Nosework (2/13)

We started class with an outdoor search, with four hides.  The search area was outlined with a bunch of orange cones and included the covered portico (shown by the brown squares) and along the front of the building where a big garage door opens.  The triangle is the door to the building and the tan rectangle is a bench sitting next to the door. 

The "easy" hides were: at the base of the left column (as viewed from the startline), under the lip where the metal corrugated siding meets brick and above the bench, and under the siding lip to the far side of the garage door.  A fourth hide was about 8' high at the top of the right column (green dot).  We were given just 2½ minutes to search.

Gimme found the left column hide and the hide on the far side of the garage door right away.  She put her feet up on the right column briefly twice.  She sniffed around the bench, but never got to the hide there - which was obstructed by the bench position.  The third time she put her paws on the column, the instructor said, "REWARD YOUR DOG!".  Gimme knew there was a hide up there, but her bad owner wasn't reading her.  Then we ran out of time.

I was thinking barn hunt where she often likes to put her feet up on support posts and consider the rafter area and we know there are no rat tubes up there.  Seriously, this was what I was thinking - its the picture I got in my head.  Gimme deserves a medal for putting up with me.  She was the only dog of the five who looked up at all.

Then we repeated this search without the hide above the back of the bench.  As each dog found the other hides, if they tended to go back to them, the instructor removed them to make the search simpler.  The other dogs needed a lot of hints to find the high hide and got rewarded for even looking up the column at all.

Gimme found the same two first hides and only had the nearest one removed.  Then she put her feet up on the column and looked over to me with this, "Whaaaaa, do I hafta draw a picture?" look.  We haven't done high hides in a long time, so I was glad to see her figure it out, even if I didn't.  We can't do too many high hides or she starts getting high-headed, air-scenting the clouds, and forgets to search low.  Since the other dogs don't really have this skill, I suspect we'll get a few more high searches in the coming weeks.

Our last search was an interior with a jumble of chairs everywhere and I was certain we'd be on leash for a line handling challenge.  Instead it was off leash and we were given instructions to watch for our dogs to get busy in an area without finding a hide there (we knew where the five hides were) and when the dog left the area, we were to step into and stand in the area ourselves. The gallery of spectators were seated in some of those chairs right in the middle of the search area.  The hides were pretty usual stuff. 

I asked what the purpose of this move was and didn't really understand the point of it even after the answer.  In any case it turned out to not be necessary.  None of the dogs really spent any big amount of time in any one area and were all busy searching the whole room.  Gimme was easily the fastest dog to find all 5 hides.  Then again, August (GSD) wasn't in class and he's the only one who's ever close to her speed.  He's not as fast as she is, but is more methodical, so sometimes he finds the hides faster than she does.