Nosework class (4/35)

We started with three blind searches of three small areas. Our task was to tell the instructor within 30 seconds whether we thought there was a hide in the room.

Interior 1 video - It was pretty clear that Gimme didn't think there was anything here. It was easy to make the call.

Interior 2 video - I was sure there would be a hide in this room because I'd seen her sniff under the door while we were in the first search. Seeing her sniff in the video, it is clear she didn't think there was anything behind the door, so I was reading something into it. She was more intense in this room, which also supported my belief. The instructor thought Gimme was more intense because the room was busier and because she was more determined to find something after not finding anything in the entry room.

Interior 3 video - This time we searched the little bathroom. Gimme does a quick check and then leaves the room, twice. Partly this may be because she could smell the hide at the far end of the room. I don't immediately believe her when she leaves a room because she has a history of cataloging in small spaces, nothing a hide is there and then leaving to check the rest of the area before coming back to it.

Interior 4 video - Gimme found this really quickly. She spent a bit of time on the cart, where there was lingering odor from class the day before.

Interior 5 video - She was ready to leave again. As Dorothy said she "kinda turned herself back", but it wasn't until after she hit the end of the line, so I'm not sure I give that much credence. But unlike the prior bathroom search, she did work it a bit more when she came back in. So my take away is, if she leaves I encourage her to come back for one more check.

Interior 6 video - This time there was 4 hides and it was an off leash search, in a room full of intentional distractions. If you watch for it, you can see she never looks back to me when she's checking out distractions, since she believes I know if it's a hide, thus I won't pay. She finds the first hide right off the bat - nice, since she usually blows off the threshold. She's pretty quick to find the hide on the black cart; just where she thought it should be earlier. She was pretty quick to the hide on the red cart. She spends a full minute finding the last hide on the green chair, which was centered between many of the distractions.

Interior 7 video - This time all the hides were put together in the bottom of the red-black cart, creating an "odor bomb". All the distractions were moved in close - a huge challenge. Gimme finds the odor-bomb-hide in 17 seconds! If the dog found the hide quickly, we were supposed to let them check the room and distractors some more and pay a second time if/when they went back to the hide.

Gimme was very happy to be back in class after two weeks off, skip dates for the holidays.