Dempsey's IQ test

One of the things Doreen and I are doing to try to raise Dempsey's doggie IQ is to give him puzzles. For example, when he gets one of his toys stuck under the sofa, we never pull it out for him, even if he asks. Instead, we keep the toy under the sofa, but move it to a place Dempsey can reach it, and we encourage Dempsey to keep trying. The hope is that we're teaching Dempsey persistence and problem-solving skills.

Dempsey's gotten pretty good at getting his toys, so we've introduced a new puzzle for him: Find the food. We've only played this five times, but we're wondering how many times it will take before Dempsey figures out he can just pick up the bowl to get the food, instead of sliding it against a wall. Any bets?



The interesting thing is that at the end of the game, when there's no food left, Dempsey knows to pick up the bowl and bring it to me for a reward. I wonder why he doesn't pick up the bowl first thing. I wish I knew what he was thinking sometimes.