Experimenting With Timken Part 2

I decided one day to get the food puzzles back out and wondered if the fact that I originally had them on hard surface was part of why Timken was uneasy with them before. So I put all the other dogs away and put yummy treats into the food puzzles and put them on the rug and just let Tim do what he would do while I observed him. He was super skeptical about them and although he did want to get what was inside, he was trying to do that without making them move at all.

So you can see that in both these videos Tim is just not comfortable with these toys. Because I know him so well I know that when he experiences stress and conflict for too long that he then loses ground in his confidence, trust in me, and also he can get tummy aches, and so I decided that was enough of that, we can go back to these toys sometime in the future.

But I wanted to find something we could do that he could succeed at so I had another idea! I love Nosework and so I decided to just try putting a few boxes out and seeing if this was more Tim's speed. He is a super smart dog and he loves to work for treats, so I thought this might be the ticket. I rounded up low boxes and made sure the flaps were pushed in tight as I have seen dogs get freaked out by putting their noses into boxes with flaps when they are learning the game.

I love how he knows just what to do. I never said anything to him, just brought him in and stood there with the camera. He stands there a bit then his nose takes over and he looks for the treat. You can see he was nervous about putting his head in the box, even to get a treat, there is a little startle he makes when getting it. I shuffled the boxes out a couple more times to see if that startle reflex would diminish but it didn't and again I was really looking for something he could do that was fun for him and above all not scary.  This too was not working for Tim, try again.

I had a new thought, what if I just hid treats basically in plain sight but next to something like a chair foot and had him work to find them that way? I have tossed treats to him on the ground lots of times and he is comfortable with that and familiar with it. Well he was remarkable with this new game!

I love how Tim was even comfortable to put his head under the chair to sniff for the treat. He has a great nose and wonderful work ethic when he can do something that doesn't scare him. We did this quite a few times but not so long that anything went south, like something moving when he went to touch it or him getting distracted or startled by a noise elsewhere. In the two videos you can see how he really is following the scent he is picking up and he gets real creative with following his nose. What a fun time he and I had. I was so proud of him I was beaming :)

So this is just a reminder that we should always work on observing our dog's comfort level. Pushing them to do something isn't always the best plan. Tim will get there in time with his trust in the world around him. He has already made big strides! The timetable is not important. Working with Tim gives me the opportunity to learn to be in the moment and not always have an agenda. A good life lesson for us all.

It might not seem like what we did would be a lot of work for Timken, but this mental enrichment stuff really does work his brain and I believe also gives Tim some confidence and satisfaction so he can truly relax in his own body.