asking your dog questions?
My DH brought it up the other day. We ask Caeda an awful lot of questions. Most commonly "what's that?!",
Or if she's doing orbits around us all excited "where are you going?"
Or "wanna go for a drive?", "want to go to social", "do you want a treat?"
playing "where's the dot", "where's your ball", "what're you doing", "are you tired yet", "wanna go outside" etc....
Yeah, I think we're crazy dog people. At least we're not actually expecting a reply lol. Has anybody else caught themselves doing this kind of thing?
I do, and I expect a response via behavior that I can capture.
It's how I got him to learn how to bark at the timer and the tea kettle. He heard it go off and I said "what's that?" in an excited whisper. He started going towards it and barking at it, which I marked and rewarded.
I then put the timer on two seconds, and went it went off again, I said "what's that?" again. And so on.
But it started from doing it when he heard the sound.
Of course, there's the "where's Dora?" "where's the ball?" "what's that sound?" all looking for a behavioral "answer" to my question.
If he does just suddenly start acting restless or excited, I'll ask "what is it?" hoping he'll "show" me what he's excited about. Once he ran down the stairs and stood by my shoes - I took it as a sign he needed to go out, so I put the shoes on and took him out - maybe he'll make a connection.
In my attempt to continue making him more comfortable and calm about other dogs, I asked him "where's the dog?" while watching Westminster. He looked at the TV, watching the dog, and I marked and rewarded it. Don't know if this will work, but I figure if he even connects the "where's the dog?" game to seeing a dog, it's a positive association and that can only help.
If I ask him "where's the dog?" and there's no dog on TV, he'll look back at me. If I keep doing it, he's looking around the room and sniffing and trying to find that dog. If he can't, he'll alternate looking at me (for help, I presume), looking around the room, and looking at me while whimpering because he can't find the dog that isn't there.
He "asks questions" of me all the time. I think it's fair I ask him a few too.
Where's your ball, kabota? You wanna go to the park? Watcha doing, kabota?
Yup, talk to my dog all day like he's going to turn to me one day and say "in the kitchen under the table".
Perhaps he will - via behavior. Dogs communicate through behaviors - he can answer you that way.
Encourage him to find the ball and get it next time you ask. It's a good mental game and could lead to an 'aha' moment for the dog.
