Using a game called The Impossible Task, which is featured on a new Netflix show called Inside the Mind of a Dog, canine cognition researchers demonstrate that some dogs instinctively know how to ask humans for help. And with the right training, those dogs are more likely to become service dogs. What’s more, pet parents can also use the game with puppies to strengthen their connection.
Training service dogs requires considerable time and resources. Work being done at Duke Puppy Kindergarten—which you can see on Netflix’s Inside the Mind of a Dog—is making it easier to identify puppies with better chances of becoming service dogs. The trick is to look for puppies who ask humans for help with tasks they can’t complete alone. Further, the research has also identified a game pet parents can play with puppies to strengthen bonds with their dogs.
Identifying Good Service Dog Candidates with a Simple Game
In the Netflix documentary Inside the Mind of a Dog, viewers delve into the cognitive world of dogs. One stop on the trip is Duke Puppy Kindergarten, where part of the goal is to identify service dog candidates. Service puppies in training from Canine Companions play cognitive games like The Impossible Task, where they try to retrieve a treat from a locked container. Some puppies paw at the container and bite the handles, determined to solve the puzzle through sheer willpower. However, others give up and walk away. But a few puppies do something else—they ask for help. And the dogs who ask for help by making eye contact with humans are more likely to graduate and become service dogs.
Playing The Impossible Task Can Help Improve the Bond with Your Dog
Beyond helping to identify good candidates for service dogs, cognitive games can help pet parents strengthen bonds with their own dogs. And all it takes is playing the game for five minutes every two weeks between eight and 20 weeks of age. Puppies who play at this frequency make double the amount of eye contact as puppies who don’t play.
Eye contact is extremely important for the canine-human relationship. It leads to the release of oxytocin, the hormone that makes you feel loving and loved. Pet parents with dogs who make more eye contact report being more satisfied in their relationship with their dogs. What’s more, dogs who make more eye contact tend to get adopted out of shelters faster.
Conclusion
The Impossible Task demonstrates that each puppy sees the world and solves problems differently. It can even help to identify dogs that are good service dog training candidates. And for pet parents, playing cognitive games like these can improve relationships with dogs. What’s more, cognitive games can even help shelter dogs find forever homes.
Vanessa Woods is a research scientist at Duke University and author of Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog.
Brian Hare is a professor in Evolutionary Anthropology and Cognitive Neuroscience and author of Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog.