Nosework practice 200428

I haven't gotten any homework assignments in awhile, so decided to set up couple of converging-odor searches. Both sets of hides aged for 45 minutes.

This first search was in the doorway of the old Pizza hut (been closed for years). Thinking it would be easier; I set one hide low and the other high.









When it came time to search the low hide was gone. Someone made off with my large Mentos container - given all the trash strewn around, it certainly wasn't a cleaning-up thing. Gimme repeatedly insisted there was a hide there. (I checked later and there was no hole the hide could have gotten pushed into) I had no choice but to treat it like lingering odor, since source was gone.

It took her a long time to find the high hide, a tin squeezed in the crack of the door. Given her love of high hides, I thought this would be very easy for her. In hindsight, the door crack could have been sucking scent into the building, leaving little for her to find. I also think this explains why she kept going to the missing low hide - it was the most scent she could find. Needless to say she got a LOT of treats when she did find this.

Also, I don't know what the enclosed doorway does to the way scent moves.  I'd love to have a smoke pen for instances just like this one.





I expected the second converging odor hide to be harder because both hides were on the same plane and only 5' feet apart. She went straight to the first hide under the welcome matt. From it she went straight to the hide between the rocks a few feet away.

Just goes to show you, the dog's nose knows. What you think is happening might not be the case at all.

Nosework practice 200415

I decided to use plastic Easter eggs for container searches. Although the search area was in the front yard, Gimme was sniffing like crazy as we went out the back door and started up the side. It's entirely possible the breeze was bringing scent along the side of the house.

Container 1 video - I set 4 paired hides, with 9 empty eggs. The main strong breeze was blowing from the street, but it died down intermittently and then there was a swirling undercurrent. Gimme goes to check the plastic shoebox sitting on the steps, which I used to bring the eggs out, including the scented ones. It took her a long time to find these hides, even though they were paired. Given the air disturbance from the traffic and the generally variable breeze, it's understandable.

When she finished the search I went around picking up the eggs. The last two were hard to find. Gimme followed me around for a bit, then laid in the shade and watched me. I finally found #12 and then started walking a grid pattern to find the last one (before the yard guy and his mower find it tomorrow). Gimme watches some more, then sighs dramatically before walking right to it and pointing it out for me. Always helpful, always with attitude.

Container 2 video - I decided to give her a converging odor challenge and set up the same 4 paired hides in my little bathroom. She left the room a couple of times, which I think was just to clear her head. She finds the first 2 hides really fast. It didn't take long to find #3. The fourth one took the longest.  

Nosework practice 200410

I've been wanting to do searches at the Bobcat dealership and this week's online exercise was the perfect excuse.

Vehicle 1 video - We had five paired hides and one unpaired. The breeze was blowing from 7 to 1 o'clock, which explains why Gimme wanted to go to the tractor on the right and out of frame. I let her explore so she could follow her nose to the unpaired hide, which she did. The 5th and 6th hides were challenging. It was interesting how Gimme found the 5th hide by following the scent across the crack of the cowling. The 6th hide was much harder than I expected.

Vehicle 2 video - Six unpaired hides. I expected more of a pattern in these searches, but I think the crossways breeze made it kind of scattered. She spent a lot of time checking out places where there was no hide, but the scent could have been pooling or she was looking in usual places. These are her first mowing machines.

Vehicle 3 video - I know how much she loves high hides, so I decided to do an odor bomb in the cab of the rental machine. It proved interesting. You can see when she realizes it's a high hide as her nose starts going up. The cab is closed on the far side, but there was a little crack and she caught the scent on the far side where it traveled down a crack in the cowling (1:22). In watching the video, I wonder if some of the scent didn't fall down on the tracks or it was interesting dirt smells. I've included two still pictures with arrows at the end, since you can't clearly see what she was doing on the far side.

Gimme was satisfied for 15 minutes, then she started complaining how she NEVER gets to do anything.

Nosework practice 200407

I checked to see if homework was up before I went out on Tuesday. It wasn't, so I set up these searches. The big one was a close repeat of the search of the rubble pile from the week before. There was breeze in the same way, but not as strong as before. The single hide search was just an interesting utility pole hide.

Exterior 1 video - I had the camera set to cover the entire search area, but I think I moved the camera a little bit when I hit record. Gimme finds the first hide in 15 seconds. You'll see a little change of behavior at 35 seconds, but she decides to go on to the farthest hide. It takes her 18 seconds to find the far right hide. She finds the last hide quickly, once she decides to go for it. All in all this was a cleaner search - which I credit to pairing.

