Foot Target to Jelly Bean Switch

In this video, I am asking Chief to foot target to a "switch", which is an augmentative device that is used for several purposes. A foot target is one way that a dog can indicate a choice. It is basically a "touch" behavior, only using their foot instead of their nose. I am teaching this for other purposes, as well. For communication, devices like this are used to teach children to activate different electronics as a "cause and effect" mechanism. For a child who has difficulty controlling their motor movements or do not have adequate functional hand use, they can trigger this switch to turn on by hitting the large green button. There are some of these same type of switches that have the ability to have a small phrase or story recorded into them, and they are used as communication devices.

For this particular behavior, we are hoping to have Chief trigger his switch (one that will have a phrase recorded into it) that will say something such as "more treats". The young girl in the previous video is learning to use a different type of communication device called a Dynavox. We are hoping that Chief can model the behavior for her to trigger her communication device to say the same phrase. The reason: she likes to feed Chief treats but refuses to use her sign language for "more" to tell us her needs. Instead, we would like her to use a more functional approach to expressing herself by using her communication device. In the end, we are hoping that Chief can motivate her to use her communication device more frequently...as she LOVES Chief! Mom says she sees our sign for our building and starts to make sounds like a dog when she pulls into the parking space. A true testament to Chief's power to draw kids into his world...and he's still in training!!!