May 25
New Tricks for Oscar – Part 3
So now I’ve embarked on a very ambitious new trick…people are very impressed with Oscar’s tissue trick, but I decided that it was time to up the ante. He mastered fetching the tissue with a sneeze cue really quickly, so I racked my brain to come up with a similar trick….what else could Oscar fetch based on some random external cue?? Then it hit me….what if he could fetch the phone when it rang?? That would be awesome and it’s not all that far off from the tissue trick. If he can get SNEEZE = FETCH TISSUE, then he should be able to get RING = FETCH PHONE, right?
So, first there were a few logistical problems to deal with…our home phone is currently on top of a desk, so if I ever get this trick to work, I’ll have to relocate it to the floor or get another set of doggy steps - I’ll deal with that later, if we ever get to that point. Next problem is that our home phone is too big for Oscar to be able to pick up in his mouth. So, for now I’ve fashioned this ghetto-fabulous duct tape handle so that Oscar can easily fetch the phone…

Of course, my wonderful handle covers up both the ear-piece and the mouth-piece, so if Oscar actually did manage to bring the phone to me when it rang, I wouldn’t actually be able to answer it….details, details….
Anyway, I’m happy to report that after only two phone-fetching training sessions, Oscar is already very comfortable with fetching the jerry-rigged phone and bringing it to me. I started to add the ring cue, but if I let it keep ringing while he’s carrying it he gets freaked out and drops it. So, here’s my game plan for finishing the trick…
Step 1 – Master the phone retrieval with the cue of a single ring.
Step 2 – Get him comfortable with carrying a continuously ringing phone (I think I’m going to have to disable the answering machine for this part).
Step 3 – Put steps 1 & 2 together.
Step 4 – Figure out a permanent Oscar phone handle and phone location.
Wish us luck! I found a video of a Chihuahua fetching a cell phone, so there’s hope for Oscar!!
Anyways, we’re having lots of fun with our new trick training. I’m no kind of training expert and according to breed intelligence rankings, Oscar’s not super bright…so if we can do it, anyone can!!


