Exterior 2 video - The breeze was blowing from the brushy area behind the hide, so I was surprised when Gimme went toward the brush. I expected her to get pulled more toward the hide. I also can't really explain why she was so direct toward the hide from where she sniffed near the fence/brush. The hide had only been up 3 minutes, so I don't understand how she could have caught it so easily. Plus it was Myrrh scented, which is very low volatility (i.e. doesn't spread readily).

I hope to get out tomorrow to set up searches at the tractor sales down the road. I thought I'd be able to search there during the day, but instead have to wait until after 5:00. Who knew tractor sales was an essential business...

Nosework practice 200401

I set the camera to have a good view of the hide on the utility fixture. All four hides are paired (one is behind the camera).

Exterior video - Gimme goes right to the nearest hide, just six seconds. I thought the hide stuffed in the bottom of the downspout (corner of the building) would be easy, but it wasn't. She goes right by the one on the utility fixture. The hide she found second was in a spot where there shouldn't have been any breeze to draw her to it. But given her directness, there must've been something to pull her in. She sniffed the air louvers, so obviously there probably was more air flow than I thought. It took a bit of encouragement last time to get her in the area between the utility and the wall, so the paired hide drew her in more naturally. Nice! From the other direction, the downspout was easy.

Nice search. Gimme is loving getting back to nosework.

Nosework practice 200330

I set up 3 hides in a rubble pile before we went walking, so it aged about 45 minutes. The camera battery was low, so there's a hiccup in the video.

It created an interesting challenge because the breeze was strong and blowing toward us from behind the pile, so the scent was channeling under and past slabs. I tried to set hides so Gimme wouldn't have to climb on the slabs, but she chose to do it anyway.

Exterior video - On the first hide the breeze was blowing scent around a chunk of blacktop and out onto grass nearby, so Gimme first indicated about 18" from source (18 and 24 seconds). When I didn't respond, she easily went back to it and then worked her way to source (41 seconds). The second hide was backed by a pile of dirt with slabs, so it was easier to source. The third hide turns out to be pretty hard, since the breeze is blowing through between the two piles and channeling again. Gimme actually takes me back to the second hide and I paid her again. Then she goes almost directly to the third hide.

Turns out our "assignment" was for paired hides.  I found the assignment post by accident after I'd done our search.  I will revisit this as a set of paired hides; I'm waiting for similar wind conditions.

RFE practice (113)

Sorry to be so far behind - as everyone else, things are topsy-turvy and blogging has fallen off the back burner. This is the last practice for awhile since the training center has temporarily closed its doors. J'Anna and I considered meeting to do a nosework practice, but decided not to.

Heel/Side warm-up video - I wanted to start with heeling and other position behaviors to encourage Gimme to focus and did seem more focused than recent weeks. She could be entering her false pregnancy at any time, so I was happy to see this.

"West" video - I started working in the corner where I'd have two mirrors to see what Gimme was doing. You can see she starts by trying to turn it into "otto". I've realized having her back into position is too much like "otto"; she gets moving and then habit takes over. And backing into position, even when she realizes what I want, the position isn't aligned as well. I brought a grooming table over to create a barrier. She wasn't too sure about the table at first, but then got used to it. I find it works best when I start with a barrier and then move forward a bit, so she has to sidestep to stay in position.  Gradually I then start the behavior without a barrier. So in two other sessions we used the wall and then worked away from it. She's getting it.

Backward weaves video - I'm still using barriers to get a backward weave. This has been the most impossible behavior to train, but I need it if we are going to get the next level RFE title. I used the wrong cue for the third try starting on "side" position. She doesn't really know the cues yet, so it doesn't matter. I am making a concerted effort to only do a few repetitions with her most favorite reward of all - peanut butter.

I've been working on these at home and may have discovered a way to do them where she is more comfortable. I need to tinker with it some. It'll probably cost us points, but not nearly as bad as if we can't do the behavior at all.

Container - myrrh video - J'Anna and I are both trying to move up in UKC nosework, so we are adding some nosework practice when we get together. One of my concerns is how Gimme would do with myrrh in the presence of odors she has a longer track record with - because lingering odor messed us up on our first myrrh odor recognition test, which UKC doesn't do anymore. So, I wanted to have multiple odors out. I don't know what happened, but J'Anna didn't record when Gimme found the first or second boxes. What you see is the myrrh box - which I know because I rewarded Gimme with peanut butter for it. Gimme did really well, despite my concerns.

