Dog training question

[Laurie4b]

I have an older dog--an 11 year old English Shepherd. The other day, I decided to play a game with her. I would tell her to stay, then "hide" a piece of cheese in plain view. I was very surprised when she had a hard time with this. I'm wondering about the reason:

 

When she is in "stay," I noticed that she tends to look away from me. But I worked to get her attention on the cheese. (Sometimes it looked like she watched me put it down, sometimes not.)

 

Even times when I thought she had watched me put it down, she often had no clue where to find it. She came to me for it.

 

She actually did best when I dropped it into a box, where the cheese was not in plain view; however, it was on the floor (more or less) whereas the rest of the time, I put it on something. There was a sound associated with it, plus she is used to scarfing up items that are dropped on the floor.

 

She's older , but I've never noticed anything else that would indicate a vision problem.

 

What do you think? Is it attention? How do I get her to pay attention to where I am putting it? (She really likes this game and we just started, so I know she'll get better at it. I'm a totally "basic" dog trainer, but I think it would be fun for her to have to actually find things not in plain view later on.)

[hornblower]

My guess is that she doesn't understand the rules of this game yet.

 

I would put the treat down in plain view, without putting her in a stay.

Put it in front of her nose, just a few inches away from her face.

Say find it!

Repeat a few times.

Then move it.

Then put it down & put a piece of paper towel just a bit over it, not completely covering it.

See what happens. She may need help understanding that she's to look for it & take it when she finds it.

I play a similar game with small stuffies in my bed quilts - I hide them & have the dogs look for them. One of them caught on pretty fast but with the other one, I had to help him find things A LOT.

 

Adding the stay is probably confusing it - she's thinking she needs to stay off the treat. Add it a bit later once she's got the find it part a bit better.....

[Laurie4b]

Thanks so much! That makes sense.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I play hide and seek with my dog all the time.

 

Except I make her go in another room while I hide something (that she has already seen in my hand. Usually her bunny) Then I say "Come find your bunny. Where's your bunny?" and watch as she runs around like crazy to find it.

 

Then she finds it, brings it to me, and leaves again. lol. Silly dog!

[Laurie4b]

Adding the stay is probably confusing it - she's thinking she needs to stay off the treat. Add it a bit later once she's got the find it part a bit better.....

 

Thanks. I followed your instructions and I think that you are right that it was the stay that was confusing. I think for her, "stay" had some inadvertantly trained effect of looking away from me. Anyway, when I just asked her to sit, then find it, we progressed quickly from just a few feet away to out of sight, just around the corner. She did so much better!

[Laurie4b]

I play hide and seek with my dog all the time.

 

Except I make her go in another room while I hide something (that she has already seen in my hand. Usually her bunny) Then I say "Come find your bunny. Where's your bunny?" and watch as she runs around like crazy to find it.

 

Then she finds it, brings it to me, and leaves again. lol. Silly dog!

 

That would be fun!

[hornblower]

we progressed quickly from just a few feet away to out of sight, just around the corner. She did so much better!

 

:hurray: It's fun to watch them learn new games. Nose tricks are good because even when they're old & eyes & ears are fading, the nose will usually still be strong. Nose games are really fun for dogs.