Monday, July 4, 2011

Dogs training Teddy

In training dogs, we put lots of desired behaviors on cue-- sit, down, stay, come, wait, in Bruschi's case "go long" (he runs far in anticipation of a ball coming his way, like a football player).

Well-- i suspect the dogs MAY be conditioning Teddy, with one of their behaviors indicating to Teddy "my buddies are here!"  I just realized the sequence this morning and am fascinated.  

Dogs jumped to attention at something outside as they do when someone is approaching, and Teddy, next to them, gets excited and says "Max here.  Max.  Max Mama."  He seems to think his friend Max is coming over.

I say "no, Max isn't here."  He says "Ganpa (Grandpa) here?" I also say no, and he looks very confused... then moves on to take all the diapers out of the closet and play with them (he has plenty of toys, btw).  

Happening once does not mean its a cue (for dogs or for humans), and I'm wracking my brain to remember if Teddy's previous Max requests were subsequent of window barking.  

Stay tuned....

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