Thinking outside dog.
The door to the shop is broken and has no handle. We were inside working today with the dogs crowded around the door wishing they could come in. Well apparently Scherzo has not forgotten a trick we taught her as a puppy: how to open doors. We taught her by saying “get UP door”, so that she would jump up and hit the door open, and then changed it to “get the door”.
Of course at that point we had no idea about operant conditioning or adding cues, but hey we couldn’t have been too shabby, because she really used it today. Every couple minutes she would open the door and come trotting in so proud of herself. At first we kicked her out because it was dusty and loud, closing the door behind her so as not to let the heat out. Once out she’d wander around sniffing while the other dogs waited by the door, then up shed come and whap, open the door and come trotting in again. Scarlet and Ace were completely befuddled that she could open the door on a whim, while they were stuck hanging around it longingly.
Once inside shed wedge her nose in the crack of the office door and push it open to come see me. As a test we put her in the office alone and closed the doors. We called her name and waited… but she didn’t open the door and come out, turns out she was sniffing the trash. Then we had a better idea and started praising and petting Scarlet. Immediately the doors flew open and she came running out!
