Nosework Graduate (6/1)

Tonight was the last of the six weeks of nosework class.  All of us that were there got this cool bumper sticker for our graduation.

We had some different finds again tonight.  Now that Gimme is further into season, you can see the effect it has on her ability to focus.  We actually had a private lesson upstairs before class (more later) and she spent a lot of time trying to convince Ursula and I that we were in the wrong part of the building.  Since we were working on distraction regarding the fruit behaviors, it worked out perfectly as a built in distraction.

She was pretty funny going up the metal grate stairs, which I'm sure were uncomfortable on her feeties.  On the way back down she was very careful to make sure that at least her front feet were stepping on the 2" wide solid metal strip on the leading edge of the stairs.

Each week Nosework has gotten steadily more difficult and all the dogs are doing a great job.  Our buddy Grafton is so methodical and really takes his time.  We were discussing whether him being timid about things, actually works to his advantage, since he started out taking his time (unlike someone we know who is all gang busters in her approach).  Pete, our BC friend did really well, he's also methodical in his searches.  The other BC (who's name I can't remember) is more like Gimme; they both find all the searches just fine, but tend to be much more "busy" in the way they do it.

The blind dog is out for awhile.  She'd had surgery for cataracts and then developed glaucoma.  Apparently they've discovered that the glaucoma is giving her considerable pain, so there is surgery in her future.  She's a great nosework dog and I hope we'll see her come back soon.

Monday night we joined rally class in Tacoma.   Its the same class we'd taken before, but they won't be starting another class until January.  So they said we could do a walk-in for the last two nights.  Gimme did very well and I was quite pleased.  Being away and then coming back like this made it very clear how much progress she is making, which is sometimes not as evident in the day to day of things.  Between her first and second run-through she showed good improvement too. 

Maybe after the next set of classes we can start looking for a really small show... then again, maybe I'm being overly ambitious.