While I make dinner, when I catch Raven watching me, I look at her right in the eyes.  Then I look away and look back a few seconds later.  If she’s still looking at me, I give her a treat.  She’s very good at this game.  Amongst the dogs, she gets a lot of treats.

Enter Luigi.  I taught him to sit on a mat in the living room while I make dinner and every now and then I bring him a treat for staying out there.  Except, he doesn’t like those odds.  Raven is right in my face, and Luigi’s out there somewhere.  So he changed the game to sit on his mat and bark.  That gets really annoying.  Luigi’s demand bark is a piercing bark.  I have to tell him to stop.  So what was his next move?  He had one.

Luigi, one day recently, ended up figuring out the game Raven and I played, and scooted right next to me at the oven.  When I looked down at him, he was staring me right in the eye.  I have never played this game with him.  The boy learned it on his own by imitating Raven.  I gave him a treat. That kept the game going.

Giving him the treat is the part where he does need some training. He takes his eye off me and turns his head to look at where the treat is coming from. Raven will keep her eye on me and trust the treat will land in her mouth. Luigi figures he did his part up to when my hand goes for the treat, so game is over, “Gimme treat.” Not quite, Luigi, but you’re learning. I am so impressed with what it took for him to get to play the game with his own smarts and his own doing. I’m not sure where the term copy cat came from, but I think copy dog should be in our vernacular.

Now if Luigi just keeps that big snoot quiet, we’ll be fine with this new behavior at dinner. Heza my boy, that Luigi is.