Today I was doing some obedience games with Bristol, Mill'E-Max and Laveau. We did some group obedience, and then played hide and seek. This involves me putting all of the dogs in a stay in a room of the house, and then go to hide somewhere and calling them to come find me.
I had them all on a sit/stay in my kitchen and went to hide behind the bathroom door. Once I was safely hidden, I called for them to come find me. Laveau arrived first, quickly followed by Mill'E-Max. I waited a few seconds, after all Bristol is thirteen and not as fast as the younger dogs. Bristol didn't come. I wondered if she had lost interest in the game and went to lay down.
I went through out the house looking for her. I'm deafblind and Bristol is deaf so she doesn't come to her name. I walked around the house stomping my feet which is the cue for her to come find me. I searched all of her usual favorite places, and nothing.
Finally I went back into the kitchen, and there she still sat, in a perfect sit/stay, waiting for me to call her to me.
What a good dog. I got in her line of sight and made the sign for "come and she trotted over proud as punch that she stayed even when the other dogs ran off.
Usually if we're doing group obedience, each dog has to wait until their name is called or signed to do the action. I might have all the dogs in a sit/stay and ask one dog for a heel. While the one dog is heeling to my side, the others need to remain sitting.
Bristol didn't think I had called her yet, so she waited until I had.
Man I love that dog! She is just fantastic.
I've once again begun training Laveau's working retrieve. We've gone about this in fits and starts for various reasons but I've decided to work on it again since I need it more in public now and Mill'E-Max is usually at home.
I think I may let the girls have a rest and then take them for a walk later.
On a random note, Bristol's eye drops fell out of a drawer a few days back and Mill'E-Max, for some reason known only to her, picked them up and stuck them in her crate. When she was helping me pick up around the house this morning, she got them out and gave them back. Sometimes, I wish she could talk.
Good girl Bristol! Phoenix can also no longer hear, but he'd never be that good lol! We have a hard enough time trying to get him to wait long enough for us to put his food into the bowl table, let alone try and play a game with him and the others :)
ReplyDeleteCessna's foster mom used to play a game where they would put her into a down stay and then go hide a treat somewhere in the house and then come back and release her from the stay to find it. She loved that game and still plays when we go visit in the summer :
I love playing hide and seek with my dogs. It's so much fun waiting while they hunt all over the house for me.
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