Fresh Start Pet Coaching

The short answer to this question is yes. In fact, yesterday our dog Torchy learned to go find his Frisbee by watching our other dog Zoe find her ball.

“Go find it” is the command Zoe gets when I’ve thrown her ball for her and she looses it. Let’s face it,  I threw the ball for her and I don’t want to wander around in the grass looking for it if she’s lost it. Zoe also tends to loose balls in the grass rather easily.

To tell you the truth I’m not entirely sure when or how Zoe learned “Go find it”. It just kind of happened. Zoe loves to play ball and she would frequently loose track of the ball when we played. We live on 6 acres and I really didn’t want to go get it for her, so I would tell her to go find it and show her that I didn’t have anything in my hands. It wasn’t too long before Zoe figured out “Go find it” meant that the ball had been thrown and if she wanted it thrown again, she would have to figure out where it went.

Torchy is a Frisbee dog and there is absolutely nothing he loves more than catching a Frisbee. But sometimes the frisbee would get lost and John (my fiance) would have to go find the Frisbee for him. He tried to tell him to “go find it” but to no avail. Torchy didn’t understand what he was supposed to do. Then yesterday when John was throwing the ball for Zoe and the Frisbee for Torchy, Zoe lost her tennis ball and Torchy was watching. Zoe was given the command to “Go find it” and she began searching for the ball. Zoe found the ball, brought it back to John, and the ball was thrown again. Then when Torchy lost his Frisbee and John told Torchy to go find it he started looking for it. It took a couple of tries but on the third “Go find it” Torchy did and was rewarded by the Frisbee being thrown again.

So, that is my anecdotal support in favor of dogs being able to learn by watching other dogs.

Scientific support on whether dogs can learn from other dogs tends to be rather divided. In my opinion as a behaviorist, it depends on the dog and it depends on what you want the dog to learn. The reality is that a chihuahua is never going to learn how to be a good hunting dog by watching a Labrador Retriever. Chihuahua’s aren’t hunting dogs. But a young Labrador could learn a thing or two from observing an experienced hunting dog. In our case, both Zoe and Torchy love to chase and bring back toys, Zoe prefers the ball and Torchy likes the Frisbee. Dogs can and do learn from each other, but the basic principles of learning still apply. The reward your dog receives from learning  has to be enough for your dog to figure out what it is looking for. And it Torchy’s case, he’ll do just about anything for a Frisbee.