When Your Dog is Smarter Than You.

I think it is important that I personally have confidence and knowledge of the products that I sell in Dogism's store.  I test most things on my own dogs or my friend's dogs. Since I am on a kick to teach my boys new tricks, I decided it was time to train Luey on the Treat House that I sell.  The idea of the Treat House is that the dog drops a ball into the top of the house, triggering a lever that kicks out a treat.  Luey is already trained to "take it" so he can pick up the ball, no problem.  He knows "drop it," so basically all I have to do is teach the location of where to drop the ball.  That should not be too hard.  What I failed to consider was the mind of Luey.  The king of treat toys like Kong, he is always up for the challenge of new treat filled toys.  So when I put this treat filled house in front of him, it didn't take him long to figure out that if he just flipped it over with his nose or paw, it would drop treats with about the same reinforcement ratio of the treat toys. 

I have somewhat successfully walked him through the proper use of the toy, but usually when I offer him the tennis ball, he just looks at me like "stupid human, why would I go through all that?" and promptly tips over the house with his nose. 

See the Treat House here.