October 31, 2017- Learning Puzzle 5

We are still flooded out of the backyard, so I am continuing to skip the puzzles that need an outdoor space. Today’s puzzle from the  Brain Games- Puzzles for Canines   course is meant to test the degree to which the dog follows different kinds of human gestures.

The set up:

I am using two identical mugs to hide treats under, so I can execute the following scenarios.

1. The pretest- this will be completed only once.With the dog in a sit stay in front of me, I pretend to put a cookie under both cups. I only put a cookie under one of them. Look at your feet and release the dog. Record what the dog does.
2. Tap the container with a cookie under it  and release the dog.
3. Point at the correct container. The rest is the same.
4. Point with elbow. The rest is the same.
5. Point with foot. The rest is the same.
6. Point with a stick. The rest is the same.
7. Face body towards it. The rest is the same.
8. Tilt head towards it. The rest is the same.
9. Look at the right one with the eyes only.
10. Put on sunglasses and repeat the last test.

Each test (except the first) is repeated at least 5 times and the results recorded. These take a really long time given how many reps there are. Especially as Sei’s sit stay isn’t really proofed to this level yet and we are working that concurrently, so his turns take twice as long as Perrin’s. Today we got the pretest done, along with pointing with arm and elbow. Here are the results:

Pretest

Sei and Perrin both went right to the correct cup.

The Rest

Here are the rest of the results from today in chart form:

Game	Sei	Perrin
Pointing with Hand	8/9	6/6
Pointing with Elbow	1/6	3/8

On the first go with the pointed hand, Sei was hand targeting for a bit until he understood the game, but he was consistent on the understanding that the hand side is the paying side. Perrin also understood the pointing well.

Neither Sei nor Perrin really understood the elbow pointing. Not sure if it was something I was doing wrong or if they are both just similar that way.

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