Nosework class (6/38)

It was pretty hot and we'd already done RFE practice in the morning. Fortunately Gimme is good with working two things in one day.

Interior video - This was just a chance to search off leash, unknown number of hides, for 1½ minutes. Gimme went around searching, but nothing held her interest. She repeatedly went back to the things in the middle of the room, probably because they have a history of being hide locations. I was pretty certain there were no hides, but encouraged her to search the bathroom - which pushed us over time. She was only in there 11 seconds. In a trial we would have gotten a 30-second warning. I have no internal sense of time, so I rely on the 30-second warnings.

Exterior video - This was a very large exterior area with 4 hides. We were supposed to just follow them around as if they weren't on leash, so I didn't understand the comment about me running. In any case Gimme did well. Dorothy went around dropping colored plastic disks whenever the dog showed a change of behavior (each dog had their own color - we had green). At the end of the search area when Gimme (first dog to search) went behind the stuff, she flushed a bunny and tried to follow it. Some of the construction stuff has sharp edges, so I was glad she didn't get caught on any of it. Her first really obvious change of behavior was at 1:29 and within 12 seconds she indicates the high hide on the pylon. You can see she is thinking she should be rewarded for her find by another chance at the bunny. It's interesting how she catches the scent of the second hide on the hose, goes right past the hide, then wheels back to it as she starts to leave the scent. She does the same thing for the third hide, finding scent on the curb, going past the hide, then wheels back as she starts to leave the scent. The fourth crack hide proves the most challenging. Remembering how she acted when she first came in the area and how she searched here at the end, I think the breeze was kind of diffusing the scent and she needed to go around and find the edges before she could triangulate the final location.

She is such a brilliant girl; I love watching her solve scent puzzles.