We had a lengthy discussion about Saturday's trial experience. First I talked about messing up Gimme's first interior search by waiting too long to call finish. Dorothy says that Gimme is hard to read, because she's so persistent and willing to keep hunting for a long time. So she thinks calling finish if she isn't actively detailing when the timer gives the 30-second warning is a good strategy. She pointed out this strategy is for me, not Gimme.
We also talked a lot about the awful container search experience. She agrees with me about it being a visual issue, not slick floors. Apparently there is some study info that shows most dogs are bothered by disturbing visuals and comparatively few are bothered by slick floors. We talked about doggles and she didn't know if they'd be allowed. Certainly not by AKC, may be allowed by NACSW and/or UKC.
I also talked about another idea I had for a handling technique. I was thinking I could walk backward in front of Gimme, so she'd see me and I'd be blocking her from looking out at a big expanse of shiny floor. Then I could give her a "check it" cue for each container. I think it might work, couldn't hurt. I do think I should do it few times in class so I'd be comfortable and Gimme wouldn't be thrown off by my weird behavior. Dorothy said they (instructors) normally discourage handlers from continually "presenting" each search item; teams where the handler does so are historically less successful. She also said my idea might work and agrees I should try it in class, but not to switch to it all the time. I reminded her who we are talking about - it's unlikely Gimme would go along with it very often, eh...
This class had a series of interior searches to demonstrate the difference in how the dogs search based on how many hides there are.
Interior 1 video - For this first search there were no hides, so we could observe how they search a large blank space. Gimme starts out busy, a little less so than usual and after about a minute she slows down and starts searching more intently on the chairs. She's used to getting a whiff of scent early in the search and when she doesn't find it, she looks harder.
Interior 2 video - This time there is one hide. Gimme catches the area right away, going only a few feet past it, then has the hide in 30 seconds. Nicely done...
Interior 3 video - This time there are two hides. She does a fabulous job with the hide near the threshold, nailing it in 20 seconds. She has the second hide at 43 seconds (despite what Dorothy said). I let her search a bit longer before stopping. Good job.
Interior 4 video - And now there are three. You'll notice how busy Gimme seems, right away. The first hide takes 35 seconds to source. Then under 25 seconds to the second hide. From there she goes right to the last hide in 12 seconds. Interesting how she gets faster with each hide.
Dorothy asks "why are you waiting for the thirty second call?" I have no answer, it's me, all me...
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