101 Things to do With a Box

The purpose of this game is to get your dog thinking and trying new things. Use free-shaping to reward any interaction with the box and build from there.  There are no wrong answers.  The goal is for your dog to have the experience of being creative, and getting rewarded for it.  "101 Things to do With a Box" is a great confidence building opportunity.

Start off clicking looking at the box, then move on to touching the box, etc. Click the same behavior a few times till your dog understands what he's getting clicked for. You know your dog understands when he immediately does the same thing he did before and expects that click afterwards.

Once your dog understands that, for instance, touching the box with his paw is earning the click, then delay the click for a stronger behavior, such as pawing two times or knocking the box over. Get as creative as you want with this, with a large enough box you could teach your dog to sit, stand or lay down inside of it.

You can also use other objects, as long as they are safe for the dog.  This exercise might lead to some cute trick idea.  I played this game with Lucy, my nearly blind dog.  We used an empty shampoo bottle (plastic) instead of the box.  Lucy learned to knock over the bottles and I put it on the cue "bang bang". 

Then after making a cardboard "fence" for the front of a box, we had our Annie Oakley trick.  I dressed in a cowgirl outfit, complete with holster and pistol.  I set up our fence and put several small plastic bottles along the top.  We had a skit where I'd pretend to shoot the bottle targets and each time I said "bang bang", Lucy ran out and knocked one of them off.  Sometimes she'd miss or not hit hard enough, so I'd missed the target.  Mostly she hit them.  Sometimes it took awhile for her to decide which one to knock off - that bullet took the scenic route.  And then there were the times it ricocheted off the wall and knocked a second bottle off the fence.  No matter how it went, it was always funny and generated a lot of laughter. 

Gimme here:  I've told you before how much I love free shaping.  I'm very clever so I come up with lots of very creative ideas.  My person made a cardboard cube with spotted paper and she wanted me to roll it across the floor with my nose.  We eventually got there, but not before I showed her my own clever ideas.  I showed her I could:

• ski across the carpet with both front feet on it
• pounce on it with both front feet
• stand on it with both front feet
• bat it across the room with my foot
• put both feet on it and do a forehand pivot
• step on with one back foot
• try to step on it with both back feet
• kick it with a back foot
• dig at it with my front feet
• roll on my back and flip it into the air like a ball of yarn (like a kitty, only much cuter)
• stand over it and spin around it with no feet on it
• roll on my back and hug it with both front feet