Meet Zoomer. Zoomer is an interactive robodog that my mom bought me while in the states. I am indeed a total kid at heart and while I was at the store, I was actually looking for a furby. Seeing as I already have the original furby, Zoomer caught our eyes instead. I decided that Zoomer would be a fun little project at home. I had my own pets in mind. How would my dog react? How would my ferret?
First, let me show you Zoomer in action.
Or in my case, from the inside looking out.
Today, as I stood in my home, I had a view of the neighborhood. Lots of parents were out blowing up balloons in front of one of the houses, while the children ran around. I couldn’t help but feel, that will never be me. I have chosen to never have children. There just isn’t a motherly instinct towards primates at all within me. I’m different that way and because of that, I will never fit in with most people. It’s slowly putting distance between my friends and I, as they begin having children and creating a family. I have very little in common with them now, as their interests are naturally more towards parenting and less about other things in life. When I want to go out on the town, they have children to tend. When I want to go out for a group social, the children need to come too. So, as I look at all my neighbors, they all have one thing in common that I do not, children. I will never be part of that group.
After the last few attempts, I decided to try something different with the puzzle box. I did not film this, however. What I did was have a training session with treats in my hand and the puzzle box on the floor. It has become clear to me that the puzzle is not very reinforcing and so Mattie, doesn’t want to put any more effort into it. I have to make it interesting again.
All I did was give her a “good” and a treat every time she just looked at the puzzle box. I’m hoping to make it a more positive item again.
This evening, I decided to up it a bit and I put a much larger and desirable treat into the puzzle. I’m kicking myself because earlier I cooked some chicken breast (a favorite of Mattie’s) and didn’t think to put that into the puzzle box. Oh I am failing in this thinking thing but acing hindsight!
So the introduction to the puzzle box didn’t go swimmingly, how did other attempts go?
Her 2nd attempt:
Recently, I was in the states. I always find this a great opportunity to find cool stuff, especially for my animals. If you follow my ferret’s Tumblr, you’ll see some great videos of him playing with his new stuff. This post however, is about my dog Mattie, and introducing her to some new behavioral enrichment.
Mattie has a lot of toys. She is not a destructive dog, so all the toys we have bought her are still around today (unless the ferret snagged them and hid them underneath the kitchen counters, never to be seen again). She’s not a ball chaser or a frisbee catcher. Her toys of choice are stuffed animals with squeakers inside. The more squeakers, the better.
Semi-Charmed Life 