Interior - myrrh video - This is the first time Gimme has search for myrrh in any element other than containers. She got the first hide in the corner in just 25 seconds - corners are hard. Just 21 seconds to the high hide in the windowsill. I loved how she passed it, then turned rapidly back to it. Another 21 seconds to find myrrh under the edge of the matt. It was just over a minute to find the last hide, which was a hard one. It was in a little basket, in the shelving in a tight space. She likes to get her nose right up to them, but there wasn't space enough for her to get up there. I thought she did a great job.

This was a good training session. Gimme did so well, despite her impending false pregnancy. Interestingly she still hasn't started. It may be because she's getting older. Maybe, since I'm home from work and she's getting daily walks, possibly it's helping relieve stress/tension. I do notice she is more guardy about outside noises, but nothing else yet. Time will tell.

RFE practice (92)

This is our last Thursday practice. I hope the freestyle class is all the hype.

Freeshaping backward weaves video - Gimme did three bottles at home, but we were clearly starting over here. I made up some "cones" from empty juice bottles, so Gimme won't hurt herself again. Though, I think taller cones helped her remember which side to be on. She was so distracted by the barking, I decided to change the setup back to what we started with to help her get started.

Distance send video - Gimme is well versed in this behavior and I only decided to do it because there was one "cone" out. It's one of the advanced behaviors we use in ADP parkour.

Center front pivot video - Just a quick practice of this in both directions. I was focused on getting Gimme to stick with me on the CCW pivot. She prefers to go fast and will turn it into an "otto" in a nanosecond. Of all the things I've tried, spitting treats to her works best, probably because she has to watch my face, so she can't get too far out of position. 
 
Platform work video - My goals are for Gimme to be comfortable standing still on the platform while facing away from me. So I'm gradually getting her accustomed to touching the target stick with me in different positions (farther and farther back). I'm also working on a duration touch of the target stick. This is the farthest back I've been able to get, so we are making steady progress. I absolutely must focus on feeding for position. When I changed sides, she offered "turn" several times, so we worked through it.

J'Anna's done as much as she wants in RallyFrEe, so she often is working on different things than I am. Last time and this time, she brought stuff for UKC nosework. Both of her girls, and now Gimme< are entered in Master Pre-Trial for the upcoming trial. Last time we got together she set it up to practice with Glory in a strange location. I was curious what Gimme would do with Myrrh, which she'd never smelled before and she aced it. So I went home and sent in my entry for a master pre-trial test. This time J'Anna set up both interior and exterior searches and then a pre-trial run through.

Interior 1 video - A big challenge here was for Gimme to get into her nosework brain, since we always work other things in this location. Note how her whole demeanor changes when she really smells odor. She does a good job for such a large space. I give her time to get near the distraction, which she basically ignores.

Exterior 1 video - She does a good job with this search. Gimme is more interested in the distraction this time and while she paws at it, she doesn't look at me, so it's not an indication.

Master Pre-trial run-through video - We ran through it three times. I'd only planned to do it twice, but Gimme learned a new trick, sticking her nose in the box until it gets stuck on her face and then flinging the box off. Always entertaining this girl of mine. So we did it a third time to see if she'd indicate in a more normal way.

Next Thursday is the Freestyle and RallyFrEe workshop and then we start Freestyle class the following week.

Agility (4/2)

We started the day going to Susan's for nosework practice.  Gimme did well.  As we were setting up we saw a little mouse running along the edge of the wall and then saw it here and there throughout our practice.  I was sure that would be the end of things for Gimme and I was happily shocked to see her ignore the enticing mouse smell with just the tiniest reminder.  I sure didn't expect that, given her fascination with all things rodentia.

I wasn't entirely committed to getting out to the fort for a walk, but decided after being such a good girl about the mouse, she deserved a walk where she could poke her nose into any mouse hole she could find.  Six, to be exact.

Tonight she was especially good in agility class.  It was the fastest and longest run-yo-kiester-off course Blynn has ever set for us.  There were four puppy accelerators (tunnels) and one place the course had three of them set back-to-back.  Gimme was a tiny bit unfocused on her first run, but once she got focused, she was great. 

For the second run, she was just plain brilliant, so Blynn was able to really focus her attention on my handling.  Because we were able to refine my handling, we got through a couple of really challenging sequences.  Gimme continues to astound me at how quickly and confidently she picks up totally new stuff in agility.  I think since she's only seen APHS handling, which is so intuitive to the dogs, she is able to make big leaps in understanding.  Its unusual for me to need to show her something a third time.  She doesn't always generalize something new, especially if we don't see it again right away, but overall I think she does generalize faster than the average dog. 

