Growing up in the 1960’s, girls like me were advised to “play hard to get.” (I notice now that the phrase was not “be hard to get,” but “play hard to get.” Sigh.) This, we were told, would make us more attractive to boys. I had no trouble with this in high school, because the only thing I wanted to play at was being around horses, and the only boy interested in my skinny, gawky body was a Physics nerd who thought it was cool that I kicked ass in algebra. We went to Prom together and shook hands after it was over.
As awful as the “hard to get” advice sounds to me now, the fact is that scarcity, or its allusion, makes anything more valuable. Female Redpolls, plain brown birds with a tiny red cap, get ooohs and aaahs when they appear here in Southern Wisconsin, because they are rare. The magnificent Blue Jay, one of the most beautiful birds in North America, barely gets any attention because it is so common. The examples are endless, and easily found in advertisements: “Going out of business!” “Two days only!” “Only two left in stock!” Black Friday is the ultimate example: Limited products, one day = Scarcity.
But does scarcity, or playing hard to get, have the same effect in other species? My experience suggests it does, but I’d love to hear what you think. Here are a few of my anecdotal observations and how I use it with my dogs:
PLAY: Do you have a dog who is so/so on a particular toy? Perhaps the one you spent a fortune on that your dog ignored? What if you tried handing it to your dog and then snatching it away at the last moment before he got his mouth around it? Maggie can be on again/off again about some toys in some situations, and if I want her to play when I need her to exercise, I’ll pretend to give a toy to her, but pull it away two or three times before she has a chance to reject it. She also loses interested in the ridiculous expensive antlers I buy her, when there is plenty left to chew on; a brief hard to get game can pique her interest. If your dog really doesn’t want to play, or seems bored by a particular toy, give this a try if you haven’t already. (This works with dogs who are picky about treats too.)
Here’s me teasing Maggie with her bone this morning:
Here’s Maggie a few seconds later (after another teasing session):
PILLS: I wrote in January of 2015 about a variety of ways to get a pill into a dog, including this method:
The One Two Three Game: First, encase the pill in some highly palatable food, perhaps a piece of chicken or some peanut butter. Put it aside and give the dog a treat with no pill. Then give the dog a second treat. Next, pick up the treat-encased pill and put it right next to your dog’s nose, but don’t let him eat it! Pull it away, as if to tease him. Move it within an inch of your dog’s nose/mouth again and snatch it away a second time. Move it a third time toward your dog’s mouth and let him eat it. Follow it up with a fourth treat, this time with no pill. Unless the pill is truly noxious, this works really well and makes the entire exercise great fun.
I italicized the “hard to get” part, which I added in after learning the 1-2-3-4 treat, treat, pill, treat method from friend and colleague Laura Monaco Torelli. You can punch up the “scarcity” factor even more if you have other dogs. One regular treat to the dog who needs the pill, three to the other dog, eventually adding in the pill somewhere in the mix. The faster you do this, the better it works. Note: If the pill is easy to swallow and not distasteful, there’s no need to cover it with food.
RECALLS: Pippy Tay, one of my sweetest and dearest Border Collies, went through an adolescent period of taking off in the woods after wildlife, ignoring any calls to stop or come back. Not safe, not okay. This was a behavior I had to get turned around fast before it became a dangerous habit. I was lucky to be walking with other dogs during this period, so I’d wait until they were all well in front of me, (but not chasing anything), and clap to call them all back to me. The first dog back got multiple treats, the second a few tasty morsels, but the last dog? Oh dear, it seems I always ran out of goodies before the last dog arrived. That last dog was always Pippy because she tended to range so far ahead, but I made sure that she was close enough behind to see the other dogs getting treats. When she arrived, I sympathized, and told her how sorry I was that she missed out. I can’t begin to speculate what was going on in her mind, but her behavior and body language suggested to me that she was crushed. (It should be noted that Pippy loved food like life itself.)
You might think that this would back fire, in that she wasn’t getting reinforced for coming when called. But she stopped ranging so far ahead, and seemed to have one ear cocked backwards, listening for me to call the dogs back. I did reinforce her if she made a valiant effort to get back to me fast, and eventually she stopped ranging so far ahead. Adolescence passed her by, and she developed a dynamite recall, even if she flushed a deer that took off right in front of her. It’s just an observation, and it could be incorrect, but my sense was that knowing that the treats were “scarce” had an important effect on her at a critical time.
