Nosework (2/25)

Here is a picture of our container search layout for class. How would you work it? Do you see any pattern?









Dorothy asked us right off the bat what strategy we would use on this search. Everyone else was really at a loss, whereas I saw three circles of boxes with a box in the middle. So I said my strategy would be to work the circles or at least be aware of how Gimme had worked them, without getting stuck in the middle and blocking the center box.

I can't say why, I just saw it. I was sitting there looking at it and thinking about strategy while everyone was chatting before class, and then I just saw the circles. Probably my arts/crafts background. Dorothy said only one other person saw the circles. My classmates needed to be shown the circles. Here is the same layout with the circles in different colors.



Container 1 video - The first search was just one hide. Gimme finds it really quickly and then checks the other boxes. One of the things we were watching was to see if the dogs seemed to react to the circle shape. Dorothy has seen dogs react to the 2 lines of boxes for an ORT, but she said it wasn't clear here. Gimme seemed to be doing the third circle, but it could also be she'd done the other two and they were behind her, so it made sense to travel the perimeter.

Container 2 video - Dorothy changed the boxes and put a different odor in the spot of the hide from the first search and you can see Gimme doesn't alert to it right away because it doesn't smell "right" to her. Clearly she remembered from the time before. This time there were two hides and she gets them both fast. Note how her intensity drops after the second hide, as if she knows there aren't any more. She still checks the last group and then goes back to the second hide. I don't usually pay her again, but did this time and then she heads to the door on her own.

Container 3 video - This time there were three hides and we did the search off leash. You'll almost never get to do an off leash container search. Gimme was much faster off leash, 20 seconds less than for two hides. On the second hide she hadn't really indicated. I thought she was going to and had started to move in, but she was moving away by then. She notices I'm coming in and hops back to the hide. I'm sure she thinks she's training me.

Container 4 video - This time Dorothy moved all the hides to the edge of the circles. It looks a lot more like Gimme is responding to the circle shape without the center boxes. Gimme was another 6 seconds faster here. Clearly I and my leash are just one big impediment!