Nosework class (2/36)

I told Dorothy about my observation regarding Gimme's missed hides in the interiors at the NW3 trial, asking that we work on it in class. I was sure Gimme wasn't intimidated or concerned by the nearby person, just distracted.

Dorothy brought up the idea some dogs might be "polite", as if they thought the person owned the hide. None of the dogs in our class are concerned about people, but they all took their time about claiming the hide, getting faster as we did more exercises. I hope we do this again from time to time.

Interior 1 human distraction search video - There is just one hide on the front corner of the black chair with someone sitting on either side of it. It seems all the dogs in the class the day before were investigating trapping odor on the grey cart. Gimme didn't take too long, but these are familiar people and sitting.

Interior 2 human distraction search video - This time the hide is on the same chair, but up against a table where there are four people sitting. Dorothy is one of the people sitting, so the video is "odd" (she needed a swivel chair). She makes the point about dog expectations regarding where the hide is - i.e. not near a lot of people. Gimme definitely gives the group of us and the table a pass and only after she has thoroughly checked the rest of the room does she seem to pay attention when near the table - she passed by it once earlier, but showed no sign of noting odor.

Interior 3 human distraction search video - This time the chair was laid flat on the floor with 2 people standing close to it. Gimme was much quicker to get to it once she caught the drift of scent.

Interior 4 human distraction search video - This time the hide was on the same chair, laying on its side in the tiny foyer (about 8'x10') with everyone standing in the room. Although this was very crowded, Gimme was super fast to find the hide. I think the small space concentrated the scent picture and by then she was used to all of us behaving strangely. Very nice.

This is more human distraction than she should ever encounter at a trial, though I've had interior searches which were almost as tight as this last exercise. Ideally I'd like to do this enough to go waaaay beyond what we'd encounter so strange-human distraction at a trial would be blasé.