You are walking the dog, and she’s on to some scent only a dog can truly appreciate.
She:
A. Continues at your pace.
B. Sniffs, then “heels” when you ask her to.
C. Stops dead in her tracks and will not be persuaded to move off the spot.
Perhaps you can only envy the person who answers “a” or “b,” thinking to yourself, “I wish my dog could do that.” Well, take heart. Dan and Marcia Sherry of Barrington have made training the family pet a doggone fun experience with My Dog Can Do That!, a board game for dogs and humans to play together.
The brainstorm for the game hit the Sherrys two years ago on New Year’s Eve. “We were playing a board game with our friends,” Dan recalls, “and our 8-month-old Great Pyrenees, Dachien, was all over us trying to be included. We had to banish her to the laundry room, and we weren’t happy about it. `Somebody should invent a game for the dog,’ I thought.”
“The next morning,” Marcia says, “Dan said, `I’ve been thinking . . . ,’ and I said, `I know, we should invent a board game.’ We were on the same page.”
The Sherrys did just that, and so far they have sold 8,000 copies of My Dog Can Do That!
The game ($29.95) is available at Pet Supplies Plus in Highland Park, The Chalet in Wilmette and the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago. And it is being distributed in more than 40 states by Coastal Pet Products.
Dr. Rolan Tripp, a lecturer at the University of California-Davis and an animal behaviorist, gives the game a big thumbs up. “The world would be a better place if people played this game with their dog on a regular basis,” he says. “A happy dog has a positive leader in the pack; that means non-violent, non-threatening, non-fearful leadership (from the owner). It’s my opinion that many dogs have leadership anxiety and that being a leader is fundamental to the well-being of your dog.”
My Dog Can Do That! is set up like a typical board game: Roll the dice, pick a card, move your playing piece around. The gimmick is that the dog must follow some very unexpected instructions on the cards, all aimed at improving the human-canine bond.
A “beginner” dog, for example, might have to resist a piece of food for 10 seconds. To communicate that most basic idea–stay–to your dog, “you’ve got to be able to think fast and change direction” because the dog has only 30 seconds to do the trick, Marcia says.
There are 72 trick cards. Thirty-one of the cards are just variations of sit, down, come, stand, stay and heel; the others are different levels of more entertaining tricks, such as playing dead or wagging the tail. Humans can cajole but cannot touch their animal. If a trick is not performed, you don’t get to move ahead.
The key to success is to be flexible, not dogmatic. A more advanced card might read: “Turn your back on the dog and say, `Sit.’ “
“They are used to you standing over them or being their equal,” Marcia says, “so with your back toward them, it’s called `breaking the pattern.’ “
After developing a prototype of the game, the Sherrys’ first strategy was to sell it to a game giant like Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers. “I went to (an industry trade show) and found out you don’t just go in and talk to Parker Brothers,” Dan explains.
Dan did a few tricks of his own–he pretended he was a retailer–and gained entry but soon pondered whether he might be barking up the wrong tree. Why pursue only the top dogs of the toy industry; how about the gurus of animal behavior?
They contacted renowned veterinarian Dr. Ian Dunbar and Terry Ryan, a dog trainer and author from Pullman, Wash., who were initially skeptical. After months of meetings and responding to Dunbar and Ryan’s critiques, the Sherrys modified the game’s original prototype to emphasize reward-based techniques.
“We already knew the old `yank and crank’ method (yank the dog down by the collar, then crank his hips down to make him sit) was unfriendly,” Marcia says. “The more we consulted, we discovered the No. 1 reason for (owners putting their dogs into shelters) is behavioral problems because of a lack of training.”
Dunbar is originally from England, where his TV program “Dogs With Dunbar” airs. He now lives in Berkeley, Calif., where he is the head of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior.
“This is lure-reward training,” he says. “What’s brilliant about this game is that all the so-called tricks actually have a real-life value. There is no need to pull, push or dominate an animal to get it to do things our way. The owner and dog learn to work in harmony. The bully is not going to win this game.”
Dunbar wrote the game manual, which tries to explain the dog’s point of view.
Reward training is “fun-loving and gives the dog a chance to do something with someone, as dogs are accustomed to doing things with other dogs,” he says.
Beverly Stewart, who teaches a beginner dog obedience class in Chicago, played the game with her dog Misty, age 8, and three other Samoyeds at their monthly Prairieland Samoyed Club meeting in Lake Zurich.
“It’s fun, and they teach things simply,” she says. “You can use toys, food. My dog wouldn’t do everything, but that’s not the point. I’m definitely going to use it in my classes.”
The Sherrys had rolled the dice before in 1989 when both left overseas corporate jobs in Paris and moved to the Chicago suburbs. Marcia, a native of Arlington Heights, explains: “I wasn’t going to live in Europe indefinitely. My whole family is in Arlington Heights.” They took over The ID Store, a Mt. Prospect pet tag business begun in 1939 by Marcia’s father, Jack Swan, who was going into semi-retirement.
One of their first inventions was a twirling display of pet tags that has become a standard in the retail industry. “We were making the things all day and night in our basement,” Marcia says.
The Sherrys–who have three children: Danielle, 7; Allison, 5; and John-Patrick, 3–still have the Mt. Prospect operation, but they have high hopes for My Dog Can Do That! “We’re pretty sure it will become a staple in the pet industry,” Dan says. “We’re also thinking of other products to (market).”
And remember, every dog has its day. Yours may not be able to jump in the water and lead you back to safety. But, as Marcia points out, “Too many people think their dog can’t do anything; you’d be surprised.”
Dachien is a good example. Dachien “wasn’t really well-behaved before we first started playing,” Dan says. “In two weeks (of playing My Dog Can Do That!), we figured out a way to get her to do the Hokey Pokey.”
CAN YOUR DOG DO THIS?
Not every dog will make it to the My Dog Can Do That! winner’s circle, but trying is half the fun. Here are a few of the game’s challenges:
Trick: Dog must sit and stay while all players surround the dog and call the dog. Only the person playing the card can use the dog’s name, and the dog must go to that person.
Level: Beginner.
Value: 3 spaces.
Real-life value: This allows owners to discover to whom their dog listens.
Trick: Dog must stand and stay while player hops 10 feet away. The dog must remain standing for 10 seconds after the player stops.
Level: Beginner.
Value: 5 spaces.
Real-life value: This trick would be valuable at bath time: A wet dog would stay put while the owner goes for the towel.
Trick: Hokey Pokey: Place newspaper on the floor. The Dog must put its right paw on the paper, take its right paw off, put its left paw on, take its left paw off and turn itself around.
Level: Advanced.
Value: 9 spaces (three bonus spaces if player does the Hokey Pokey too).
Real-life value: Could be a career move. Pawing objects is part of the standard repertoire of all good television dogs.
