I love these games, why don't we have some at home? (Pirate)
When we went to the last Nose Sport class our instructor, Dorothy, surprised everyone with about 6 or 8 board games. They are called Interactive Games. All of the dogs enjoyed them. At first it was something to play with while we waited for our turns doing searches. Pretty soon we were all just playing with the games.
The one above is one of the easier ones. It has indentations where we put a treat and then cover each one with a little white plastic "bone" cup. A dog smells the treat under the cup and tries to remove the cup with his mouth or with his paws. As he uncovers the treats he rewards himself until the entire board is empty.
Journey learning how to work the board.
Journey getting the idea pretty fast.
The favorite and one of the most difficult was the "Tornado".
Journey working on the "tornado"
Journey still working on the tornado.
Some how, what with filling game boards with treats, doing searches in between, and switching dogs from the car every so often, I don't seem to have gotten any pictures of Quest with the games. He was really good at them too!
Pirate wanted to be certain there were no treats left undetected so he picked it up and shook it.
All three of my boys especially liked the "Brick". It had little sliders made of plastic with little raised bones on top. Then in between those were the little white bone cups. They have to pull the little white bone cups out (off the board) in order to slide the brown "bricks" to get the treats under them.
Journey is working on the "brick" toy. He did not get it quite as fast as Pirate.
I believe Pirate was the most enthusiastic board player. He was an exciting player too. He shifted the boards around and even tried to pick them up if he was not having the success that he expected. He was funny to watch.
Journey worked them pretty well, but being a puppy, he is easily distracted and there was so much going on, he was also anxious to do his searches and watch his friends do their searches.
Journey, distracted by another dog working at a "search".
I missed getting a picture of Quest playing with his favorite game which was very difficult. It had little drawers coming out all sides and each end. He had to take the little white dog bone cups off of the squares before he could take hold of the little drawer handles and pull them out to get the treats. Pirate chose to pull the drawers out with his toe nails. Quest was ever so careful and pulled them out with his teeth holding the little handles.
We had so much fun! I came home and ordered three games. I found them at several locations but the best prices I found were at Jeffer's Pet Supplies. Some of the games are made of wood and some of plastic. Even the plastic ones are solid and well made. Dorothy said she has had some of these games for many years and used them in various classes that she teaches. They hold up well, even when certain Pirates pick them up and shake them before dropping them and moving on to another one.
We are sure enjoying this class. Our dogs are learning so much. We now have them retrieve a glove. We handle the gloves and then let Dorothy hide one. We show our dogs the remaining glove and they don't take but a second to head out to find the hidden mate to the glove we show them.
We have them finding our keys and our cell phones. Note: probably best to have a case on your cell phone. We have also been having them bring us the regular phones, from the bases. I have just been having my boys find my keys so far, as I am not really sure about having them carry the keys in their mouths. Ever since I found out how much a new key for my car costs I am a little concerned about having their teeth on my remote car opener.
This is Trevor retrieving Dorothy's keys.
This is Trevor greeting Violet, the Bull Mastiff They are students in our class..
This class is so much fun. We do all kinds of different things in it. Dorothy is open to any ideas we want to pursue. We take field trips to the lake and sometimes we work outside on searches, including car searches.
I am now anxiously awaiting our new toys. Maybe I can set them up and let the dogs play while I am relaxing. Well, maybe not, but they will be a nice break on rainy days.
