Container search - We had 2:30 minutes, 1-3 hides and on leash. Gimme started out really well. She went up the left row and whipped back to get a hide in the second box. From there we checked the rest of the boxes in that row and arced over to the right row. Gimme was about halfway down the row when she turned back to the second box and alerted. Again right.From there we came up the center row and Gimme stopped to sniff the last box. I stopped with her, she alerted and I called it for a false alert. Gimme received 4 faults: false alert - 2, pawing 1 and dropped food 1. I can't imagine how there was any dropped food since she inhales her chicken nuggets with great rapidity. It's a moot point in any case, since we could no longer qualify for the NW3 title.
I was responsible for this failure, since I didn't work my plan. When Gimme stopped to sniff the last box of the row, I stopped with her, which encouraged her to offer an alert, just to see if I'd pay. If I had continued moving around the box, I think she would have left it. My bad. I have no real sense of time, so I often feel rushed in trials. In this case we had plenty of time since I'd only used 42.13 seconds out of 2½ minutes.
Vehicle search - We had 3:00 minutes, 1-3 hides and on leash. There were two white pick-up trucks and a red compact sedan. Even though I had her pointed toward the middle pick-up, Gimme turned right off the start line to go up the side of the red car. She passed the hide briefly, then turned back to it, detailed a few seconds and alerted. After a "yes" from the judge, we checked the trucks. Gimme spent a bit of time on the front bumper of the furthest truck, but never detailed or alerted.While she was happy to go around and around the trucks, she did try to lead me away from the vehicles. The second time she did this, I called "finished". Our search time was 1:40.46 and since this was our third leg, we completed the NW3-V title.
Interior searches - We had 2:30 minutes for each of three searches, 0-3 hides and all on leash. All three search areas were in small, cluttered classrooms.
Interior 1 search - It didn't take Gimme very long to find a hide under a small stool. From there the searched and searched. She showed some interest in a bookshelf by the wall, but moved on. There was a person standing quietly nearby and I noticed Gimme looked at her. Since she didn't seem to be finding anything I called finished at 1:36.58.As it turns out there was a second hide in the bookshelf (red circle) where Gimme had noticed the person (smiley face).
Interior 2 search - Gimme worked this area really fast. She seemed to overrun her nose a lot, but finally settled on a hide under a chair against the wall. She searched a little more, but seemed to have lost steam. I called "finish" at 2:09.76 and was right.
Interior 3 search - Gimme entered the room and turned immediately to the right, then scooted up the right wall. From there she came back to the corner and found a hide deep in a box of blocks. She scanned around the room and sniffed the ladder laying flat on the ground. The videographer was standing right at the head of the ladder and Gimme noticed him. There was also a fish tank on the shelf above where the ladder lay, but I didn't see any sign Gimme noticed the tank or its noises.She went over toward the door and found a hide on a chair at the table near the threshold. She scanned the room again and ended up back over at the ladder. She sniffed it again and twice looked at the man nearby. She didn't stick it and her search behavior was losing intensity so I called "finished" at 2:18.21. Turns out there was a hide on the ladder.
In hindsight, for both hides she missed (interiors 1 and 3) there was a person standing nearby, roughly 5 feet away. I don't think Gimme was intimidated or concerned by their presence, but I did see her look at the woman (bookshelf hide) and look repeatedly at the man (near the ladder hide). So I think they were simply distracting. In class we are pretty careful not to have people standing or sitting near hides and if anyone moves around during a search, they do so discretely. I've asked Dorothy to consider ways we might train this as a distraction challenge exercise.
Exterior search - - We had 3:00 minutes, 1-3 hides and on leash. The lines at the bottom right are stairs and the heavy line going up the right is a railing. The black dot is a pipe on the building and the larger grey circle is a trash can. The orange boxes are large utility fixtures. The two white squares are a desk and a folding table. The brown line is a big stick in the middle of the grass.Gimme went to the right of the railing, followed the wall, then swept to the left around the border of the search area. She was quite interested in the area between the two utility fixtures, but I encouraged her to leave them. Given where the hide was placed I'm sure scent was being sucked between them. Once she got to the small desk it only took her a moment to get to the hide at the table.
From there she went up and through the railing, leaving me in the grass. I had her come back through to me and then we went around to check out the pipe, but she was not interested in it. She spent a bit of time checking out the trash can, but didn't settle in any spot, though she detailed both handles. When she was checking high on the wall near it, I was certain she wasn't going to find anything, so I encouraged her to leave it. We made sure to check the stick in the middle of the grass and then called "finish" and left. We only had 7.11 seconds remaining. This was our third leg and we completed the NW3-E title.
These are titles 61 and 62, our first titles this year. Gimme got a great new stuffed pig toy to reward her effort. She was pretty funny carrying it in the house and keeping those very long legs up out of the snow. Once in the house she immediately took it up on the couch, then used her nose to shove all the other toys off the couch. She hasn't allowed another toy on the couch in the 9 days since. I don't even try to comprehend what goes on in her mind - too complex for me, eh.
No comments:
Post a Comment