This class was mostly about distractions. I brought cat poop (thanks to friend Carol) and corn chips. Neither proved to be an issue for any of the dogs. Still it was a good thing, since even a novel smell which doesn't trap the dogs adds to their experience base. You just can't have too much experience in this sport.
Container 1 video -
Our first search was a series of blind container searches. We weren't supposed to call alert out loud and we were to say how many hides we thought there were.
- First was the foyer. Gimme was ready to go to the next room - I think because most of our searches are in the big room, and the door was wide open. Even with the time wasted trying to go through the open door, she had the hide in 7 seconds. She checked all the other boxes and I said one hide - I was right.
- Second was camouflage colored brick boxes. She had the only hide in 8 seconds. I noticed she tended to push the distraction containers around with her nose. She did this consistently all evening.
- Third was bright colored brick boxes. She had the hide in under 5 seconds. There was one hide. She did get caught by a distraction and looked at me hoping I'd fall for it. We took her around again so she could leave the distraction on her own, then go to an odor box and get paid.
- Fourth was a big circle of large boxes. She stuttered at the little lunchbox, but didn't stick it or indicate. It took 25 seconds to find the first hide and another 17 seconds to get back to the lunch box and indicate. Clearly just 2 hides and she didn't fall for any distractions.
- I'm happy to see I'm getting better at knowing when she is done with an area.
Container 2 video -
This time all the hides and distractions were moved into the big circle for one big search. Gimme overran her nose, but caught herself and turned back to the hide. She found all four hides (one of them twice) in a minute. She really was on fire.
Not-Containers 3 video -
This time they took up all the container hides and placed one odor tin at the base of the table legs. Since we'd just done 5 container searches and the containers were still out, the dogs all expected to do another container search. Gimme is torn between the containers and odor not-in-a-container. You'll see her go back and forth several times before she sticks to odor. Then she goes around the whole circle again before deciding to follow her nose to odor at the other end of the room. This was such a good exercise - such good value to teach the dog to let go of expectations and follow their nose. Way cool.
C
