Carla Fails the ORT

I failed our ORT today.  This one is totally on me - I called "alert" too soon, misreading her nose bump of the wrong box.  In hindsight, I think she was in fringe scent and bumped the box accidentally while trying to see if that was where the odor was coming from.  So frustrating for me.  I'm sure it was frustrating for Gimme too, having her search ended when she had just started.

However I did get to talk to someone before things started and got some great advice.  So nice to have someone who will listen to the issues we are having and respond to that.  She suggested I needed much higher power treats because from what I was describing, she thinks Gimme enjoys the hunt more than the find - at least when rewarded with her regular treats. 

This I think makes perfect sense in terms of not-persisting, in two different ways.  If its the hunt she enjoys then stopping the hunt when she finds it to reward with ordinary treats is somewhat punitive.  So to counteract that effect, we need a reward that is bigger than the hunt.  As I've said a hundred times here, Gimme is CRAZEEEEEEE about peanut butter and will definitely work harder to get it and has been known on many occasions to mug me when she thinks she's due and I'm not paying up.  So peanut butter will be more important than continuing the hunt AND it will be of such high value that she'll demand she get it, creating persistence when she finds a hide.  So its just a matter of her knowing that PB is the reward she gets for nosework from now on and I think the persisting angle will fall into place

After getting home from Oregon City, using peanut butter for a reward and several small plastic containers, I got Gimme giving me a pretty persistent paw whack on a container with odor in it.  I considered going for a nose touch/hold or a sit, but then decided to go with the paw whack, since that comes naturally to her.  Its also what I'd been training her to use for an article indication in tracking.  I have to remember not to do too many repetitions at one time, since she gets so excited she stops using her nose and starts whacking everything in sight.  I'm going to play with this game for a week or so and see how it evolves.  I may consider taking a private lesson from someone else at some point if I don't see us getting there from here.

At the very least, it will be helpful to get her persisting in place and with luck I can start getting a solid indication style.  Part of the problem is also that her search style may be evolving, which makes reading her harder too.  She used to wag her tail faster when she found it, but in the videos from the match, that wasn't the case.  I think she is getting more serious about finding odor.  I know she did pass up the opportunity to steal a cardboard middle that the odor was hidden in during one of our recent classes - she loves cardboard middles a lot.  So I was happy that she was able to focus like that.  Or, possibly the silly-fast wag may have gone away as part of her maturing, she's not as puppy as before.

I went out to a movie yesterday to distract me from my failure and after I got home again, I did one hide for her, to see what might have stuck with her from earlier in the day.  She knew I had the peanut butter and when she found the hide turned around and jumped on me.  I just waited her out, while she was spinning and carrying on right there (persisting doncha know) and just as I was deciding I'd been a dumbass by putting the hide in a place that was "hard" to paw at, she turned around and gave it a good solid whack.  I "yessed" strongly and gave her a huge jackpot of peanut butter. 

           

Now I'm going to resist the very strong inclination to do anything more with this for a few days.  I'm going to let her percolate on this experience.  It'll be interesting to see what she does in class on Wednesday night.

There's an ORT right here in town on 5/6 and I've printed off the info and form.  I'll get it filled out tonight.  Right now I'm going to take some drugs for a migraine and then Gimme and me are going to go join Mary and Grafton for a long walk on the fort.  I'm taking my camera and hope to get a video of the game they invented.