Inaccessible Hides Seminar (4)

The fourth and final installation...

4th Exercise – odor placed in the "crotch" of a tree, about 5½ feet off the ground
8. This proved interesting because when the dogs weren't finding odor, Barbara reminded us to go to where we handlers hadn't been.  In almost every case that was the same place of the search area.  As we moved there, the dogs followed and almost all got the drift of odor right away.  Usually the instruction is to note where the dog hadn't been and in some of these cases the dog had been there – so something about the handler's movement through the area changed the search for the dogs
9. Note in Gimme's search that she follows the drift of odor out to its furthest edge and then turns and goes directly to odor.  Keep in mind that odor falls like a waterfall, but it also emits and stays on a plane at its height, gradually drifting down to earth.  This is often apparent in converging odor situations, but was also discussed at length in Jeff Schettlers book on trailing.

 ~ Video Notes ~
Gimme seems to find odor at the 8 second mark, but then leaves it to search the rest of the area – a common behavior for her.  I stalled in place at the 28 second mark, not moving for 8 seconds – an eternity of bad handling.  She seemed to find it again at 51 seconds, but didn’t stick it.  Right at 1:19 she finds the limit of the scent cone and then if you watch you will see her nose go straight to odor – almost as if she were following a string from that point to the highest place she could reach on the tree.  We took longer than necessary with this search because the slight breeze kept changing directions and I wasn't aware of it. 
** I saw one of the other handlers had tied a piece of orange construction tape to her wrist with about 10 inches hanging down.  The tape flutters with the breeze and is readily visible to the handler while the search is ongoing.  And, importantly, the tape on your wrist while handling will show you what the breeze is doing closer to the dog’s nose level (unlike a wet finger held up to test the breeze).

5th Exercise – hide is placed 12 inches under from edge of running board
10. many of the dogs tended to follow the odor to the vehicle next to the one the odor was on and had it not been there, might have checked some other barrier for odor to collect on
11. no dogs go to the far side of the vehicles on either side of the vehicle the odor was on, though many went around the vehicle with the hide
12. in frustration Gimme tended to go vertical on the vehicle while searching for source – see discussion below

~ Video Notes ~
Gimme went vertical on this search four times. She has a very light touch, but still… once, even twice, is acceptable… more than that would probably result in a fault.     Generally feet on tires, bumpers and running boards are not an issue. 

6th Exercise – hide under running board remains and an additional hide is readily accessible on the trailer hitch
13. keep dogs from going too far under the vehicle by restricting how much line you give them, taking care to not let an unintended correction occur

~ Video Notes ~
While we were setting up to search another dog was too close and started barking.  Barbara reminded them to move further away.  While Gimme definitely noticed, she immediately returned her focus to me and was ready to work.  She has come a long way this year.  Interestingly with the added hide on the bumper, almost all the dogs started by coming down the other side of the red vehicle, unlike their first search where they came down between the red and white vehicles.  Gimme got the inaccessible hide much faster the second time.

Going Vertical on Vehicles

• Gimme put her paws up on the vehicle 4 times in the first search and once in the second search.  She doesn't normally do that and I think it was likely frustration from the difficulty of the search.  I think we need to do more inaccessible hides on vehicles so she has more experience and doesn’t get so frustrated.  Unfortunately we really can’t between now and the trial in ten days, so hopefully the two searches we did here will carry us through.
• Going vertical once is okay and won't be faulted (if its a light touch with no pawing), most judges won't fault for a second time... but beyond that is likely to incur a fault
• Dogs can place their paws on a car/truck body to steady themselves and check for odor.  We have to realize that odor can get blown over a vehicle as well as under and around.  Paws on hitches, bumpers and tires is not an issue.
• Hides on vehicles will never be placed higher than wheel well or bumper, so dogs don't "need" to look higher than that for source.  Barbara suggested I study Gimme's video to see how her head moves right before she goes vertical.
• Then I can gently discourage it with line tension.  Giving less line when she's about to go up will restrict her ability to go vertical, while taking care not to give a line "check" since it feels like punishment/correction to the dog.

I got compliments from Barbara on every run on my line handling and how well I work Gimme.  That sure felt good.  She even mentioned once during the seminar that some dogs are so fast that you need a much longer line, "almost like a tracking line".  Thus validating another difference of opinion between Joyce and me.

All in all, I was very happy with how Gimme did.  I hadn’t thought Joyce was doing a very good job of teaching inaccessible hides to our dogs that are training for NW2 trials.  Then again, Gimme was the only dog for both days that did so well on all her searches that she never got any extra runs to work through a problem.  So I guess we’ve done much better than I thought.  Either that, or she’s just naturally brilliant!