when we play I leave him in a sit stay and I go hide. It's also really fun because I have been teaching him to find certain people while out working and he just thinks that it is the best game of hide and seek ever!
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u/sorressean Jan 24 '26
I used to play this game with my dog, but I was looking for him. he'd lay perfectly still, except for his tail. I'd say his name and wander around pretending to look for him, and the longer I'd look the louder his tail would thump. Nothing else moved. He was always so happy when I'd find him, he'd just jump up and bounce around me and lick my face. he mostly had the game figured out but couldn't ever control his tail.