For the Sake of Research

This is my neighbor, Anthony, age 12.  We had a fun evening with Oates a few days ago to help Anthony with a science experiment.  We talked about hypotheses... and helped him set up everything with timers and toys.

The test was about dogs, and the types of toys they choose.  He had a variety of toys in 3 categories to set up.  Some were play alone, some were interactive and some were especially textural.  The test was to give the dog 2 minutes to seek out the toy of its choosing from a basket, and log which toy got the most playtime the most amount of times.

After three 2 minute rounds for each of 3 sets of toys, Oates decided he liked a stuffed squirrel, a stick and bright yellow stuffed bunny most!  It was really fun watching him be overwhelmed by the selection, sniffing and biting to find just the right thing.

We did somewhat of a tie-breaker with the favorites, and I wasn't surprised to find out that Oates' absolute favorite was the stuffed squirrel.  He just kept going back to it.  There is something he loves about stuffed animals that squeak!

How adorable... both human and doggie!  Anthony has a toy poodle named Belle.  Her favorite was the red ball.  Typical.  :)