Shall We Play a Game?

I often think the things Chase does for me are a game to him.  We play a game where he stops whenever we get to a curb.  He stops at the edge and waits for me.  He gets a reward and waits for me to tell him “forward”.  On the other side of the street, he puts his front feet on the up curb, and waits for his praise and reward.  Then he waits again for me to say “forward”. 

We have games where he finds things.  “Find the stairs.”  “Find the escalator.”  “Find the curb.”  “Find the (walk/don’t walk) button.”  “Find the elevator.”  “Find the chair” (useful for everything from chairs to BART train seats to park benches).

But one of his favorite games lately has been the stairs game.  When I make any move toward the stairs at home, Chase goes immediately to the bottom step and puts his front feet on it.  He waits for his praise and reward.  If I start up the stairs, he goes slightly ahead of me and waits at the landing, his front feet on the landing, his back feet one stair down.  Praise.  Reward.  He turns on the landing and puts his feet on the first step of the next flight and waits.  Then at the top, he puts his feet on the second floor level with his back feet one stair down. 

The value for me, of course, is that he is showing me where the stairs start and end.  I’m not sure if he knows that of if he just thinks it’s a great game that can bring as many as four rewards between the bottom and top of the stairs.

Now that I’m at home most of the day, we can play the stairs game twenty times a day.  He didn’t do this so much when we were traveling to and from work every day.  But now he seems to be locked on to the stairs game.  Maybe it’s his need to work.  Maybe it’s his desire for the treats.  Either way, he seems to enjoy it and does it enthusiastically.