We are doing a series of searches focusing on distractions. We were each tasked to bring in two distractions. I brought cotton balls with a drop of bay oil and cinnamon leaf oil. They were big distractions to the dogs, so I was asked to leave them for the next classes.
Interior 1 search video - The hide was on the little toy wagon. Gimme went almost directly to it, then checked the distractions around it before going back and alerting. We let her search for another 1:40, with the intention to reward her if she came back to the wagon. She came back pretty quickly, but didn't stick with it - probably because I very seldom reward the same hide a second time. She cruised around having a good time checking everything and then came back again. While she didn't actually indicate, she was clearly saying, "This is all there is" and she did get rewarded again.
The reason I don't normally reward a second time on the same hide is because Dalmatians are too smart. She'd quickly figure out to just keep going back. That's why I say "Thank you, find another one." If she goes back to a hide, by the time I say "Than..." she's moving on. She understands the value of finding different one.
Interior 2 search video - My comment at the very beginning was about putting out distractions for "me too", since they'd put the candy jar down right at the threshold. Gimme enjoys checking out the distractions, but she's rarely fooled by them - she knows what pays. It takes her longer to find the hide on the wagon this time because it was moved to the far end of the room and she had to go by a lot of distractions to get close to it. She got to the other hide on the ladder much faster.
Interior 3 search video - She almost never gets a threshold hide right off the startline. I think tripping over the candy jar slowed her down. She did a good job leaving the braunschweiger sausage distraction. As much as possible I like to let her make the decision on her own - I just sort of wander away and unless it's a toy she wants to keep, she leaves distractions on her own. Finding the hide on the ladder under the table was a little challenging, it's just such a different picture and a very cluttered spot to search in. She got really interested in the used latte cup and pushed it around a bit (something I'll see again at the next class). She gets interested in all the distractions in that area, pushing them with her nose. She even looked at me in a way as if to see if I might be fooled into paying her. Not so fast, Empress. But then she finds the hide on the chair nearby. Since the chair hide was higher than the distraction items, there might have been a little bit of pooling odor.
She did a great job. Honestly I think she likes sorting out this kind of challenge. Anything we do using her nose and her brain is a good thing, eh.
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