I suspect there are lots more examples of this than the three above. I’d love to hear your take on this. Has “hard to get” cropped up in your dog’s experience? Ever used it on purpose for medicine, recalls, or object play?
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Back from a brief get-away to Michigan, to a perfect, quiet cabin in the woods close by to good friends Peg and Jim. We were hyper Covid-careful, only visiting at a distance outside, except for brief, masked too-short moment cooing over two-week old puppies. Not surprisingly, it was a tad nippy, given it was mid November. Two of the three days were in the 30’s; the first day had 20-30 mph winds and a high of 36, but Peg is oblivious to weather, besides being a brilliant sheepdog trainer and coach, so we worked outside several times each day. She had some great ideas for my work with Skip, and I have my agenda for the winter mapped out. I am more grateful than I can say that she is so generous with her time and expertise.
After one session Skip tried to turn a bucket into a water tank. This was the best he could do:
Skip and Maggie got to meet happy, go lucky 4-month old Dan. Skip practiced being a totally cool adult male.
Maggie practiced telling him to back off:
Dan is a lovely, happy, friendly puppy; just a little intimidating to Princess Maggie.
Dan is mature enough to read the writing on the wall–he lay down after this tooth flash and thumped his tail.
My guys on a sunny day. Lucky me:
Here’s the sunset off our cabin’s deck Wednesday night. I did not enhance the color of this, this is exactly what it looked like.
Now we’re home sweet home, pretty much back to sheltering at home now that things are so bad in Wisconsin. Cold and rainy Sunday morning was a perfect time to turn mushy bananas into a yummy quick bread:
What’s cooking with you?
Alice R. says
What an amazingly beautiful sunset! Thank you so much for sharing it. Is there anything as fun as watching dogs play?
I use the scarcity idea to get my guy to take his heartworm med. He is very careful not to take any meds. So much so that he will not touch cheese I have touched after touching a pill. Sigh. When he needed an antibiotic, we worked using liverwurst (his favorite!) until he would come to me, jump on my lap to be pilled, and be rewarded with several bits of liverwurst – enough to make it worth it in his book. I didn’t want to keep pilling him if it was not necessary so the next time he needed his heartworm med I polished up my comical act which works to this day. I pulled the box out of the pantry with as much noise and flair as I could muster. I got the pill out much the same way showing it to my hubby and telling him how special it was (he exclaimed appropriately). Looking up, I very obviously noticed hubs and my pup watching me, hid the pill exclaiming “it’s mine!”, and ran out of the room with a very interested dog running behind. Finally, I look up relenting, telling him it’s so valuable that he has to do several tricks for it. He does, then gleefully gobbles up his special treat. I don’t need to put quite so much energy into it anymore, but I usually do because it’s become a fun show that makes us all laugh… and it does every time.
Trisha says
Alice R: Brilliant! And funny too, what could be better?
Kat says
I wish I’d thought of/known about scarcity when I needed to pill Finna. I did think to try the several treats without pills then slip in one with and finish with a few more without. Her favorite thing was to snatch treats (or insects, that dog had incredible speed) out of the air so I cut a hotdog into bite sized pieces and sat down to play the toss treat game. Tossed her the first, pill free, bit of hotdog which she caught, bit in half, and carefully dropped on the floor to be inspected to make sure it was pill free before eating it. She did this to every single piece of hotdog. No way was I putting one over on her. Turned out for her my most successful method of giving her pills was to tell her what they were for as I put them on top of her dinner. She would then take the ones she thought she needed, including taking half a pill if that was what she decided. I miss her but I confess I really appreciate that the dog I have now is a smart dog rather than a terrifyingly brilliant dog.
We need to introduce some scarcity back into D’Artagnan’s life. In his previous life treats, toys, and training didn’t really exist so one of the things we wanted him to understand was abundance. I think he’s learned that lesson a bit too well since he’s started turning down any treat except his favorite flavor of the day. I was delighted and horrified in equal measure when I was planning a training session and he checked the bait bag then went to his bed rather than coming to the area we were going to train in. It was clear he was saying those treats weren’t sufficiently motivating to work for. I invited him to choose what he would work for and we had a nice session. I love that he’s feeling empowered enough to express his opinions clearly but having a way to up the value of the treats he’s not that interested in will be great. Thank you for that. And thank you for the great photos. I love how clearly Skip and Maggie expressed themselves to the pup.
