Saturday, November 8, 2008

Retired But Not without New tricks!

Many of you have read about Bastien, my first service dog who retired last year. I thought I would share with you a story about his lastest antics as a retired service dog.
Every evening when mother comes home from work the dogs get a "chewy" otherwise known as a rawhide. The other day Bastien heard mom's car pull into the driveway and promptly ran to where the chewies are stored, grabbed a bunch of chewies, and brought them to the living for the other dogs, then ran back and picked a chewy out for himself!
This story is an excellent example of dogs as anticipatory learners. He put together the event of my mother coming home and getting chewies. He then decided to cut out the middle man so to speak! After all he knows where the chewies are and can get to them, so why not get them himself. What I found most interesting is that he offered the resource to the other dogs first and then got his.

2 comments:

Mara said...

Thanks Melissa!
that was an excellent story of action!

Mara..
Paws to Freedom
Portland, OR

Melissa Mitchell said...

Dear Mara,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the story. I am also very happy to have you in my readership.
Melissa