Cooper the Shih Tzu

Cooper & The Voice UK

Kirsty — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 18:00:00 GMT

If you've seen the video(s) of Cooper & The Voice judges, here's how it happened & how it went!

Cooper's agent Urban Paws UK called me to say ITV wanted Cooper in Manchester for a "what's in the box" promo video project for The Voice.

I agreed to this job because I knew it was something he could do & would enjoy, & the location was convenient for us. I didn't find out that the judges would be involved until the day before, although I suspected they would be.

On the day, we were met by the runner, Cameron, & Paula from Cooper's agent Urban Paws. Paula came to the set to make sure that Cooper was being treated properly (& he was, of course). Cameron introduced us to some other team members & we got a short tour of the studio, including The Voice stage. Cooper is often scared of new places, but he happily trotted around the studio. A lot of the crew knew his name & called out to him as he walked past them. I'm sure he felt like a celebrity!

Before filming started, Cooper practiced going in the box to make sure he'd be comfortable. I had practiced putting him in a box at home as well, along with a voice command "in the box," so that the idea wouldn't be completely unfamiliar to him. There was a large cushion placed underneath the box in case he happened to jump out. During filming & practice, I was crouched down in front of the box where he could see me.

The videos were filmed in 10-15 minute blocks, with at least an hour of downtime in between each block, sometimes more. During the downtime, Cooper got plenty of walks outside, & we were able to sit in nearby cafes with him. He also had his bed with him & was able to fit in a couple of short naps. I brought a selection of special treats with me, including hot dog & goat's cheese!

Filming didn't go 100% smoothly. At one point someone knocked loudly on the roof of the box, which scared Cooper & made him jump out (good thing we had the cushion!). He was also scared when someone screamed. But luckily, he recovered from both of these instances very quickly, & neither of them scared him so much that he was unwilling to go back into the box.

Since the day of filming, I have found that Cooper seems to be more confident than before. In the past when I tried to walk him in new places - even just parks - he was reluctant & often scared. Yes, that's my fault. I struggle to go to new places, so Cooper misses out on those experiences too. But since filming, I've been able to walk him in a couple of new places nearby, & he enjoyed it! So I think this day of being in a new place was good for him.

Thank you to Urban Paws for the opportunity, and to the production team at ITV for taking such good care of us.

"Britain's Cleverest Dog" on Channel 5

Kirsty — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 22:09:00 GMT

Have you seen Britain's Cleverest Dog yet? If you live in Britain, you can stream it using My5 until December 30th, 2017.

Cooper and I are featured in the film, which is described by Channel 5 as a "documentary featuring pet owners who are convinced that their furry friend is cleverer than the rest. One canine brainbox attends a higher educational establishment devoted to his species. Another - dubbed a canine Einstein - makes the news when he masters a shape-sorting puzzle that has most toddlers struggling."

The Daily Mail wrote an article about it, titled Are these Britain's SMARTEST animals?

We missed out on a couple of the filming days due to illness, but we enjoyed the parts that we did participate in. If you're interested in pet intelligence, or even just an animal lover, it's a good one to catch!

Updates & Corrections, December 2016

Kirsty — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:28:00 GMT

Hi everyone, Kirsty here! Cooper and I have both been through a lot in the past year. I recently re read some articles and interviews about Cooper and me, and I realised that some information is outdated. Also, I realised that my daily training habits with Cooper have gone through a number of changes that are worth mentioning! So here it goes, a few corrections/updates:

Cooper the Counting Dog

A number of articles claimed that Cooper could count. I have always stated that although Cooper was answering independently, I don't believe he can actually "count." I never saw evidence of that. I don't know how he was able to get so many of the answers right, but my best guess is that he was memorising the arrangement of the kibble. With 1-3 pieces of kibble there aren't too many different arrangements you can create!

I have not practiced the counting trick with Cooper since summer 2015, because I felt that it was too misleading and his performance was not reliable enough. He could only perform this trick decently if I practiced it many times in a row and then tested him soon after. With his complex tricks it's not uncommon for him to need some "ramp up time" or practice time; this is the case with his shape sorter. However, with the "counting," it took much, much longer for him to be able to get a decent percentage of answers correct. It seemed more like he was re learning it.

Communicating using Buttons

Cooper's use of talking buttons also received some attention in the press. The buttons are something where he did seem to demonstrate an understanding that persisted over time, unlike with the counting trick. However, I haven't been using these buttons lately. I still believe that communication devices could be used to help dogs be more useful to us (if they aren't already) - especially for guide dogs and other working dogs - but for our day-to-day communication, Cooper and I get along just fine communicating without the use of buttons. For a while I was so focused on the use of the buttons that I wasn't paying close enough attention to the messages he was already giving me through his body language and expressions of love.