Leigh Anne Farrell says
Great Post! I am a new fan of your blog. Giving echo his pills 2X a day is the least of his issues. I bought your book “The Cautious Canine”, and am learning so much. Thank you for your wisdom!
Mary Beth Stevens says
Thank you, Trisha, and thank you fellow readers for these great ideas. Our little Suzie has decided that heartworm pills are just not for her – cheese, ham, peanut butter, even LIVERWURST (my personal favorite😊) don’t seem to work. Roast beef worked last month, we’ll see about this month. I look forward to playing the hard-to-get game, as our dog Tippy will gleefully accept treat bonuses while I try to entice Suzie to swallow the damned pill already!
Vienna Romesburg says
Patricia,
So i don’t have any stories about scarcity, BUT am always looking for a good banana bread recipe- will you post yours? The bread looks delish!
Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!
Judy says
Our Lando does this with other dogs. He always insists on sniffing most the ones who want nothing to do with him. Another dog willing to play? Not interested. He *must* sniff the one who is very obviously is trying to avoid being sniffed.
Deborah Mason says
We have an “anti-meds” dog. Hickory has learned that certain kinds of treat scenarios are just a ploy to get nasty things inside him. Our biggest challenge has been his heartworm medication. Our vets had switched us to Interceptor. It’s a big square. The first time he chewed it up, swallowed, no problem. After that we had to break it up, and within one or two more times he would no longer accept it. We tried wrapping it in ham or cheese and he learned to chew carefully, looking for suspicious lumps. We changed back to Iverhart. First one, he chewed, swallowed some, then rejected the rest. Last month I broke it up, mixed it into a peanut butter yogurt concoction. He kept trying to reject the lumps. This month I broke it very small pieces and mixed it into crunch peanut butter. He licked the bowl clean. We’ll see how he does next month. Our other dog? He eagerly chows down on his hearworm medication, no matter which one.
Jann Becker says
Most of the times I give 11 1/2 years old Kira, (65 lb.) pills we go through a safety routine: little bro (19 lb.) is fed in another room, door closed, while I handle her meds. She gets 2 soft treats with 2 pills each and at the moment she has me hand feeding them to her as if I were giving her Communion…at least I know the right pills got into the right dog!
When the little guy needs his allergy pill I give it in the first treat, and follow up with a second to be sure he keeps swallowing–I can’t see well enough to be sure. The second dog always gets a tiny bit of the treat so sibling rivalry is kept at bay. I can’t imagine how 3 or more dog households manage!
Ute says
We do your pill game since you gave me that idea. And always will! But: the smaller the dog the smaller the liverwurst coverage around the pill needs to be. So here is our way to keep the amount of liverwurst (or else) low: I train kind of “inside out”. Using Frolics. The only time I buy them. Usually I need less than 5 to max 10 pieces (and can throw the rest). Feed one Frolic to see if your dog loves them. Mine do, that stuff is soooo rare and they love the aroma. Now I cut one Frolic into pieces. I can make up to 20 or more pieces out of one(!) Frolic for our training my Papillons. It will not take long and my dogs will take these pill-sized things without suspicion. Here comes a tiny, tiny bit of liverwurst – more like a taste. Next step is: combining all. The dog meanwhile learned that the feeling of “a pill” inside the liverwurst has nothing to do with any medication but a lovely piece of that food. My dogs are no more alarmed when they realise a hard pill sized piece inside the liverwurst and before they were tho most suspicious med taker you can imagine. But watch the small signs. If ever they bite on a true pill, stop using the combinations liverwurst + med for days or more and begin training from the basics again.
LisaW says
Olive is suspicious of anything that is wrapped in something else. She could tease apart a pill hidden inside a turducken! The best way to give her a pill, I’ve found is to wrap it in cheese and roll it into a ball ahead of time when she is not looking (out of sight is key). Then we do our normal after-each-meal tricks, and one trick is a fast sit, focus, catch, and if we do it quickly enough, the cheese ball goes undetected. Not 100% Olive proof but works enough of the time. I’ve tried the scarcity tactic or this is a special thing I have and you may want it, and she gets more suspicious. Quick and nonchalant is better for her.
Phoebe would allow us to pill her undisguised. We’d say: “Time for your pill,” and she’d open her mouth and allow hand and med to be inserted. We did have a system of preparing her nightly dose of pepcid and benedryl — we’d put one of each into an empty gelatin capsule, and come time for dosing, we’d smear a little butter on the capsule. The butter was just to say thanks for being such a willing patient.
