When planning a therapy session with animals, remember that the toy you select to engage both the child and the dog can have therapeutic qualities. As I am purchasing toys for the program, I am constantly trying to assess what functional performance areas the toy could facilitate. Many of the toys can facilitate grasp, fine motor skills, visual motor coordination, and sensory integration.
One such toy is this, called "The Eog Fighter" by Nina Ottosson. This toy can be purchased directly on her website (but it is in Swedish) www.nina-ottoson.com or it can be found on Karen Pryor's Clicker Training website www.clickertraining.com. This toy is an educational toy for dogs. Snacks can be hidden under the wooden blocks and inserted into the puzzle. The dog must then figure out how to remove the blocks to retrieve the treat.
Therapeutically, this toy addresses many things. The blocks must be picked up using a 3 chuck jaw grasp pattern (thumb, index, and second hird digits) while the last 2 fingers lie against the palm of the hand. To insert a piece of treat, a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) is used to pick up and drop the treat into the hole of the block. Visual motor skills of inserting the block into the slot addresses simple shapes for puzzles or motor control to insert a peg into a hole. Sliding the peg into position addresses visual motor control and for small children, imitates the pre-writing stroke of a horizontal or vertical line, depending on how it is positioned in front of the child.
Once the treats and pegs are in place, let the dog try to figure out how to remove them. It's fun for all!!
Here is Chief trying it for the first time.
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