Nosework class (5/39)

Sadly I forgot to take my camera to class, so no videos.

Exterior 1 search - Our first search was a long narrow and turning search with four hides. It starts at one end of the parking lot along a stack of light poles and a platform of cinder blocks (40'). From there it turns right along the face of the building (100'), then turns left down the sidewalk to the back of the building (75'). Naturally Gimme zooms into the search area and overruns the hide in the pallet of cinder blocks. When she gets to the wall I turned her back to re-search the first part of the search. When she gets to the cinder block hide she quickly alerts. Then she goes along the front of the building and speeds up to get to the second portico where she finds the hide in a bit of angle iron at the base of a column. From there she goes along the rest of the front, after thinking about snooping inside the open van containing a dog in a crate. As she rounds the corner she swings wide and quickly pees in the grass. I told her "no" and took her from the search area. For consistency, she always loses her turn if she pees in a search - though it's possible she didn't realize this was still part of the search area, because it was so long and narrow.

Exterior 1b search - Dorothy offers us the opportunity to come back and finish the search from where we left off. Gimme is quite funny - shunning the pee spot, as if to say she doesn't know what bad dog did it, but she doesn't want to be blamed. She races about halfway down the sidewalk and finds a hide at the base of the utility boxes. From there she gets to the end of the search area, having only briefly sniffed along the way. When I swing her back she very quickly went to the brick she had sniffed and alerted there.

Exterior 2 search - The second search was one hide very high (7') on one of the plate glass holders in the business across the street. There's a long stretch of them and it was in the first one. The wind was really strong. Gimme quickly followed the line of the holders all the way to the end, then turned and worked her way back up the line. As she got to the holder third from where the hide was she slowed down and started working more carefully. It became apparent, due to a lot of upward casting, Gimme knew it was a high hide. She put her feet up and sniffed high a couple of times on the nearest and then the actual holder, but she clearly decided it wasn't just there. When she got right under the hide she put both feet up, glanced back at me and then kind of kicked off with her back feet. I wish I had it on video, because for a second she was hanging by her front feet. She got lots of chicken- nuggets for such a lovely clear indication.

I didn't know if we had another search coming, so I put her back in the van with her harness on. When I knew we were done I asked her to come out of her space so I could take her harness off and she acted concerned, and wouldn't come out. I tried to bribe her with a nugget, but she wasn't having it. I probably could have lured her out with peanut butter, but I don't want to get in the habit of doing it and risk her learning if she acts concerned I'll bring out the peanut butter. So, I asked her if she wanted to "go potty" and then she came out without hesitation. I walked her briefly and then took her harness off before letting her get back in the van. I don't know why she had this bit of weirditude, but was happy we could resolve it without much drama.