Hobbs and Frodo play the "Choose Game"

A friend did a blog post about playing this game with her dogs and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and decided to try it. The idea is to put a variety of dog chews in a box and then the dog gets to nose the box open and make their choice. It's a great confidence builder, a game with no mistakes and a very happy ending so I figured the boys would love it. The only rule in this game is for the humans: they have to keep their mouth shut and stay out of it. Trust me, this is a tough rule! You'll hear in the videos that I break the rule repeatedly.  Anyhow, I loaded up the box with an assortment of doggy deliciousness: duck foot, bison lung slice, bully stick, bully pretzel, trachea rings, a cow ear and some arch tendons. Yum!

Unfortunately I didn't really think through the logistics of having Hobbs, Frodo and Langley all together and waiting turns for their chance at the game. My bright idea was that I would put Frodo in a sit-stay and hold Langley beside me with one hand while I taped Hobbs taking his turn with the other. How in the heck did I think I was going to pull this off?! I am still face-palming myself and wondering in what universe that would ever be a good idea.

So what I wanted to be a really successful win-win situation for Hobbs, who is a little reticent and shy, ended up being the opposite. He approaches the box while I hold the camera, then Langley in one odd move licks the lens of the video camera and lunges, air snapping at Hobbs because he doesn't want anyone else to get near the box. So Hobbs is immediately seeing this whole box thing as a trap because he sniffs it and then a dog lunges at him and the human start yelling, Langley's being wrestled back to the chair, cameras are flying through the air. It was complete chaos.

I was determined to play the damn game though. So Langley was taken to another floor of the house and crated and back upstairs I went to try again. I put Frodo back in his sit-stay and this time I open the box to make it less scary for Hobbs. Understandably he wasn't too sure and was worried about approaching the box.

He was also wondering why Frodo wasn't pulling anything out. Frodo in the meantime was having trouble controlling himself. See, I had said "wait" and not "stay" which was a little confusing and hey "wait" means just sit there for a second or so right?   I love this video because you see Frodo trembling under the extreme duress of having to sit next to that box and not take anything. Slowly he starts to lean in and at 16 seconds you see Hobbs looking at him, likely checking for what they are supposed to do. "Do we just sit here? Are you going to try something? Is this a TRAP?!! Will she start yelling again?"

After I saw Hobbs looking at Frodo, I decided to let Frodo take his turn first and Hobbs could see that it wasn't that scary. So Frodo ventured into the box and pulled out a small bully stick and off he went with it to chew.

Frodo with his prize

Hobbs still wasn't sure of the box so I decided that for today with all the drama and my inadvertent poisoning of the game I would let him sniff and then I would pull out the cow ear that he had been trying to get near earlier. I wanted him to have a happy ending, in spite of my awkward first try at this game.

Hobbs and his prized cow ear

He took off for another part of the room to happily chew his prize. So all ended well and I plan on trying this again, just Hobbs and I, so he can feel a bit more relaxed and start to gain some confidence.

Langley got a turn later and I'll tell you about that tomorrow.