By Gaby Dufresne-Cyr, CBT
In 2005, I came across a dog who challenged my outlook on behaviour and approach to training. Her name was Boreal. I wrote an article about her in the French magazine Passionnement Chien spring 2006 issue. To this day, Boreal is the only dog to which I granted the nickname Miss. Einstein.
I'll always remember my initial visit with Boreal and her desperate owner. The black dog was a disorganised Belgium Groenendael who could not walk in a straight line. In my file I wrote: Boreal is bold, fragmented, yet extremely intelligent. She strives to please but doesn't know which direction to go. The first few exercises we designed for her were child's play and did not help one bit. Reinforcing heel was one thing, keeping her from looking and reacting at every single stimuli was another.
It soon became apparent we needed to teach Boreal to focus, and without any literature on dog mental abilities, or a Google web search engine, I had to design my own attention training program. I came up with an original idea; we would teach Boreal to read. I designed a complex program which included object and word recognition. It was a long and strenuous process, but it helped her tremendously.
Boreal was so smart, she learned to recognise twelve objects with a 95% accuracy in one weekend. Within a few months, Boreal knew forty two objects, forty two corresponding words, two verbs (visually & auditory), and could discriminate between five shapes. When this video was taken, Boreal had not yet learned the words associated with the verb touch or take. All this to learn to walk and jog with her human. In the end, and with all our hard work, Boreal became a focused and reliable cognitive and physical athlete.
Take Away
What do I take away from this experience? Miss. Einstein taught me how poor mental stimulation impacts behaviour and just how important it is for dogs to use their brain. Ten years ago, I had to incorporate brain games into my training program because of Boreal. Today, I can say cognitive stimulus yields remarkable results, and not a day goes by without me thinking how one dog changed it all. From Boreal to Miss Einstein, this cognitive canine truly loved to learn.
Thankfully, today we have literature and research on canine cognition, and we have Google to provide us with Brain Games ideas. Brain games are not designed to occupy dogs; they are meant to stimulate the brain, increase attention, and to improve problem-solving skills. Dogs are very smart and when done properly, brain games will help address other undesirable behaviours. I strongly recommend you consider adding mental stimulus to your dog's daily activities.
In 2005, I came across a dog who challenged my outlook on behaviour and approach to training. Her name was Boreal. I wrote an article about her in the French magazine Passionnement Chien spring 2006 issue. To this day, Boreal is the only dog to which I granted the nickname Miss. Einstein.
I'll always remember my initial visit with Boreal and her desperate owner. The black dog was a disorganised Belgium Groenendael who could not walk in a straight line. In my file I wrote: Boreal is bold, fragmented, yet extremely intelligent. She strives to please but doesn't know which direction to go. The first few exercises we designed for her were child's play and did not help one bit. Reinforcing heel was one thing, keeping her from looking and reacting at every single stimuli was another.
It soon became apparent we needed to teach Boreal to focus, and without any literature on dog mental abilities, or a Google web search engine, I had to design my own attention training program. I came up with an original idea; we would teach Boreal to read. I designed a complex program which included object and word recognition. It was a long and strenuous process, but it helped her tremendously.
Boreal was so smart, she learned to recognise twelve objects with a 95% accuracy in one weekend. Within a few months, Boreal knew forty two objects, forty two corresponding words, two verbs (visually & auditory), and could discriminate between five shapes. When this video was taken, Boreal had not yet learned the words associated with the verb touch or take. All this to learn to walk and jog with her human. In the end, and with all our hard work, Boreal became a focused and reliable cognitive and physical athlete.
Take Away
What do I take away from this experience? Miss. Einstein taught me how poor mental stimulation impacts behaviour and just how important it is for dogs to use their brain. Ten years ago, I had to incorporate brain games into my training program because of Boreal. Today, I can say cognitive stimulus yields remarkable results, and not a day goes by without me thinking how one dog changed it all. From Boreal to Miss Einstein, this cognitive canine truly loved to learn.
Thankfully, today we have literature and research on canine cognition, and we have Google to provide us with Brain Games ideas. Brain games are not designed to occupy dogs; they are meant to stimulate the brain, increase attention, and to improve problem-solving skills. Dogs are very smart and when done properly, brain games will help address other undesirable behaviours. I strongly recommend you consider adding mental stimulus to your dog's daily activities.