Hobbs Chooses Again

Since the last time I attempted the "Choose Game" with Hobbs was a bit of a disaster I decided to talk with my friend and get some suggestions on how to help this work for Hobbs. I mean the whole point of the game is to help him build his confidence and my last attempt did the opposite.

Her suggestion were to find a super low box with no flaps and also to have all the other dogs occupied and quiet in another part of the house before starting the game with Hobbs.

I found a case tray that canned dog food comes in to use as our box and then gated Frodo and Langley upstairs with roasted beef kneecaps to keep them occupied.

As you can see in the video, Hobbs was still a bit reticent, and before approaching the box he comes back to me for assurance before turning around to check out the box again. He quickly grabbed a trachea ring though and sat down next to the box to happily chew it.  Good boy, Hobbs!

Hobbs with his trachea ring prize

We have some other confidence building exercises that we're working on as well, guided by my friend over at A Day in the Life of a New Rattitude Foster Dog. She has a ton of experience building confidence thanks to her work with her personal dog and former foster D-Light. It has been a bit of a turnabout for my thinking since I've been doing so much work with uninhibited Mr. Langley so it has been great to have some help brainstorming ideas of games to help Hobbs.