Training Regime

For a while I was spending a lot of time training Cooper, both practicing old tricks and teaching him new ones. Since a series of recent events, I have no longer been training him on a regular basis. I will occasionally teach him something new based on an idea or request, and I sometimes have him do a few tricks to get a treat, but overall we are not currently spending very much time on training at all (December 2016).

Cooper's Story: The Truth

Kirsty — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 13:55:00 GMT

Some people watch Cooper's videos and think, "Wow, he must be a genius!" Some of the articles about Cooper also suggest that he is a genius or that he was born naturally gifted. This is not true. Yes, he's quite smart, but his skills are the result of lots of training. He is very good at learning from me, but his independent problem-solving skills are not as impressive as you would expect.

Whenever you read an article or interview about Cooper, please keep in mind that some of what you're reading might be embellished - especially the headlines... they're designed to grab your attention! If you have doubts about something you've read, please check the About and FAQ areas of the site or click here to email me and ask :)

As of September 2015 there is only one article about Cooper which was written by me (Kirsty) personally. I'll post a snippet of it below, along with a link to the full article on K9 Magazine. The article includes 5 tips on how to teach your dog to count like Cooper.

"My Shih Tzu, Cooper, and I have a wonderful bond. I’ve taught him over 60 tricks, including some advanced ones such as shape sorting and counting. His impressive tricks have earned us some press attention, where the headlines have called him “Einstein” and said that he’s, “cleverer than a toddler.” One journalist even joked that Cooper was, “smarter than his mother-in-law”! The headlines are fun to read, but I doubt that Cooper is exceptionally smart. We do, however, have an exceptional bond."

How much grooming does Cooper need?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:04:00 GMT

I keep Cooper's hair in a puppy cut so it doesn't require as much grooming as if he had a long coat. I brush him once a day and use Diamond Eyes on his face once a day. Throughout the day I also wipe away any eye gunk from his face. I use ear cleaner in his ears about once a week, sometimes more if he has any irritation. I find this helps prevent ear infections. He goes to the groomer for a haircut every six weeks (that's more often than I go to the hairdresser!) Normally I can get away with not bathing him myself for that period of time, because unless he has been playing in water or mud he doesn't get very dirty. Dirt doesn't seem to stick to his hair for very long, maybe it's the silkiness.

How did you house train Cooper?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:04:00 GMT

When I first got Cooper I was living at my parents' house, and their house is kind of like a maze; you have to go through several doors to get outside, and it's quite a long walk. I knew there was no way a tiny puppy would make it outside. For that reason I decided to purchase an indoor dog litter box. The one I got was the Rascal Dog Litter Box, Big Squirt. It has a grass pad on it which I hoped would make the transition to outside easier. When I first got him he refused to go potty on the grass. He would only go on puppy pads. But after playing outside on grass a few times he got used to the sensation and started to use the grass pad more and more. What helped was that the litter box came with a "training spray" (watered down fox pee). When I sprayed that, Cooper naturally wanted to pee in the same spot. By ten weeks he was still having accidents and still using puppy pads some of the time, but he was also going potty on the grass pad on command (see video below).

When Cooper was a few months old I moved into my own house. I spread puppy pads throughout the house to cut down on accidents, and put his grass litter box in an easily accessible place in the living room. By this point he was having very few accidents and using the litter box most of the time. When he was about 3.5 months old I removed the puppy pads and made him use the litter box all the time. Then I gradually moved the litter box closer and closer to the back door. Then I put it outside. Something that's important to note is that I wasextremely vigilant during the house training phase. I am self-employed so I took some time off work to keep my eye on him 24/7. Whenever he showed any signs of needing to go (sniffing, circling, walking towards the door) I took him out. By the time he was 4 months old his accidents had been reduced to almost zero. The only accidents he had were because I didn't let him out fast enough or wasn't there to let him out.

Around this time I hung up a bell by the back door. I was planning on teaching him how to use it to ask to go outside. The weekend I put it up he accidentally hit it a few times while playing, so I let him out each time. Then I noticed that he seemed to be ringing the bell intentionally, and whenever he did, he went potty outside. It seemed like he had taught himself how to use the bell! Over the next week I paid attention to when he rang the bell, and sure enough he really was using it to ask to go out! He figured it out himself after just a few times of me letting him out, and has rang the bell ever since.

