Watching NW3

I got up before dawn cracked and drove to Enumclaw to watch a NW3 trial.  I was hoping to bring luck to my friend Cindy and her Bulldog, Rigel and friend Paula and her GSD, Grace.  Sadly neither team was successful... and I only know for sure of one team that was.  Though there may have been another in the other group.

NW3 is much more complicated and while the dog's searches aren't really any more difficult than they are in NW2, the handler's job is significantly harder.  There is a saying that, given good training and decent natural ability:

• In NW1, the dog is 95% responsible for success,
• In NW2, its 50/50, and 
• In NW3, the handler bears 95% of the responsibility...

I totally believe this.  I saw so many times where the dog was right on, telling the handler the truth and the handler's didn't believe it.  Or they didn't read the dog right.  Or they over-handled the search or under-managed their time.  Or they mean to say one thing and say another.  Or cross into the search area without taking the dog between the start line cones, incurring a fault.... or, or, or... the list goes on.  Its really pretty astounding how many different ways there are to mess up your search.  I hope that by watching NW3 trials, that I can learn enough so I don't have to repeat all the possible mistakes myself. 

I love the camaraderie of nosework.  The vast majority of people are very friendly.  When I wasn't watching searches, I hung out with Cindy and friends, toasting marshmallows over a "campfire in a can", talking and absorbing info and just generally having a great time.  I hope the nosework community always stays this way.

Gimme was cooped up in the car most of the day, so when I got home, I set up some hides in the house: two in the living room, and one each in the office, bedroom and bathroom.  They were all set at ground/floor level to counteract a hole in her training that I discovered at last weekend's seminar.  She found them all very quickly, except the one in the bathroom.  In fact she left the bathroom a couple times to bang on the bedroom door, wanting to get in there for that one.

I think the one in the bathroom was challenging for a couple reasons.  First, I put it under the corner of the bathmat, in an open ended odor holder - so the odor wasn't wafting out as strongly as the others.  Second it was in a corner in that room, where there isn't much air current.  Third it was in the space between the toilet and tub... so when she'd go into that space, every time by the time she got her head down, she'd already turned her back on it.

I tried shutting the door and letting it "cook" for thirty minutes, but that didn't help.  She was more interested, but just couldn't get the job done.  So I brought her out and paired that hide.  Then she was able to find it.

So in addition to doing a lot more ground/floor level hides, I'm also going to do a lot more corners, the edge of a wall at floor level and some floor level threshold hides.  She's contentedly snoozing now.  For awhile anyway...