I teach a cue to my dogs that means reach your head through the hole extended. Primarily I use this for putting leashes, collars, and harnesses on. Though it has proved useful if they need to wear an Elizabethan cone or muzzle for medical recovery. They are to shove their head through what ever opening I hold up. This is part of cooperative care for my dogs and I. As I do not reach toward the dog to put the gear on, if they aren’t willing to come toward it and place their head through the opening, I know we need to work on increasing their comfort with it before moving forward.
And it’s a really fun trick.
This morning Zora, Tom and I were playing around, being silly with their doughnut toy. And I thought “hmm, can Zora fit her nose in it?”
Yes, yes she can.
I play a lot of cue control games with toys. Working so they can interact with their toys in different ways based on which cue is given. “get it” to grab it with their mouths, “push it” to push it with their nose, “chin” to rest their chin on it, and so on. This is the first time we’ve had a toy that we could do “put you’re head in” and it was a fun addition to our games! Poor Tom though, his nose is way too big to fit in this toy! LOL
