So the environment was very crowded. I was surprised to see that all but two of the dogs were intimidated by the conditions the first time around, especially since they've all been in there before, just not with all the furniture set up. Not Gimme, of course. The other one that was unaffected was little bitty Kia. Gimme just zoomed around like it was no big deal. I think Kia is so small that it still seemed spacious to her.
The hides were set up to be a bit inaccessible. Gimme didn't find them challenging at all. I wish Joyce would come up with a separate class for those of us who are competition ready, so she can focus more on getting us ready. Gimme, Tucker and Una would be a good advanced class. I'm going to email Joyce and suggest it.
This weekend we had the Master Vehicles seminar, called such because we get to train with someone who is a master at that element. We trained with Josh McCorkle; it was great. I learned tons and have lots of ideas and things to try. He's a creative thinker and I sure love the opportunity to train nosework with someone who isn't restricted to only using the NACSW-approved training method. Josh is mostly reward based, though as someone who works with his dogs for a living (a police officer doing bomb searches at the ports), he's also no-nonsense and willing to use the very occasional punishment.
One idea I learned that I think will be a good one for us is what to do when Gimme notes a hide as she goes by, but keeps on scanning the environment, which he calls "cataloging". He said dogs will do that to see if they can find something better... and that its usually a function of not being totally odor obedient. In Gimme's case, I think its because she enjoys the hunt more than the reward of finding and wants to keep on hunting. But his approach still applies because his philosophy is that we have to make finding odor soooooo important that the dog can't even think of passing it by.
His approach is similar to what Joyce suggested, but only slightly. When Gimme goes by a hide with the tell-tale nose tilt that shows she's noted its location, Joyce suggested that she lose a turn and get taken away without getting to finish the search. I find that approach punitive and frustrating, with no upside.
Josh uses that same basic idea... but turns it up several notches in a couple of important ways. First, he said that in addition to making sure I'm using really great goodies, that I need to be more exciting and make each find a real party. This is kind of the opposite of what Joyce has told me so often - that I should be more low key and to not rev her up. With Josh its all about building so much drive that she lives to win by finding odor. As for the losing a turn, he suggests throwing down a toy right by the odor she just passed and then dragging her away, meanwhile pumping her up to scratch and claw at the floor to try and get to it. This should build drive. Then when I bring her back in (the reward would have been removed), she'll go directly to odor and try to get me to pay up. He said he'd done this with many dogs and it never failed.
Since I'm not training with toys, I asked Josh how to handle that, without contaminating the search area. I thought I could quickly lead her to the odor and place the treat down in a dish or something, while not letting her get it and then pulling her away. Josh said "NO", that he doesn't want me to be part of a no-reward-mark (NRM)... which that would be. I sure hadn't thought of it in that way. He suggested training with someone who can take the reward to odor and tease with it, while I drag her away, pumping her up. I'll see if I can set that up with Mary. I am also going to alter a tennis ball to make a food toy out of it that I can toss when I'm working by myself.
I live with this girl and yet sometimes I am still surprised by what a stunning beauty she is...
The second search proved a bit more challenging. As we were waiting in the holding area, someone came out the door and started sawing on some plastic thing, making a really weird noise. Generally Gimme isn't too concerned about noises, but to begin with she couldn't see them and found it spooky. I had the guy show her what he had and she was better, but still suspicious, plus the noise kept going on and then we got called for our search.
Right as we started the search and she was detailing for the first hide, someone walked quickly by, really close, but half hidden by the bushes. That distracted Gimme and it took her just a bit to get back to work, at which point the neighbor next door to the firehouse let their large barking dog out into the yard. That also proved a challenge that ate up valuable time. Gimme again got back to work and indicated the first hide, in a challenging spot. I really whooped it up, making a big deal and Josh even whooped with me - joining us in the party.
I saw that Gimme got really excited by that. She went on to find the second hide in a another challenging spot, but was 15 seconds over time. Again we partied. I'm going to do the party thing in class and practice - adding to the reward value of the treats. I'm also going to rev her a little at the start line and let her start when she gives me a good pull forward. Joyce may not like it, but she'll just have to get over it.
I asked Josh how to address the potential for a barking dog distraction, since that is one of her triggers. He suggested getting someone with a recreational-barker who wouldn't mind having their dog in a car barking while Gimme searches nearby. Generally she ignores dogs barking in cars, so we'll probably have to open the windows enough to make the sound more apparent. The idea being to search nearby and as she is able to ignore the sound, to move closer until we are doing searches on the actual vehicle. Now the trick is to find someone with such a dog who is willing to cooperate.
2 comments:
You don't post enough pictures. Gimme IS WAY TOO GORGEOUS to not have her own paparazzi. I can't get over how similar she looks to Elli... only in liver and a bit taller/stockier.
You got to work on a firetruck - that's so cool!
I love the huge party idea; I can't even believe low-energy rewarding would be recommended. I feel like that would take away from the "team" aspect of the sport, to be honest. And, I'd have much less fun myself doing NW if I were to be low-key about success, not to mention Elli's love of the game.
Thanks for sharing; it sounds like a fantastic seminar.
I actually have millions of pictures of Gimme (okay, really only tens of thousands). She may not have a paparazzi, but we do have a professional photographer that invites me along on a lot of her shoots. She's done a number of shoots with Gimme and firetrucks. The best pictures from those are on the blog somewhere.
Gimme isn't really stocky, but she is very well muscled... which isn't always apparent in pictures. She's got the whole hard-body look going and in the flesh is lithe and strong.
I think Joyce doesn't want Gimme blasting by hides because I'm revving her up - she's already the fastest moving dog in class. However, sometimes it takes Gimme longer because she moves so fast and doesn't catch the subtleties.
So its not that Joyce wants to slow her down at all - she just doesn't want me to pump her up further. Still, I like Josh's philosophy better - to increase her drive and intensity so she'll focus and work harder to win NOW!
Joyce is a CNWI, so she is stuck with only using whatever training techniques and ideas they have approved. Josh works in the real world with dogs that do this "for a living", so he goes with what works. That's one of the things that I really liked about seeing him as a seminar presenter.
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