Nosework (6/16)

Our first search (blind) was outside and had plastic Easter eggs in the grass strip next to the sidewalk.  The search area included the grass strip and the beauty barked area which is just out of the bottom of this picture.  The purple lines delineate the part of the search area where the hides were - all ELEVEN of them!  Basically every egg from the two purple eggs to the end had odor.  

Exterior search video - In the video you can see the two purple eggs which showed where the odor started.  So its interesting to see how much attention dogs paid to the eggs before they got to where odor was.  Some dogs spent a lot more time there than Gimme did.  There was a slight breeze, so scent could have been drifting toward the start and pooling against the empty eggs.  Gimme did well at this, finding 5 hides.  Only one other dog found this many.  This is really a scenting challenge, since odor is really saturating the area.  One of the eggs Gimme cracked open had a dozen q-tips in it, what we call an "odor bomb".  We were only given 1½ minutes for the search.

Vehicle search video - This blind vehicle search included two of the big boom trucks and a small black car.  I don't know why Gimme left the hide at the first steps she approached.  She looked at me as if she was waiting for me to do something.  Even though I was fairly certain there was a hide there, she didn't indicate, so I didn't call it.  She was a little distracted - you'll see how she stares off into space a bit before going back to indicate the hide on steps on the other side of the vehicle.  You don't see it in the video, but she was quite interested in the bumper.  I think it may have been channeling odor from the front step hide.  She made quick work of the hide on the car.  Then I helped her toward the middle truck, which she ignored and went back to the first hide.  I called "finish" just after the video cut off and was right (there were 3 hides and none on the center truck), but we were past time.  We were given 3 minutes for the search.

To me Gimme seemed a little bit unfocused.  Not in a huge way, just not her usual laser beam focus.  I've asked Dorothy if we could have practice boxes set out.  I think it would help Gimme get on task a bit faster.