Last week on the NADOI email group, the obedience instructors were
talking about fun activities for puppies, according to my boss. One
game that came up was interesting.

Using a 12-cup muffin pan, place a smelly treat in each cup and place a
tennis ball on top of each cup. Bring on the puppy and watch. With
each subsequent "round" use fewer treats, but place all of the tennis
balls. Observe for how many correct choices the puppy makes.

Several folks set up the game for their adult dogs, and it wasn't long
before one of the guys started timing for how fast each of his dogs
started removing tennis balls. Most just whacked a single ball away and
ate the treat, and methodically used this approach to get all of them.
His oldest dog took longest. Then someone with multiple beeds timed
each one.... no results given.... EXCEPT .... When she brought out her
Border Terrier, it stood there staring at the tennis balls for a long
ten seconds, picked up the end of the pan and flipped it. With tennis
balls raining everywhere. the dog applied itself to scooping up the
treats that had conveniently fallen in a small space on the floor.

Last night I picked up a new muffin tin (my last having disappeared (I
think it's up in my craft room, holding small parts of some project I
haven't finished) and a bag of unpressurized tennis balls (needed to
replace those in the yard, anyhow). Got lots of treats.... So I now
have a project for some boring afternoon....


Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia