Woman Uses Lockdown to Teach Her Clever Dog Math And Colors With Homemade Flash Cards

Monica Elkhalifa taught her six-year-old Shiba Inu new tricks when he became impossible to entertain with just long walks and toys. Now when shown a number of different flashcards featuring colors, numbers and shapes Akira can choose the one that matches Monica’s question.

With a tap of his paw Akira—who knows more than 90 words—can also do simple addition problems by pointing to the card with the correct answer. 

Akira can even apparently add up the number of drawings on a card, such as three apples—and select the number card which matches—and answer yes/no questions too.

“I just thought it would be fun to teach him a few numbers—just an exercise to keep him busy. I was overjoyed when he learned the number four. After that, he quickly learned five to ten and as he mastered each stage or level, I had to develop new ideas to keep him mentally active and build on the earlier lessons.