Through a Dog's Eyes by Jennifer Arnold

Jennifer Arnold wrote Through a Dog's Eyes: Understanding Our Dogs by Understanding How They See the World to help individuals better relate to their canine friends.  She also describes her work training assistance dogs for individuals with physical limitations or medical issues. This book helped me understand my dog and realize that I am lucky to have him as part of our family.

Jennifer's training methods do not employ any punishments but us the choice teaching method with food as rewards.  The method also allows the  dog to take their time thinking through options and attempt to understand the command.  Random extrinsic rewards convert the activity into something the dog eventually loves to do because they made the choice.

The results for her service dogs are remarkable with some of them able to bring medicines to those with limited disability, alert others about an upcoming seizure, and even restart medical equipment on a ventilator.

I recently noted that our dog, Yukon, was less interested in his food dish lately so I decided to offer it to him in closed or partially closed containers to give him some mental stimulation per Jennifer's recommendation.  Yukon was up for the challenge and did not give up.  He is now challenging me to come up with a container he can't open.

Through a Dog's Eyes - PBS special preview 4 min. 

The choice teaching method - 2 min.

Dog's evaluate the world differently than humans - 2 min.