Nosework class (5/42)

This was an interesting class... for the first two searches, we had to say whether the dog was checking something blank, a distraction or odor. Both of these searches were blind.

Containers video - We learned afterward - there was only one blank container, the first four had distractions, and the last one was odor. The first three Gimme ignored so completely, I called them "blank". They were intended as distractions and contained doe urine, lavender and dirt. She smells lavender at home all the time and dirt on our walks, but I would have thought doe urine would catch her attention. The one she batted around had ground turkey in it. She gets it in her soup three times a day, so I'm sure she thinks it should be hers. She ignored the blank box and quickly indicated odor.

Exterior 1 - There is no video because I forgot to hand over the camera. There were 8 tins distributed among the big cement blocks (you saw them in the videos last week). Four distractions, one blank and three hides. Gimme did really well. She paid a bit more attention to the doe urine, but less attention to the ground turkey - both of them she left readily. She quickly found all three hides and indicated clearly.

Exterior 2 video - This last search was three hides along the front and under the portico of the building. There were four distraction tins. There is a slight breeze blowing from the far end of the search area and Gimme races down to get the farthest hide in just 13 seconds. It takes her 16 seconds to find the against-the-wall bench hide, which is always a very tricky hide.  I think approaching it from the other direction made it clearer. The other dogs spent a LOT more time sourcing it. She briefly sniffed the ground turkey tin again, but then got to the last hide in 16 seconds. She didn't pay any significant attention to the distractions. Even though she bypassed the first two hides to go to the one at the end, her search was still efficient. She did it in half the time of the other dogs, except August, who she beat by about 30 seconds.

She does love nosey-works.