Nosework (3/9)

First let me tell about agility class on Tuesday night.  Gimme did well.  I decided to jump her at 20" for the first time and I could see that made a difference.  She was just a little bit less enthusiastic, since she had to put forth more effort.  Still she did well, as long as I did my part.  She is so fast and we don't have the distance skills yet - so sometimes I get rushed and my cues aren't as clear, then her performance falls off.  Obviously its not her fault, since she doesn't have the experience level to know what I want when I'm not being precise.  She is going to be really good and have I mentioned, FAST...

At nosework class last night she did well.  We started with one search of three hides in the main room.  We did it on leash and after the dogs found a hide, we used the leash to not let them go back in that area.  One of the hides was on the back leg of a chair that was in the line of the chairs we were sitting on.  Gimme did well with all of them.

I asked Joyce if there were any judging guidelines about how close to each other hides could be at the upper levels.  She said there isn't.  She said closeness isn't an issue for the dogs, since clearly we can toss a bunch of kibble into the grass in the dark and the dog will find every morsel.  Their ability to find each source is not the problem.

I do think if the hides were too close together, the handler might have trouble reading when the dog indicated - especially for those who have indicators where the dog isn't being as precise about pointing out exactly where the hide is.  Still the dog should be clearly indicating source before you get to that level.  I sure like the precision of how Gimme is using her paw to point out exactly where source is - her toenails are like little arrows.

Our last two searches were just one hide each in a tiny room (a bathroom) that we haven't searched before.  Joyce set Gimme's hide first with a NW2 level challenge.  There was a small grey plastic trash basket in the room and the odor was on the back side, between the basket and the wall.  Gimme went right to the basket, sniffed it, stuck her head all the way in to sniff inside it (all that trash raiding paid off) and then sniffed around it and pushed in to the source.  She was very fast.  The second time the hide was in a bracket that held the stall wall to the wall.  She found that very quickly. A couple of the dogs were a bit intimidated about going into the bathroom, but not Gimme.

Another thing, as we were walking back to that bathroom, we passed the other bathroom, with the door partially open.  Gimme pushed in a little ways and sniffed a bit, then turned and came out on her own.  Good to see, since she clearly knew there was no odor in there - something we'll need to know when we are presented with clear rooms at NW3.

Just got the last two pictures from the photo shoot.  As always, Gimme is gorgeous.  The one with the model isn't the one Katie put on the website... since the model's head is cut off.  Still it doesn't matter, since Gimme upstages anyone in a picture with her.