A little while back I tried teaching Monster to fetch a toy and place it in a bowl, we did three training sessions over three days before my easily distracted bird brain forgot all about it again. The first day Monster didn't get it at all, and half way through he started picking up the bowl and tipping it over his head like a hat, which I thought was hilarious so I completely lost direction in the training. Second day we managed to get some progress, with Monster sometimes picking up the toy and sometimes putting his head in the bowl. Third day, Monster would pick up the toy and move it around, sometimes closer to the bowl. Occasionally he'd put the toy in the bowl, which I of course rewarded exuberantly. Then, I promptly forgot all about this trick.
 |
| If it weren't for me, you'd forget where you live once you'd walked five minutes from home... |
Spotted the bowl and squeaky toy we'd been using today, and decided to pick back up where we'd left off. As soon as Monster saw me holding the bowl he came running, with an excited look on his face. I dump the toy out on the floor and place the bowl in front of me, waiting to see what he'll do. Monster immediately picks up the toy and puts it in the bowl. I click and reward, and before I have time to take the toy out to start again Monster does it himself, first taking the toy out, dropping it on the floor (and batting it a couple of times with a paw just to make it squeak some more), and then picking it back up and dropping it in the bowl again, finishing with a big smile toward me. Clearly, he'd figured this trick out!
So I started throwing the toy far away - he immediately fetched back to the bowl. I placed the toy where it was hard to reach and he'd have to work to get at it - as soon as he had it he dropped it into the bowl. I started hiding the toy - he searched until he found it and then headed straight for the bowl. I figured I'd finally outsmarted him when I threw the toy away, and as he had his back turned I tipped the bowl upside down!
 |
| You're mean! |
In fact, this did stump him a little at first... He dropped the toy to examine what was wrong with the bowl, but then got anxious about dropping the toy outside the bowl and had to pick it back up, and then of course he couldn't do much with the bowl. Pretty soon he was fine with putting the toy down while he dealt with the bowl, though, and started chasing the bowl around to get a grip so he could turn it back up. Once he had it, it got a couple of revenge chews before he brought it back to me (*note to self: buy new bowl), put it down, and triumphantly placed the toy back in (what's left of) the bowl!
By then he got all the treats I had on me, as well as a lot of excited praising and petting.
My dog is smarter than me, people. He solves tricks much faster than I can think up new things to teach - and how.
 |
| Are you only figuring this out now? Me's a genius! |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a comment, it's free!
Comments are moderated in order to weed out spam, pointlessness, and shocking behavior quite beyond the pale! They're not moderated to make me look good, though - you have my gracious permission to call me an idiot.