a dog learns from another dog's blog

I've been having an interesting conversation with Johann's mum. She has two great video clips of how she trained Johann to succeed with the wooden Nina Ottosson Dog Casino.

First she taught him to focus on the little pegs that close off the drawers.



Then they moved on to pulling the pegs out of the holes.



So far we've practised Penny touching the peg for a reward from my hand. We moved on to clicking when she knocks the peg off the game, because I thought that might be closer to what we need finally, when she'll have to pull up the peg and throw it off the Casino so she can pull out the drawer to get the treats.



Johann's mum has mentioned the command 'pick it up' and Penny knows that well, so we experimented with that.



(I just can't seem to co-ordinate using the clicker and stopping myself from saying 'Yes!'. Luckily Penny's used to my muddled training methods, lol.)

keeping dogs intellectually stimulated

It was a pity Penny had to endure such a boring week while her cut paw healed, but it was also a timely reminder for us that walks can't be the only stimulation a dog has. It reminded us to include some other activities during the day.

This evening we fed Penny dry food (kibble), which we rarely do, so that she could work hard to get the food out of her puzzle toys - our walks are still quite short, not the hour-long rambles Penny is used to.

 We were trying out Biopet Organic dog food. I wouldn't want to feed this constantly, because it does have grains in it, but as a standby I think it seems good. We bought the food at SuperFruit, a nearby organic store.

 I wouldn't have dared to use these toys a couple of days ago, because Penny used her front paws to claw at the sections of the puzzles, but she seemed to be okay after using them this evening.

 First we tried the Nina Ottosson Dog Brick, which is an old favorite. Then Penny used the Dog Tornado. Even though it hasn't been out of the cupboard for months, she remembered how to get the treats.


 

When she had given the toy a thorough sniffing, and decided there was definitely no more food in it, she waited for more.

So we tried the Seek-A-Treat, which has been put away for almost two years! 

And she succeeded with it, which surprised me, because she didn't quite work it out at that time. 

Having noticed that the Seek-a-Treat is manufactured by 'Ethical Products', I looked at their website, and I must say I did like what they said about themselves:

We will continue to provide pet owners and their pets with the absolute best consumer value and customer service in the pet industry while never losing sight of quality, innovation, safety, honesty and humanity.

Nina Ottosson toys free shipped from Clean Run

Penny was excited when a big parcel arrived yesterday from the US. We had taken advantage of the free shipping offer by Clean Run.

Well, she wasn't all that excited at first. But I was. I opened it immediately.



I'd been wanting to try out the wooden Nino Ottosson toys, because I thought Penny would be able to get a better grip on them than she manages with the plastic ones.

So far we've only tried the simple first level of the Dog Fighter. As suggested, I put it on a stool rather than on the floor. And, yes, she finds the wooden pegs quite easy to manage. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly she succeeded in moving the first peg along the slot in order to lift it out and get a treat. (I haven't edited this clip at all, so it is clear what the timeframe was for succeeding with the new toy.)



Here's the second try, a couple of minutes later. (Because she tried chewing it, the peg did get a few tooth marks in it, but she soon realised that technique wasn't working.) It was a very hot day, so as soon as her nose told her there were no more treats to find, she settled down again on her mat in front on the fan.