Was Cooper easy to train?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:03:00 GMT

Overall, yes he was quite easy to train, but he's not always quick to learn. He learns some commands after a few tries. Others require a lot more repetition. Cooper has a very long attention span when there are treats involved, so even if we need to practice a command 50 - 100 times, he will happily do it 50 - 100 times in a row with no breaks. This means that he can learn many tricks within 10 - 15 minutes. You could say that he's a "fast learner" since he can normally learn tricks within a short timespan, but the number of repetitions is not always low. The tricks that required the most practice and repetitions were: "where's your tongue" and "beg" (he couldn't balance at first!).

Why do you train Cooper with food instead of love?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:01:00 GMT

Cooper is rewarded with a combination of food, love, and praise :) Cooper is very food-motivated so when he's first learning a trick he needs to be rewarded with food to keep his attention, but once he's learned a trick he is not always rewarded with food. However I do normally use food in videos to ensure that he's focused so I can get a good recording within a short timeframe.

For some tricks he actually does better when he can't see I have treats, because the treats excite him and make him lose focus. But for tricks that are complicated and require lots of mental effort, he still needs an occasional treat to stay motivated and interested, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that :)

How did you train Cooper to recognize color? Aren't dogs colorblind?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:00:00 GMT

Dogs are "colorblind" but that word might not mean what you think it means. There are different kinds of colorblindness and with most kinds, you can still see some color. Dogs see the difference between yellow and blue clearly. That's why Cooper is only sorting yellow and blue at the moment. I may be able to add in one or two more colors if the shades are different enough for him to tell them apart, but color-wise he will only ever see a big difference between blue and yellow. You can learn more about how dogs see color at http://dog-vision.com (not my website, but very helpful). The images below - taken from dog-vision.com - show a full RGB color spectrum and how the same spectrum would be seen by a dog:

Human's view: Dog's view:

I didn't exactly "train" him to recognize color. I trained him to put the cotton reels in the right bowl based on their color. I doubt that he is truly recognizing the colors or sorting by color. He is able to do it correctly most of the time, but not all of the time. It's more than luck, but he doesn't seem to fully understand what he's doing either and he might not ever fully understand. I am testing the limits of his intelligence, so there are certain tricks he might not ever be able to perform correctly 90-100% of the time. The color sorting is one of those tricks.

Why do you spend this much time training him? Why can't you let him just be a dog?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 23:00:00 GMT

Have you heard of Munchkin the Teddy Bear (YouTube) (also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), the tiny little shih tzu girl who became famous for wearing a teddy bear costume? She wears that costume in almost every photo and video, and some people assume that she must wear it most or all of the time, even saying that the owner is cruel for making her wear it. But she doesn't wear it all or most of the time! She only wears it for photos and videos because that's what people like to see.

Cooper's situation is similar. People aren't very interested in seeing him do "dog" things like running around on the beach (which he does every day). They want to see him perform! That's why I normally only upload videos where he is doing tricks. But in real life he spends most of his time being a dog! He lazes around, goes on walks, plays with other dogs, runs around the beach, plays fetch, and gets lots of cuddles and love. His training is only a small part of his life. Sometimes I go weeks or even months without teaching him anything new. Please don't assume that his whole life is based on training, just because you've seen so many videos where he's doing tricks!

BUT: Keep in mind, Cooper enjoys being trained. He loves doing tricks. It's fun for him. He doesn't see it as "work." He sees it as playtime with treats at the end! He has always liked doing treat/doggy puzzles, and that's what training is to him. :)

Do you think Cooper is a genius?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:59:00 GMT

You might have noticed that a lot of the article headlines about Cooper call him a "genius" or say things like, he's "smarter than most toddlers." However, you need to understand that these are just clickbait headlines designed to get you to click onto the article. As his owner, I personally do not think that Cooper is a genius, or even extremely smart. I would say that he is probably smarter than the average shih tzu, because they are ranked very low in intelligence. I don't think he is smarter than most toddlers, but he might be smarter than most younger babies. I think that just about any border collie or poodle (or any other intelligent breed) would be smarter than him, and could do his tricks much better than he can, if they were given the same training. Cooper is just very biddable and treat motivated. That's how I'm able to train him to do these tricks. Sometimes an extremely intelligent dog can be harder to train because they can be very stubborn or will find ways to get the treats without doing the work.

I wouldn't want Cooper to be a "genius" anyway, because if he was, he would probably be much more of a handful. I bet he'd constantly be getting into treat cupboards! He only recently learned that he can jump onto the kitchen table to get leftover food. That's the most mischievous thing he does when I'm not looking, and I'd like to keep it that way :)

Why did you choose to get a shih tzu?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:58:00 GMT

A lot of people wonder why I (Kirsty, owner) chose to get a shih tzu (instead of a different dog breed). The short answer is: the shih tzu ticked all the boxes for the traits I wanted, and was a good fit for my lifestyle.

