I read a lot of dog books, but I don't normally post reviews. This was such a cute and creative book, though, that I wanted to spread the word about it. Yes, the title really is Teach Your Dog to Read. It's written by Bonnie Bergin, whose background is working at a center breeding and raising/training service dogs.
I had already seen, in person, a couple of dogs trained to read words. The words are printed in plain black font on white printer paper, large enough to almost fill the page. Click here to see sample cards provided on the book's website. It's easy to get the dog to respond to the first word, because they will assume that any time you show them the giant flash card, it means "down" or "sit" or whichever first word you taught them. Getting the second word, and getting the dog to realize that what's written on the card in important, is the most difficult part. It's an amazing circus trick, it really gets your dog thinking, and there are some interesting real-world applications suggested in the book.
Dr. Bergin has a systematic plan for teaching the dog to really read the words. The dog must first reliably respond to each cue you will be putting on the flash cards on a verbal cue. (Hand signals would also work, but verbals are better because then you can hold totally still and not distract the dog visually from the card.) She suggests starting with "down", a cue which most dogs know well, but is not a default behavior like "sit" is, so the dog is less likely to be just guessing. She gives helpful tips for teaching the dog to lie down when you show him the "down" card: start with your dog standing in front of you, hold very still after you present the card so that the dog can get a good look at it without being distracted, look at the top of the card rather than staring into your dog's eyes, and give the "down" verbal a moment after you present the card. Once your dog reliably lies down when you show him the "down" card, move on to "sit". He will initially lie down, of course, but you will verbally cue him to sit. When the dog is able to discriminate between those two cards, you introduce a third, and at that point your dog will have learned to really look at the cards rather than guessing or anticipating. Stick with "discrete" behaviors at first -- ones which have a clear beginning and end, like stand, playbow, spin, or roll over, rather than heel or stay or back up.
Where the book became really interesting, for me, was in the next section in which she moves on to teaching the dogs to respond to doggie "stick figures". Click here to see the amusing stick figure cards. Dr. Bergin shares some amazing stories of dogs recognizing the meanings of the stick figures without even being taught an association between a verbal cue and that particular card. Talk about revealing the power of the dog's mind! Even though the stick figure stories were more impressive, she does recommend teaching the word cards first, so that the dog is already used to looking carefully at the cards and understanding that they hold some meaning.
There were a few training points I disgreed with. Dr. Bergin writes to advance to the next level of difficulty when your dog is responding correctly three out of five times (60%). That's only slightly better than chance (50%). I would only raise the difficulty when the dog is responding correctly four out of five times (80%), or even better, nine out of ten (90%). She suggests using a calm, quick "no" as a no reward marker. I would prefer to reset the dog without using an NRM, which can be quite stressful for a dog learning a difficult task like this. She suggests asking the dog, "What's it say?" any time their attention wavers without really teaching them that those words mean anything, so it's unlikely to get the dog to actually concentrate on the card. Finally, when working on responding to a sign showing a circle with a line going through it to mean "leave it", she suggests bopping the dog on the nose if he tries to approach the forbidden item. However, these are all minor points, and overall the book presents a comprehensive training plan that is easy to follow for any person who wants to teach their dog this neat skill.
She had some impressive ideas for truly utilizing a dog's ability to read. It allows the dog to communicate to his owner what he wants in that moment by approaching the appropriate card on the wall, such as water, food, or potty. For a person with diabetes or other health problems, the dog could clearly indicate a card meaning low blod sugar or some other warning. For cancer detection dogs that have learned how to identify bladder, prostate, ovarian, and breast cancer cells in urine samples, they could indicate the appropriate cards to tell us what kind of cancer they smell, or "nothing" if no cancer is present. Amazing stuff.
If you love teaching your dog new tricks, and you're up for a challenge, I would highly recommend that you give this a try. I guarantee that everyone who sees it will be beyond impressed that your dog can read! Dragon and I have plenty of other stuff to work on right now (agility, obedience, nosework, freestyle...), but eventually I plan to pursue reading with him.
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