Nana911 says
Scarcity!! I now have a new trick for my girls! They are both getting very stubborn, and they won’t come inside for me anymore…they act deaf when they’re outside. I see a new act in my future. 😉
donna kellar says
Thanks- these are brilliant and fun ways to engage our pups and “lead them on”:))
Gayla says
Love the tease reminder. Thanks, as always!
I’m not one to necessarily advise the ‘no free lunch’ program, unless my client has real leadership problems, and are making their dog neurotic. But lots of folks could use a little more scarcity in their training. I see a ton of dogs that get too much free stuff for it to remain highly valuable.
DeenaM says
My go to works well in a multi dog setting (no food possessive dogs);an open can of tasty food, spoon, and pill, set on the food off to one side. Dogs line up, each one gets a little taste of canned food, the dog who’s getting the pill gets fed last. I feed with the spoon held above their heads, so their nose is pointing up when they take the food.
Do about 3 rounds, and on the next one, pill gets covered in the food, last dog fed is the dog that gets pill. Then I do another round of just food; in case the pilled dog maybe felt/tasted the pill, getting a spoon of plain food helps eliminate suspicion of the process. But using good technique will help eliminate that possibility. Being enthusiastic about the value of the food you’re using, being very intentional how you feed each dog, and feeding with spoon held high so dog almost has to reach for it. For dogs who are suspicious of the food, I just play this food handout game often – if they refuse the food, I move on to the next dog immediately. I don’t try coaxing them to take it, if I see anything but sweet anticipation on their face, I give the food to the next dog.
This has worked in many different households, and even worked on my dubious visiting friends’ American bulldog, with my dogs happy to provide the needed “motivation”!
But I LOVE Ute’s method of using a slightly harder high value treat inside the canned food to get them used to the texture difference in case they feel the pill. Brilliant!
MinnesotaMary says
I actually talked about this post with my boss this week! I brought up the idea of scarcity and perceived increased value. He had mentioned his daughter has two rescued chihuahuas and they are much better behaved than what we’ve both experienced with the breed. They had been abused in their first environment and are now both displaying gratitude on a daily basis. I really believe that rescued dogs, when they have had poor/abusive environments in their past, have more of a tendency to appreciate a safe home where they are getting their needs met. I truly appreciated the very first comment from Alice R. about the “act” that she puts on to get her dog to take the heartworm medicine. What an excellent example of using the perception of scarcity to accomplish the goal!
Frances says
Poppy is currently on 4 or 5 pills a day, plus a pro-biotic powder on her food. Tablets are known as “scrummy medicine”, all come well wrapped in chicken breast, and all the other animals are so envious that I have to ensure they get a scrap of chicken too. Pippin-cat gets his metacam drops on especially tasty biscuits, and reminds me if I am late. The word “medicine” now leads to bright eyes, wagging tails, and a general happy exodus to the kitchen as a result. It helps that both are greedy, and Poppy in particular will swallow anything that even resembles food without waiting to consider the taste (she is on steroids for liver failure, and has even eaten tomatoes and pickled gherkins…). I did give her a pill the traditional way recently: opening her mouth, popping it well in, closing mouth and massaging throat. She had a bad tummy upset in the early hours, and I didn’t want to encourage her to think that waking me up at 3am would lead to chicken!
Andy says
Relative value, scarcity, even quantity recognition. These little fuzzy economists of ours!
Laurelle Campbell says
I can’t believe you were in Michigan. Next time I would like to bring my books for autographs and get a picture if possible. We are also up north. I know those sunsets very well.
We recently adopted a badly damaged 11 month old pup about whom I may have shared a few times. He has to be coaxed to take a bully stick, spits out hot dog, and doesn’t like treats.
I have used the “oh never mind, you can’t have it” plan with him and it did enhance his interest in a human food treat. Enough of it and he would finally take it. Eventually one of my choices, turkey bologna, became a good thing for him.
Recently this pup attacked one of our other dogs necessitating an emergency surgery (head laceration).
So we went for a talk with our vet and came home with Prozac. Life is much easier now.
We were thankful we had previously spent the time to explore treats so that we now had an idea how to deliver the Prozac.
Jen says
I’m not sure this is scarcity, but in my house, the fastest way to get one dog to stop barking at something outside is to start praising or petting or playing with the dog who is not focused on the outside thing. FOMO?