Dog Painting 101: The Basics of Holding the Brush Correctly

As an Occupational Therapist, I work with children on visual motor coordination, which includes such skills as handwriting, drawing, painting, and other such activities, that involve controlled motor movements. As I was thinking of activities an OT does in therapy, I was asking myself how to incorporate Chief. Then, I remembered working with other species of animals who paint. I have a painting from a dolphin, a camel, and a walrus hanging in my living room. Why not teach Chief to paint with the children?? So, this has been my new behavior of the week. The first step of the process was trying to figure out how to hold the paintbrush in his mouth. Since Chief is a ball fanatic, I figured it was the most likely thing he would willingly hold in his mouth. We cut a hole in a tennis ball and inserted a paint brush. This video is of Chief learning to take and hold (briefly) the ball with brush in his mouth. The next step of the process is to get him to hold the ball/brush in his mouth without mouthing it for a prolonged period of time. When he is doing that reliably, I will start to position a paint canvas near the end of the brush. This will progress to a slightly wet brush and encouraging head movements. And, finally, the last step will be to get him to make strokes with a fair amount of paint on the brush. I'm very excited about the prospect of this behavior, as it can be a wonderfully engaging thing for a child, who is reluctant to participate in such activities, to do something like this with a dog. Who knows...we may have the first painting therapy dog in Texas... Stay posted for updates on our little Picasso.... Tammy >