Push-Push

Gimme is learning a new game.  I read about it on the Treibball list as a way to teach dogs to use their nose to push.  She knows the general idea of "push" from our class last year and can use her nose to push a door closed, though she'd much rather use her feet to slam a door.

So the trick is to unroll an exercise mat and put treats in the end and then roll it back up.  The dog has to push with their nose to unroll the mat and get to the goodies.  At first you only roll it a couple inches, so any push exposes the treats.  Then you gradually roll it more and more so they have to work harder to get it open.

Of course, Gimme being herself meant that the moment the roll had any size to it, she started using her feet.  My part was to make sure that didn't lead to success and to tell her "yes" when she used just her nose to push it.  I also had to make sure that sniffing and pushing on the ends of the rolls (where channeled treat smells were coming out) weren't successful either.

Gimme did pretty good and I'm sure this is a trick that we can have solid and ready to demonstrate by the next time I visit my parents on agility night.  They were disappointed that we didn't have anything new this week.  When she is a little better at it, I'll get a video done.