Titles Achieved to date...

Monumental A to Z High On Liberty
NW1, RATI, RATN, RATO, NW2, L1I, RATS, L1E, L1C, L1V, L2C, L2I, L2E, RATM, R-FE/N, PKD-TL, PKD-N, ADPL1, ADPL2, TD, UWP, ADPL3, NTD, TKN, L2V, ADPL4, SDS-N, ADPL5, ADPCH, ADP1(2), ADPL1(GC), ADPL2(2), ADPL2(GC), VPN, AP, UWPCH, ADPL3(2), ADPL3(GC), NC, NI, NE, SCN, SIN, SEN, CZ8B, NV, NN, ADPL4(2), ADPL4(GC), ADPGCH, ADPL5(2), RATCH, CZ8S, AI, TKI, AV, AE, AC, AN, R-FE/X NW3-V, NW3-E, SI, RN, R-FE/NS, CZ8G, SC, SV, SE, SN, SEA, SBN, SWN, SIA, SCA, ADP-1(Th), ADP-2(Th), ADP-3(Th), ADP-4(Th), ADP-5(Th), and ADP-CH(Th)... 81 and counting...

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Nosework (4/1 & 5/1)

Gimme got to see her Tonya yesterday for bodywork and energy work.  Tonya said her energy is very "sticky" right now (as opposed to "stuck").  I also got Tonya to do energy work on my left foot, the one with the plantar fasciitis.  It was very interesting and I'll definitely be doing some more of it.

I didn't report on last week's nosework class, partly because I found it frustrating.  Most of it was very good, but it ended on an annoying note.  We started with a big bunch of boxes (about 30) and revisited what we did when they were first learning, which was, food in the boxes so the dogs can reward themselves.  The idea is that it builds drive and enthusiasm to revisit the basics from time to time.  Gimme thought that was a ton of fun.

After that we had an exterior search, in a very challenging area.  It was challenging because of the way the breeze was moving and having an area restriction.  Its possible in a trial we might be told not to let our dogs step in a specific area or put their feet on specific shelving/furniture.  In this case it was a very inviting strip of grass that had been peed on by coyote.  Gimme did really well and wasn't even too interested in the coyote smell, probably because she has smelled it so often on the Fort Lewis training areas.  One cool thing I realized was how much better she is doing with restrictions and not getting frustrated right away.  She's growing up...

Our last search was to go back in and revisit the boxes, now set with an odor.  Gimme found it right away and did a very nice indication.  I was thrilled and gave her copious rewards.  Then Dorothy had us move away while she set another hide and moved the first one.  This time Gimme was pawing the first one she found and went completely over the top on the second one.  For some reason she'll gets more excited when she gets to come back right away to search again.  We had the exact same pattern occur a couple weeks before when class was three back-to-back searches on boxes (1, 2 and 3 odors).  The first was good, the second was worse and the third over the top.  It just frustrates me because I know this sets us back a few steps - leaving me with extra work at home to regain that ground.  I realize as long as I'm in classes this is going to be the case, but its annoying nonetheless....

Last night we did three interesting searches.  We came in to see 40 empty water bottles laid around the sides of the room.  About ten of them had odor in them.  The first search was to bring the dogs in and turn them loose... observe how they reacted to so much odor and reward any odor indications.  Gimme ran around the room, sniffing all the time, without stopping to follow any particular scent cone to source.  After a little bit, she got down to business and started indicating.  Once she got to work with this new puzzle, she did very nicely.

The second search, all the bottles with odor remained against the walls and the empties were moved to the center of the room.  Again an off leash search.  Gimme was very attracted to the big visual picture of the bottles in the center of the room, so it took her awhile to decide to investigate bottles along the wall.  Once she did though, she did very well finding them all.  There was one in the front corner that was a challenge and she spent a lot of time investigating all over a bunch of stuff across from it, before following the scent cone to the bottle.  Something about the room's air current must've been moving the odor over to the stuff and then it was lingering there.

The last search, all but four of the odor bottles were removed and they were placed in among the bottles in the middle of the floor.  This we did on lead.  Gimme did very well.

I got asked if I do a lot of high hides with her, which I don't.  Her high-head searching is a by-product of our prior classes where the instructor's only idea for how to vary searches or make them inaccessible was to go high.  I've always had to spend at least a week doing a lot of low hides before a trial.  Two-thirds of the hides we did at Susan's were low and all these bottle hides were low... so I don't think I'll have to emphasize it as much this week, though I will do some more.

Remember we have a trial in Clackamas on Sunday.  We are stopping in Cowlitz on the way to the hotel on Saturday, for an afternoon Barn Hunt workshop.  I've worked a deal to get some multi-rat searches for Gimme.  She's totally going to love that.


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