Connect Paw!
Dogs learn how to play classic child’s pastime from the 1970s
THEY say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but one dog lover has taught her mutts how to play Connect 4 – even though the eldest is aged 11.
Border terrier Bramble and his 11-month-old sheepdog friend Willow live with dog trainer and behaviourist Jodie Forbes who has taught them dozens of tricks.
Their latest achievement is to play the
1970s board game with Jodie, who has trained them to pick up tokens and drop them in the grid.
She said: “When I was a kid, I read that border terriers were
‘untrainable’, ‘not to be trusted off-lead’ and ‘highly stubborn’, and I vowed to prove that wrong.
“Bramble has learned hundreds of tricks and her and Willow’s latest is to play Connect 4.
“I started by using socks and a plastic tub and I’d get them use their nose-eye co-ordination to drop the sock in a tub. Then I used smaller and smaller objects until they were able to pick the Connect 4 tokens up in their mouths and drop them in the top of the grid.
“If a token falls on the floor or table, they pick it up and drop it in again. They’re such clever dogs.”
Jodie, 25, from Bournemouth, has been training dogs since she was nine, including for media campaigns. She is also a brand ambassador for pet food company Natures Menu, and this month took Bramble and Willow to Crufts in Birmingham to show off their skills.
For people looking to teach their own dog tricks, Jodie says: “Get a smelly treat and hold it between your finger and thumb above their nose and spin 360 degrees, and they follow it, then you give them the treat. Keep practising so when you say ‘spin’ they do it!”