4th Exercise – Under vehicle 12" in from edge of running board
8. You need to limit how far you allow the dog to go under the edge of a vehicle and this is partly dependent on the size of the dog.
9. Safety of the dog is the primary factor... generally not past shoulders/mid-back
10. Use line to restrict moving further under the vehicle, but not in a way where you are pulling them back or giving an unintended correction.
11. Proximity of sign that creates handler impediment would make this a NW3 level hide, without changing difficulty for the dog.
5th Exercise – Under vehicle 12" in from edge of running board, with accessible hide on hubcap of nearby vehicle
12. Again most dogs chose to do the easier hide first.
6th Exercise – Odor on the head of a long-handled paint roller, leaned high on a wall and behind a barrier
13. I cautioned against the unsteadiness of the barrier (a chain link gate just leaned in place to fill a gap and offered a bungee to make it more secure. Barbara said she didn't think these particular dogs would put their feet on it. That proved wrong! Two dogs knocked it down and it was necessary to recover their confidence.
14. One dog knocked it so hard the gate nearly landed where Joyce was squatted for filming and the odor tin went flying and was lost in the deep weeds.
15. If something happens to concern the dog, the handler should not be the one to reward or work through it. A trusted instructor or assistant can reward through it while the handler handles. Thus, the dog doesn't learn to expect the handler to bail them out and there's no risk the dog will associate the scary thing with their handler.
7th Exercise – Back to the vehicle, where hide was moved to the far side from the sign and the accessible hide was removed. This was intended to test the following question and discussion.
16. if the dog isn't committing (making a decision), how do you know if the odor is on the near side and inaccessible or on the far side?
- if the dog is bracketing (left in diagram below), the odor is probably on the near side
- if the dog is t-boning (right in diagram below - i.e. wanting to go under the vehicle at a 90º angle) and especially if breeze is coming from the other side, odor is probably on the other side.
- some dogs will act just the opposite, but a dog is generally consistent within its own searches, so know your own dog.
Know Your Dog
~ Day Two ~ at Cindy's condo common area Meeting Room
1st Exercise – hide was placed just forward of center under a swivel based recliner
1. The dogs approached from the rear of the chair and most found odor from the front, Gimme included.
2. They seemed to check out more of the room than the previous day's dogs had and we believed this was because the door was left open and that caused more air movement than was present in the other building.
2nd Exercise – hide stayed just forward of center under swivel based recliner, upturned chairs, trash can, plastic tree, and noteboard were placed around the chair as barriers
3. Dogs followed a similar pattern of looking to handlers, wanting help
4. Some dogs actually seemed intrigued by the possibility of training their handlers, though all opted to work instead
5. These dogs spent a bit of time checking each barrier after it was moved for odor. we think this may be because of the carpet and the additional air current moving odor onto the barriers more than happened the day before
~ Video Notes ~
You'll note that Gimme doesn't really ask to have the barrier moved the first time. I have always encouraged her to push in and help herself - something she is happy to do. The second time she also doesn't look right at me, but just kind of pauses and watches me from the corner of her eye. I think if I'd just waited she would have pushed in beside the trash can and indicated on her own. You'll note she wasn't the least bit bothered by the noteboard falling over against the chair when she did get in to indicate odor.
3rd Exercise – odor was placed high on a coat alcove (hangers removed for safety) and one accessible hide was placed at the rear of the base for the swivel recliner.
6. Students expressed concern that there was nothing for the dogs to put their paws on to stretch up to odor. Gimme proved that was not the case as she stretched her legs out to the full extent to the side to brace against the alcove wall, while still stretching up to odor
7. The two smaller dogs got fixated on the edges/cracks/hinges of the adjacent door to the utility closet. One larger dog showed interest in the door handle. Odor falling from the elevated source would land on these and be somewhat more concentrated than on the floor. It was important to be extra careful about timing with these dogs to make sure they were making the right connection to odor source and not pooling odor.
We closed the door this time and so the dogs were much more likely to get into the area to the right of the door. There was a vent overhead pushing air in where Joyce stood (the door closer) and another on the floor sucking air in behind where Barbara stood. Gimme first found the accessible hide behind the chair and then you'll see her go right over to where the floor vent was. She found both hides and got right up to indicate the overhead hide within 29 seconds. Is she amazing or what?! Barbara had to remind me about placing her treat at source and bringing it toward her - which we did several times, encouraging her to note source and go vertical toward it. Then Barbara had me let her get the accessible hide again - something Gimme would not have done on her own.
More to follow... with 3 more videos...
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