The Little Bear Dog Blog

There are occasions when Little Bear looks thoroughly miserable.  I’m no canine body language expert, but even to the untrained eye ‘cheesed off’ is pretty easy to spot.  He shuffles about the place, woofing at the slightest noise and flopping into his various snoozing spots with an audible huff. If he could speak English, I think it would be to protest that he was bored.

To test this hypothesis, you only have to produce a teddy or a tennis ball to see him instantly transformed. Tail’s up, ears go gremlin like and he’s bouncing around like an excited puppy.

Like most people I want my dogs to be happy.  Annie seems quite chilled by nature and as long as she gets walked, fed and cuddled according to her timetable, she looks quite content.

But LB is another matter. So, I’ve been doing some reading and the one thing I think could be missing from LB’s life are more opportunities to use his brainbox a little more.

So, armed with the excellent, ‘Mind Games for Dogs’ by Sarah Whitehead, we spent the weekend putting both dogs through the canine equivalent of suduko.

The results? WOW!

Annie has enjoyed herself judging by all the tail wagging, but LB is practically transformed! He’s crashed out on the sofa now, but he’s been full of beans today and he’s been grinning like a loon. For anyone who thinks I’m bonkers describing a dog grinning, I probably am for numerous other reasons, but trust me on the grinning – it’s this soft mouthed, smiling eye, lolling tongue look of a super chilled out pooch.It’s a joy to see.

So what did we try?

Find it

Bear’s played this before but it was brand new for Annie.  I’m using it to get a recall and a strong watch me, so I call their names, ask for a sit and a watch me and then throw their biscuits in different directions for them to find. The rules are that they must come back, sit and make eye contact before the next piece gets thrown.

Annie, being a Lab would have played this all day but LB was showing signs of getting bored.  He’s not that food motivated so the reward for him is the game and, I think the praise he gets. To liven it up I had to change position a lot – so we ended up with me standing and him sitting on one sofa, then the other one, then the armchair ….it was part training game, part workout for me!

Hide it

Next we tried the hide it game. I put some biscuits under the quilt in his crate while he sat and watched then told him to find it. The thing I’ve noticed with LB is that he needs encouragement. Like a kid who lacks confidence and gives up too quickly, if at first it seems too challenging, he walks away. But praise him and encourage him and he’s a different dog.  In under 4 minutes he’d worked out that the only way to get the treats was to back out of the cage and drag the quilt out with him. The wag went all the way to his ears when I told him how clever he was!

What’s in the box?

Today we played with a couple of cardboard boxes.  I’d hide a toy inside while he sat & waited and then when told ‘ok’ he had to find it. The large box  frustrated him for a while until he learned how to tip it over but once mastered, he did it time and time again.  The enthusiasm was unmistakable and his tail never stopped wagging.

The cup game

Annie got in on the act after watching from the sofa for the first five minutes but was a bit more reserved. For a dog just learning how to play she did brilliantly though.  She has a great technique in the cup game. The game is essentially find the lady, but to keep it simple we started with just one cup with a treat hidden underneath it.

This is definitely her forte. She doesn’t waste time shuffling it around with her nose – oh no. She picks it straight up and goes to her bed with it, wagging fit to bust. Trouble is, she leaves the treat! Bless her.

The power of play

I’ve been amazed and thrilled to see how the dogs responded to the games.  I’ve not seen LB look so thoroughly happy in a long time.  The wag he does in response to ‘clever Bear!’ goes all the way up to his ears and he just looks so proud of himself.  It’s also helping Annie to come out of her shell a little and she just loves the attention.

The other upside of course is that OH and I have been in stitches watching them. At this rate, we’ll also be racking our brains for new ideas to keep them entertained!