In 2012 I was preparing to move out on my own for the first time, and I was trying to choose a dog breed for myself - the first dog I would own entirely by myself! I did a lot of reading, research, and considering before I finally chose to get a shih tzu.

I knew I wanted a small dog breed, so that limited my area of research. From there, I learned about each breed's common personality traits, temperament, exercise requirements, and health problems. I primarily read online articles and social media forums/groups.

I wanted a small (~10-15 lbs), fluffy lap dog, low exercise requirements, trainable but not overly intelligent. Friendly with other people and dogs. No extremely serious health problems common throughout the breed - or at least none scary enough to put me off. My favoured choice changed throughout my research, but I ended up deciding that the shih tzu would be the best fit for my lifestyle. It also ticked the most boxes when it came to the traits I desired in my dog.

Why do you teach Cooper such weird/complicated things?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:58:00 GMT

I do it partly because I like to challenge him and keep his mind active, but I also think that dogs are capable of a lot more than most of us give them credit for, especially when it comes to communication. Have you ever heard of Koko the gorilla? Did you know that the Koko Gorilla Foundation uses or used "gorilla companion dogs " who use language boards to communicate? They know lots of words for different things, and are able to point to a board to communicate their desires. See this archived page for more details. There has also been at least one study where a dog was taught to use talking language boards. That's what inspired me to get talking buttons for Cooper. I don't think that a dog has to be extremely intelligent to learn to communicate using devices either. A lot of people say, "Oh Cooper, you're so smart" when they see him using his talking buttons or playing with a child's toy. Cooper isn't stupid, but I don't think he's a genius either. I believe that most dogs could learn to do the same things as him. Most people just don't think to teach their dogs that kind of thing, maybe because they don't think it's possible! I don't teach Cooper these things to brag that he's smart. I teach Cooper these things to prove that it's possible, and to invite others to challenge their dogs as well :-)

Also, something important to note: before I teach Cooper any of these advanced tricks, I try to check that the trick is something that a dog might be physically capable of doing. That normally means that I research to see if anyone has done any relevant studies where they tested to see if dogs are capable of doing certain tasks. So before I taught him to sort by color, I researched to see which colors dogs could see most clearly. Before I taught him to sort shapes, I researched to see if dogs could even recognize different shapes. I normally don't bother trying to teach him something advanced unless there is already some kind of research out there which shows it should or could be possible. Although these are "tricks," I also see them as mini experiments and I want the results to be REAL, not the result of luck or clever video editing. If you see Cooper performing a trick, that means I have seen or read something which made me think a dog should be able to do that trick. I want to test his limits, but I also don't want to waste my time trying to get him to do something impossible.

How did you train Cooper?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:57:00 GMT

I started training Cooper a few days after I got him when he was 8 weeks old. I would ask him to sit, and when he did I would praise him and give him a piece of chicken. He figured it out very fast! I used this same method to teach him sit, down, come, watch me, leave it, drop it, wait, and shake hands. When I wanted to teach him his first advanced trick - "Where's your tongue?" - at three months old, I decided to start using clicker training so I could "capture" the behavior. From then on I have almost always used the clicker to teach him new commands. Once he learns the command I stop using the clicker. For tricks that have lots of steps, like "Put your toys away" or "Shape sorter," I split the trick into parts and reward him when he completes each part. For example, for "put your toys away" I first taught him drop it. I almost always ask Cooper to do things instead of commanding him to. There are some situations where I have to sound a bit more assertive, but normally when he's learning a new trick or performing tricks he responds better to being asked (this isn't true for every dog).

How long does it take Cooper to learn tricks?

Kirsty — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:56:00 GMT

Unfortunately there isn't a clear time length for any of them, and many of them involve improvement over long periods of time. For example, he got the concept of putting the shape in the shape sorter hole within about 5-10 minutes, but to start learning the shapes took weeks, and to begin to perfect the shapes took months. For the kid's ring stacker toy, he instantly knew how to put the rings on, but it took him longer to understand that they have to go on in a specific order. For his tongue trick, I had to sit watching him for hours at a time for a few days, clicking and treating him when his tongue happened to poke out. Eventually he realized he got the treat when his tongue came out. Overall there's a large time commitment involved for most of the advanced tricks, but he picks up some tricks more quickly than others, and he often gets the basic idea quickly. For simple tricks, he normally learns them quickly unless they involve balance or some kind of special technique.