Puzzling till their puzzlers were sore...

We had a fun time with puzzles yesterday evening with Neah and Langley.  Neah tried the Twister on the easy setting for the first time.  After playing the puzzle with Langley it was nice to watch a less intense introduction with her.  If you watched Langley do the Twister in a former post you can see how much less frantic she is about it.  It's not that she's less food motivated - this girl loves her treats!  It's just she doesn't go from "I don't get it" to all out frantic panic like Langley does. 

She also checks in with her humans when she gets confused, which is not only adorable, but is a sign of how the human/dog connection comes naturally to her in a way that it doesn't to Langley.  She knew there was food in the puzzle and tried for a bit and then you'll see her come to me and give kisses in hopes that I'll free up the treats, since I'm typically the giver of treats here. A little later she tries her luck with Troy. At around 50 seconds she figures out how to slide it and then quickly empties the rest out. Good girl, Neah!

I discovered that the Twister puzzle really had two levels: easy and hard.  Langley got so excited and hyperfocused on the "one way" he thought it should be solved (sliding) that he couldn't slow down for the step of pulling the locks out to allow tiles to slide. We needed something that had the two steps: unlock and slide, but that was easier. So of course this gave me a reason to buy another puzzle.

Today I came home from work with another Nina Ottosson puzzle: The Brick.  The Brick is rated a medium skill level and the "bone locks" in this one are much easier to pop out than the ones in the Twister.

 

This was definitely a good next step for Langley. He quickly figured it out but we'll keep doing this one for awhile until he really connects that the bone needs to come out for the sliders to work.  Once he is really used to this two step pattern, we'll go back to the Twister with the locks in place. Langley has a very low tolerance for frustration so we'll need to slowly step up the levels of difficulty with him.

 

I highly recommend trying out some interactive puzzles with your dog.  If you happen to live in the Seattle area, the All The Best natural pet supply stores usually have several of these out that you can try with your dog and see if you like them or not. If you want to learn more about the puzzles then check out http://www.nina-ottosson.com/ . At the bottom of the page are links to YouTube videos of the different games being played so you can get a feel for how they work.