Nosework (5/25)

The class focus was on endurance, so we only had two searches, both of which were really long. It was also pretty hot, about 80º.

Exterior 1 video - Gimme was going pretty fast off the startline and missed the threshold hide. She passed the second hide, but turned back to it on her own. She also overran the hide on the corner of the building, but came right back to it. There is another hide high on the building, about 6 feet before the drain spout (white), but Gimme gets caught in the scent of the rock hide. There was a hide about halfway up on the side of the dirt mound and it takes Gimme a verrrrry long time to find it. This was surprising to me, since she's gone up those mounds many times when there was nothing there and it was like she didn't believe there could be anything there. I wish the instructor had either moved closer or used the zoom, since you really can't see what was going on. It was amazing for her to get the wall hide from so far away and then she goes wide to the right side (past the rock hide) and then takes us back down to the mound area. She really checks all around the area and goes halfway up several times, before she finally goes straight up to it. She finds the threshold hide on the way out. This search lasted almost 6 minutes. 

Interior 1 video - There are four hides in this room - all inaccessible - in the stacks of chairs. Gimme worked for over 9 minutes, steadily. At one point she does find a ball and considers playing with it, but then left it on her own to go back to searching. The short stack of metal chairs against the wall is the easiest to find and the first one Gimme indicates, 5 minutes into this search. The tall stack against the far wall is the hardest for all the dogs. Based on watching Gimme when she's at the far end of the room, you know the hide is high - she's air-scenting high-headed and when she sniffs stuff, she's sniffing high on the stuff. I'm sure this is the longest search she's ever done and you can see she never gives up and is determined throughout to solve the puzzle.

When the instructor got out the smoke generator, we discovered all these hides, the scent was going straight up. The smoke disappears after a couple feet, but we figure it went up to a certain level and then spread out on a plane before falling down on other things. This is consistent with how all the dogs searched the area.  We think the heat on the roof was drawing the scent up.

After all this, Gimme slept soundly all the way home and then for several hours more.