I was the only student in class, so class was short. Dorothy ran her dog - she's a joy to watch. I talked to the instructors and explained how Gimme was having trouble because of the tree and grass pollens. I said I didn't want any blind hides until she was past this issue. They suggested we also pair her hides, which we did for the first two searches. Continuing the training of distracting people in the search area, we were all there and moved to different seats during the search.
Interior 1 video - Gimme played with the toys on the floor briefly, but then left them on her own. Gimme always enjoys puzzles, so getting in to the expen to source the hide was easy for her. You see her nose go high when she is still far away from the highest hide. I did a great job of catching the table when she put her feet on it. She quickly got the hide on the table and then had fun puzzling out how to get to the hide on the mop bucket.
Interior 2 video - She got to the first hide very quickly. And then even faster to the second hide. They were so close to each other this should have been a converging odor challenge, but Gimme didn't act like it was hard. You never know what scent is doing. She was so fast getting to the third hide, leaving me too far away to reward "quickly". She was very direct to the last hide as well. She seems to like this whole pairing thing, eh.
Interior 3 video - The last search was on leash and we didn't pair. She found the first hide, but then walks it (it's on the table she walked all over). We talked about possible reasons. Personally I think she was being a Dalmatian. They tend to over-think things and I'm sure she thought the game was no longer about searching for odor, instead we were doing a new game search-for-cheese and there wasn't any. I can't tell you how many instructors don't believe Dalmatians think this way - at least Dorothy accepts it as possible/plausible. Gimme got the one on the card table as soon as she got close to it. Likewise for the tool box and the mop bucket.
Overall I think pairing known hides is a successful strategy. She doesn't have as much difficulty with nosework as in tracking. In tracking the search takes ten times as long as nosework and much of the search she could be inhaling dust and more pollen. The length of the search means her nasal passages get dry, more so as the search progresses. Dry nasal passages make it harder to smell things. Nosework searches are never more than a couple of minutes - three at most - so not nearly as much time to dry out.
It was a good class and I was happy with it. Gimme paid no attention to the instructors moving around in her search area.
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