For nosework this week, we had 6 container searches and 2 vehicle searches. Gimme did great on all of them, except one where she "lied" to me about a box, repeatedly. I only have video of 5 of the container searches.
On the first one, she is just fast - damn fast. She was even quite moderate in her paw indicator, but you will see it doesn't last.
On the second search, she is still very quick, but you'll note she goes right back to vigorous pawing. At the time I was thinking it was because of the type of box. Those standard white boxes are what she saw the most of in her early training, and the required type of box for ORTs - so she has a lengthy history of trashing them.
I was encouraged in this idea, because the third container search she didn't get vigorous with the brick-like boxes (I don't have video for this because the person taking the videos for me had difficulty with the camera). She got only a few seconds of just the indication and I deleted it before realizing it still made a good record of how she indicated - it was nicely moderate.
On the fourth container search she again does a nice job. Her paw indicator for the box was back to trashing <sigh>. You'll see in the middle of this search she veers away from the boxes toward a cardboard dumpster. Between the prior class and ours an employee, not knowing the instructor had permission from the owner and seeing a bunch of small pizza boxes as trash, quickly tossed them in the dumpster, including the box with odor. Personally I would have moved the search area for the last class, so we weren't put in the position of pulling our dogs away from odor. However, on a positive note, Gimme did not get frustrated by being pulled away, as she would have just 9 months ago - she has come a long way since then. Then she went around and found the bag and her indicator was quite acceptable.
On this fifth container search, Gimme had a false alert - or did she. If you watch closely, you'll see I called it before she looked at me. Oh the power of videotape... In my defense, in class I'm always being encouraged to respond faster and not allowed to work my 4 part plan for indications on containers, like I do at trials and in training. BTW when I say "No. Liar liar." the "no" was really an exclamation/surprise at learning it wasn't right, i.e. it wasn't directed toward Gimme. From there she goes to trash the correct box. Interestingly when Gimme swings by the bad box the next time, she indicates it more forcefully, but still not the full 4 parts. We haven't done boxes on chairs in a very long time, so she doesn't start checking them until I bring her attention to one. Then she goes directly to check the next chair - which was correct and does a nice indication.
On our last container search, she finds the first box quickly and you can hear the instructor telling me "reward her quick"... and on the second box saying "reward". Both times before Gimme has done more than part A of her four part container indication. <sigh> I have talked about this before... it is a problem I will have to just deal with because CNWIs only know one way to train. I have to train this more on my own, enough repetitions to overcome the inconsistent ones in class. I haven't been training the indicator since my hand went kaflooey two months ago and here you see the results, eh.
Gimme does a great job on this search. At the very beginning she veers slightly left, but then turns back toward the vehicle on her own. The breeze was blowing from the right, so she was simply following the plume momentarily. You can't see it on the video, but she catches the odor from the bucket and then when she realizes where it is, goes around to source on her own.
Another great job on this vehicle. She was right on it the whole time, briefly passes it, realizes she's gone too far and turns back. Brilliant, as well as beautiful.
BTW in hindsight, I realized the trashing with the non-standard-white boxes only started on the fourth container search. This has been a consistent pattern - the more container searches she does in a row, the more likely she is to start raking boxes, regardless of the type of box. I know the ideal solution would be to sit-out any class with box searches, but it would be a large percentage of them. I was hoping as the weather improved we'd be doing more exterior searches and less containers.
Anyway, I clearly have my work cut out for me between now and our trial in three weeks. My finger is still an impediment (though its improving), so I have to think of creative ways to do what I'd been doing before, which was working so well. Gotta get back on it.
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