July 28, 2013

Monday Mischief: My Puzzled Puppy

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A few weeks ago, Rita and I participated in an online auction hosted by Dachsies With Moxie to raise money for the animals affected by the recent tornado in Moore, OK. Rita and I had the winning bid on a fun treat and puzzle toy combo pack, which was supplied for the auction by Bailey, Hazel and Greta of Idaho Pug Ranch. Hooray! We like to win! And, best of all, about $900 was raised for the Moore, OK animals!

Our prize package included some Zuke's Mini Treats, which Rita loves, and a puzzle toy which Rita... is confused by.
Hooray for Zukes!
I filled it with a few Zuke's and showed her that they were in there:
"I smell good stuff. How does this work, Momma?"
"I just lift these off, like this? Oh, they're slippery!"
She seemed to have a hard time picking up the paw puzzle pieces and gave up pretty easily. Later, I took 2 of the pieces out so it wouldn't be so hard to get all the treats out. (The treats are not only hidden under the yellow pieces, they are also in little sections in between. So the idea is, the dog pulls out all the pieces first - revealing treats under each - then spins the top to reveal the hidden compartments with more treats.)

Even with 2 pieces removed, she still didn't seem to think it was easy enough.
Pour tortured Rita...
She tried grabbing one of the pieces, but couldn't quite get it:

She tried pawing at it:
She tried guilt-sucking me with "the look":

I caved. I took one more piece out.
"I smell treats in there!"
She tried staring at it:
"Why do you flummox me so??"
And she stared at it some more:
"I wonder if I can move it with my mind?"
And then she gave up:
"Sigh."
So, I felt bad for her and took the last piece out, and she quickly swiveled the top and got the rest of the treats out:
"Oh, now I see the treats! Come to me, tasty morsel!"
Here's the true mischief part... I put it back together with no treats inside, and she instantly walked over and plucked one of the paw shapes out! What the heck??
"I knew how it worked all along. It's easy."
So, apparently she's just fine at doing the puzzle when there are no treats, but when there are treats, it's too confusing. (She did that twice - plucking the pieces out easily when the toy was empty.) Maybe the treat smells addle her brains.


In addition to her "I'll only solve the puzzle when there are no treats in it" mischief, she decided to munch on one of the pieces. (Which is odd because she almost never chews on things she shouldn't!)
"May I have that back please. I wasn't finished reshaping it."

I think she's trying to make them all misshapen so they won't fit back in properly!
"I'll show her. I'll make these things so they don't fit!"

Thanks so much to Dachsies with Moxie for organizing the auction (what a great idea, right?) and to Idaho Pug Ranch for our fun auction item!
Aren't Bailey, Hazel and Greta adorable??

And thank you to Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Alfie’s Blog, and My Brown Newfies for hosting Monday Mischief!

29 comments:

  1. She just doesn't want to work for her food!,

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  2. Wow! Congrats on winning and awesome job with the fundraiser!

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  3. I've always wondered what Shiner would do with one of these toys. Maybe Rita is just being smart and letting you do all the work. And smart move destroying the puzzle piece too ;)

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  4. BOL funny we'd chew it too. That is all it deserves. Peeps for you! Have a marvellous Monday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  5. Ha, ha, great mischief there, way to go!

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  6. Could be karma.... you mess with Rita's head and she messes with yours! Or it may be Rita thinks if you like puzzles so much, she'll give you something to think about ;-)

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  7. That looks like a really hard puzzle. Our dogs would chew it for sure...lol.

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  8. Oh my, those pictures are priceless - especially the 'torture' one! I would totally chew up a toy like that, too, Rita!
    Yay for the Dacshies!

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  9. Haha! Maybe she thinks she's too much a princess to work for food!

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  10. I bought a puzzle game for my Cairn Terrier, Mr. Gatsby. It's a bit different than yours, but he LOVES it! He gets so excited when he sees me filling it, also with Zukes. I really think puzzle treat games are good for a dog's mind.

