Field Trip

I forgot to mention that we had our first experience with Anise odor last night.  I had assumed that Anise would be introduced by pairing it with food, like the way we introduced Birch odor.  Instead it was paired with Birch.  So I found that interesting.

Joyce keeps saying that she thinks Gimme lacks confidence, which I find hard to jibe with the bold and bodacious girl I live with.  Then my friend pointed out that she probably isn't referring to confidence in general, but rather for nosework and more toward experience.  I think that's right on track for what Joyce is trying to say; she's just not being precise in how she is saying it, thus allowing me to jump to conclusions. 

I don't really care for the structure of the test we did last night, since it basically introduced a task in generalization that the dogs have never seen before as a part of a test of indication tendency.  Joyce said she first did that test at a Ron Gaunt seminar, but didn't say what level those dogs were at.  So its possible they were much further along and this test wasn't as big of a change for them.   I think it was designed with the idea of eliminating human movement from the equation, so we get to see the dog's decisions.  However, because it was such a big change for our dogs' level of experience, it actually made the lack of movement a big factor for the dogs and ended up being a test of generalization skills and not how the dog would tend to indicate odor.  

5/28/13 Note: I've since talked to someone and viewed videos that were taken of her very novice dog at a Ron Gaunt seminar.   Apparently this is a staple of his for any seminars he gives.  Predictably this person's dog was highly uncertain and barely able to do nosework with such a huge change.  Not having heard what Ron's explanation is for what this teaches or tests - it's still not clear to me what value this has. 

Clearly all the dogs need more generalization work.  To be honest there will never be a time when we wouldn't/couldn't move, so its not really necessary.  However, I think the idea/goal is that the dogs become "immune" to our movement or lack thereof, so they don't try to interpret clues from it. 

I don't think Joyce was planning to do that last night. One of the students asked a question and she switched gears to do that.  (for once it wasn't me asking questions and wanting more - he he he)  So perhaps she hadn't really thought through how suddenly not-moving would affect our dogs and skew the test.  Not sure we learned anything from it.  I have a plan for how to introduce lack of movement to Gimme on some of our searches at home, but not until after this weekend.

Gimme has her ORT this Sunday and since I don't change anything in the week before a test or trial, I decided to do a field trip today.  I wanted Gimme to have a more normal search before the weekend.  I certainly didn't want her to have that uncertain experience in mind, or even have it stuck in my mind, going into the ORT.

So after work I set up two hides at Home Depot.  Lesson learned: never set a hide up in the entry way.  Gimme is so irresistible and everyone who came in just had to come right up to her and distract her.  I didn't realize it was going to be that busy at that time of day either.  Maybe I need to make her a "Working Dog" vest to wear when we are searching in public areas.  Anyway, she never could find the first hide because of all the distractions, so I finally put her on a sit stay and set up another one that she could find.  Life throws all kinds of curves at you when you have an irresistibly cute dog.

Since we started the day meeting with Grafton and Mary for a walk on the fort, Gimme's day has already been quite full.  I'm sure she's ready for a nap... 

Keep those fingers, toes and paws crossed for this Sunday.