My buddy just drove down from the midwest to hide from the snow and brought Murphy the Golden Retriever with him. You might notice I did not include the word "elusive". He is very easy to find, he's about 4 inches from the slobber covered toy that was just dropped in your lap.
I'd recommend opening a truck door, and calling out "Murphy! Want to go for a ride?"
We have one who puts slobbery toys in our laps, too. He also thinks we are his personal napkins. After he gets a drink he puts his face on us to wipe of the excess water. He is rather a pea brain, but provides some goofy entertainment and surprisingly is a good watch dog, although I am sure his bark is worse than his bite.
At our farm, our bassets would take off, chasing a rabbit or deer scent. If they got away, it would be hours before they crawled back, out of breath, covered in basset drool and grinning like Cheshire cats.
The only way we could break them out of their scent stupor was to call out, “want to go for a walk?” They would slam on the brakes and tear back to us so we could put on their leashes and take them for a little walk.