Festus’ choice might sound a bit cheesy for a post title, but I think it describes perfectly what the post is about: choosing. After Christmas I shared a few pictures with Festus picking up his favourite treat from the ones he had under the tree. He had only 4 to pick from, so we’ve made it even more difficult for him, with more choices.
In this clip he has to pick from 7. He is used to have to pick and waits patiently as he knows he will always get something in return for his patience. We’ve started with something simple, just two choices and went up from there. He always picked only one and never tried to get more items. That, of course, would not apply to toys, when he is perfectly happy to play with as many as he wants at the same time. We never asked him to pick toys, so that’s that.
After Christmas we’ve continued giving him the opportunity to pick the treat he wants. So much so, that now I’m telling my husband that we’ve run out of treats when we have only 2 or 3 left. In this picture he is again choosing from 7 different treats, including a carrot. He loves carrots and I was curious if he picks carrot instead of a doggie treat. He picked the treats every time I tried, that’s about 3 or 4 times. If he has to chose between carrots, apples, and pears, he picks carrots every single time.
These treats are made with vegetables and rice. This means they don’t have a meaty smell, which might tip the balance in their favour. I haven’t made notes of which one he pics, to see if there is a pattern. Nevertheless I noticed he likes the long sticks, after that the toothbrushes, and then the rest. I need to buy more treats and maybe I will keep a record. I’m curious if he is consistent in his choices or just favours one and not the other on the moment.
Aww Festus! He’s so cute bless him. My Gemma would never do this… she’d have them all!!
This is great and it’s so much fun! What a great idea and what a cutie — and now you know what he seems to like best!
So cute!! Wow!!
That’s a really fun experiment! I can see you like to track habits and see the results just like I do. I track my baby’s sleeping habits to see if there is a correlation between how long he naps during the day and how long he sleeps at night. Or if there’s a connection between the time he wakes from his last nap before bed and what time he wakes in the morning. So far I cannot find a connection. I would really like to find the secret to making him sleep into 7:30am consistently but so far it just seems random.
This is so fun to see! It’s funny how their brains work. Pat (our latest rescue) can spend forever at the toy box, sniffing and digging around to find just what he wants to play with. He loves to play fetch with a ball and is very particular which ball he wants to use. The ball varies, though, depending on his mood at the time.
How cute! He pick the ball according to his mood. That’s hilarious.