Nosework (5/4)

Class tonight was great, as usual.   We spent much of class working on corners - that is getting the dogs to pay attention to the corners when they are searching and not just rounding them off.  It was interesting how much harder that was for the dogs.  Gimme did well; I can see that we need to put more effort into corners in our practices.  I did notice that she paw whacked two of the first three hides - I'm liking that.

For the last exercise, we did a thing to see what the natural indication style was for each dog.  Joyce put the hides (paired with treats) in places where the dog couldn't really get to it.  There were three hides, one-by-one.  Gimme and Grafton did the best I thought, as far as persistence and speed. 

Gimme was checking it out and then looking at me and Joyce had me reward that.  In nosework any indication is acceptable.  At the NW3 level you have to describe your indication on the trial entry form.

A lot of dogs do just turn and pointedly look at their handler as an indication and that is certainly acceptable.   My concern with encouraging a "look at Mom" as her indication, is that I've put so much effort into rewarding checking in... so she checks in a lot that doesn't have anything to do with finding odor.  So, when I know where the hide is I can see it and reward it.  However, when I don't know where it is (blind searches), then I may mistake a check in for an indication. 

She tended toward a paw whack when we did the tracking game of lining up a bunch of different stuff on a sidewalk and just clicking and treating anything she did with them.  She did a few nose touches, but quickly started paw whacking them.  So that is what I was encouraging in tracking and I'm inclined to stick with that for nosework for two reasons.  One, its consistent - find something you want Mom to reward you for and paw whack it.  Two, its unambiguous and won't be mistaken for other behaviors, such as checking in.

When I got home I set up some hides for her and she went right back to paw whacking them.  So I'm going to keep encouraging that at home and during field trips.  In classes, I'll continue to reward the heck out of any paw whacks.  I'll make sure in the future that I have both cheese and peanut butter at all times.  So if we repeat this exercise, I can reward the look-at-Mom, but I'll use cheese.  Whereas paw whacks will get peanut butter.  I think Gimme will figure that out in no time flat.

BTW got the file for the match videos and sadly they are in a format that my program says it can't use.  I've sent an email to my computer guru and hopefully he'll have a solution.  Otherwise I may not be able to put them here.  If you can access video streaming, the file is available for viewing at:   https://vimeo.com/39446932