I’m working on a new trick with my dog. It’s a complex one, which is good — it stretches my training skills.

Ultimately, what I hope my dog will be able to do is to hunt for an object I’ve hidden somewhere in the house and bring it to me. I bought three toys specifically for this trick with the idea that she will need to retrieve only the toy I name.

To train it, I’m breaking the behavior down into pieces, one of which is “fetch.” We’re making progress. A big hurdle: the toy sneaker has a squeaker in it, and the noise seems to worry my dog terribly. I’m trying to figure out if it’s related to her impeccable fashion sense or whether the squeak has an encoded message about obeying cats.

[tags] dog [/tags]