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  11. Rita put on quite a show. She really needs to audition for her own TV show with such a range of emotion and her lack of predictability.

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  12. Oh My Rita! Love your expressions! At least you are getting some fun out of both the treats and the puzzle, although not necessarily in the way it was intended HA HA!
    love
    Bailey, Hazel & Greta

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  13. Omigoodness! Rita is one smart dog. I think. Is she? Did she outsmart her mama?

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  14. I love the look on her face. That looks like a fun toy though. I wonder if Torrey could figure that one out.

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  15. Rita is a hoot! I bet the treat smell stuck to that yellow piece and made it worth a nibble or two. My guys love food puzzles!

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  16. Zukes are or favorite treats! Gretel has some puzzle toys and she figured them out in 5 minutes. Kind of made using them a bit useless. We have seen that puzzle toy but haven't tried it.

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  17. well she is pretty smart cos she got you to do it for her and she showed you she really had figured it out...mom just bid on one of those things at another raffle for bennie and she sure hopes we win it so we can drive her crazy with it also. bahahhaha
    stella rose

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  18. OMD, Rita's expressions kill me every time!! And your descriptions and captions are always so hilarious.
    I've really been wanting to try the food puzzle things, but I don't know. Austin is my crazy chewer and honestly, he'd probably try to just pick up the whole thing and cart it off to destroy it. That would be his method of getting the treats out. And do I get one for each dog or let them both try to fish the treats out of the same puzzle? Probably a disaster either way for them, lol.

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  19. Oh poor Rita...maybe the treat aromas got her brain all crazed and she couldn't think straight. BOL What a great auction win though!
    *Cairn cuddles*
    Oz

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  20. I think I should send Dakota over to help Rita. He figured it out in less than 10 seconds :)
    He isn't 6th on the dog breed intelligence scale for nothin'!!!!
    Maybe Rita was having a bad day?
    xoxoxo

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  21. Giz was a total flop at puzzle toys...He went through the same stages as Rita including "the look" and then giving up...Even with all the flaps opened he would go after the treats, though I used the best smelly liver stuff so I knew he know they were there...Yes, we've given up on puzzle toys

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  22. I have a puzzle that Mom hides food in and I don't like to do it either...why should I have to find my food when Mom could just give it to me?

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  23. I once read about a study in which the scientists determined border collies were smarter than golden retrievers because the border collie was able to get food out of a toy faster than the retriever who looked to his person for help.

    I wondered if they interpreted their data properly. After all, what's smarter than getting your person to do the work for you? :)

    Sounds like Rita might know the same trick.

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  24. hehe she had your number! Congrats on winning such a cool toy, great pictures and opps on the chewed piece.

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  25. RITA!!! We have one of those same types of puzzles. Jack just manhandles them, but Maggie is like Rita - not really sure how to get a grip on those things to lift them out. I turned them upside down so they were easier to grab onto and she did it with ease. Try it and see if it works for Rita...

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  26. The expressions on Rita's face are just too funny! Yes, I think the smell of treats makes her unable to think straight. I'm pretty sure they have that affect on our beagles. We had a toy similar to that and I seem to remember the dogs weren't all that impressed. Maybe I'll dig it out and try to torture them a bit! hee hee

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  27. Rita and June definitely have the same "look." I have always wondered what would happen with one of these toys. Thanks so much for the details.

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  28. Aw, Bella's given me that look too when I tried to get her to work for a treat. (I don't know if you ever saw the post where I hid one under a cup, but that's what this reminded me of.)

    Rita's just so darn cute though... :)

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  29. Haha

    I'm still trying to work out who's really doing the mischief on who? :)

    And thanks for reminding us about the auction, we hadn't heard anything and then the humans went on vacation, I really wanna get my prizes out so I've just dropped them a line for the info :)

    Big wags,

    Your pal Snoopy :)

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