Griffin Goes to School

Yesterday we went to the local elementary school to do a few presentations.  These were the youngest kids I’ve presented for and we had three groups, about an hour each time!

Griffin did some agility, some tricks, and we talked about different ways to get behaviors. My favorite part was when I asked the kids for questions and then Griffin and I could do something based off of that.

A few of my favorite moments:

• “Can he smell you when he stands under you?”  [between-the-legs-trick]:  We could then talk about dead skin cells. Then I asked the kids to count how many colors they could see (they got -very- serious about counting) – I then told them it was kind of a trick question and we compared all of the different shades and hues of every color in the room to the way dogs can smell so many things at once.
• We had a discussion about targeting that led us to talking about the sharks at the Shedd Aquarium that go to their own targets.  After I first mentioned this, the kids immediately turned to each other and started talking – they we so amazed that sharks could be trained.   Then we had questions about how to become a “shark trainer.”
• “How do you know what kinds of treats a dog likes?”  And then we could do a raise-your-hand survey about different types of foods and activities to see that everyone has preferences – and that dogs do too.
• We did an add-a-cue demo for jumping through a hoop, each group got to pick a new cue to use. “Joop” was my favorite with the kid explaining “It’s like ‘hoop’ and ‘jump’.”
• “Can a dog get a fish?”  To which I said I personally don’t know any dogs who can, but that one of the first dog training books I read was about tricks and there were instructions for training a dog to catch a fish.

My least favorite part – and probably the very favorite part for one group of students – was when Griffin decided he needed to go outside so he jumped off of the stage and headed to the full-length windows he thought were doors.  He ran directly through the crowd of kids to get to the ‘door.’  We made a quick trip outside and then he was back to work.  I was surprised he went through the crowd – but that may be all of our field training paying off “take a straight line no matter what.”

Overall it was a good experience and I’m told the kids are still excited about him.  I’m inspired to work on some new showy tricks!