Sadly I forgot to take a disc with me, so don't have videos for you.  However William is going to hold them on his computer, so I can probably get them next week. 

We are off to Salem Oregon for an NW2 trial (Saturday).  I'll be leaving mid-afternoon tomorrow.  So there probably won't be another blog entry until we get back.  Cross any body parts you can spare.

Agility (3/2)

We started the day with a 2.5 mile walk, which is always enjoyable.  Often we just walk and other times I try to train something.  Today we worked on learning to tug away from home.  This has been something I've wanted to get her doing for a long time.  Gimme loves to tug at home, but has almost no interest any other location.  Something Ian Dunbar said (two evening seminars this week) really clicked in my head and I tried it.  What he said wasn't new, it just clicked in the moment for this particular thing.  Happily it worked and we got some nice short tugs.  So we're on our way.  We also worked on her emergency recall.  Now that summer is coming, we'll be seeing a lot more of other walkers with their dogs, so I wanted to give it a tune up, which went well.

From there we went to Home Depot where we met Susan for a nosework practice.  There was nothing really special about it - just good searches.  We did vehicles, interior and exterior.  Gimme did a nice job, but then she always does.

Agility class tonight presented some interesting challenges.  One of which I will try to set up and train.  William taped them for us.  He's found it is just entirely too time intensive to download them to youtube because of how big the files are.  So now we are each bringing our own disks and he loads them up and sends them home with us.  I have to run a conversion on them so I can edit them with the software on my computer. 

Gimme did really well in class and especially considering she was doing it all in the dreaded panties.  Actually she doesn't pay much attention to them.  I was glad to use them in class because we'll be running Barn Hunt in them this weekend, so it was nice to gear her brain up to them before then.  There were a couple of distracted moments, but overall I thought she showed nice focus. 

We had a problem with a specific jump to aframe sequence.  Gimme going in the tunnel under the aframe and she isn't a tunnel sucker.  Of course the real problem was my line to the aframe, at the last moment I'd have to move wide to keep from tripping over the tunnel myself and Gimme would then get drawn right into the tunnel.  We did several things to work her through it.  I thought Blynn was going to die when I gave Gimme the "creativity cookie" for jumping on the tunnel and side-mounting the aframe (when Blynn was blocking the tunnel). 

In the end it wasn't Gimme's problem.  Dogs will always pay more attention to motion cues.  If there is a conflict between motion cues and verbal cues, motion cues win.  Because of the location of the other jump, I couldn't take the sequence in a straight line.  The solution was to simply give Gimme the verbal "climb" cue much sooner, so she could move ahead of me and take the aframe before I needed to move away.  Well duh...

 Our First Class Sequence

She did a good job on her second run.  The stop in the poles was a total crack up... I swear the way she snapped back, it was like there was odor there.  She's never done that before, so it was kinda weird.  I can see the rear cross on the flat before the weaves was really bad handling... so we could practice that.  Still I was pleased with both runs how nicely she got into the weaves on challenging entries.  I couldn't figure out at the time what Blynn meant when she said I stepped right in front of her at the double, but on video you'll see that I stepped into her at the end of the weaves, which changed her line and made the double "inconvenient". 

The sequence I want to try working on at home is the first part of this course, the way Blynn had me try to work it at the end of this run.  I want to do it the way I teach a 270 turn... starting with the jumps set for a 180 and then gradually move the second one until it turns into a 270.  I'm sure that would make it very clear to Gimme what I was trying to get her to do.  She got through it, but it was far from smooth and I'm thinking she didn't really learn anything. 

http://youtu.be/9WkjuOwD2UI

This weekend we are going to our second Barn Hunt trial, competing at the open level.  We'll have four runs and only need 3 legs to title.  Cross your fingers for us.  No matter how it goes, Miss Gimme will have a blast.

Fun Day & Agility (2/2)

What a busy day we've had.  Recently I decided (again) to work to get Gimme's car whining under control.  It always occurs going TO some place and then the last five minutes coming home. Its more of a yodel than a whine, very loud and high pitched.  Its quite stressful for me, as well as distracting.  I've tried so many things and none have been successful.

I've tried filling a Kong before, but it didn't work well enough or long enough to get places.  I now realize the Kong wasn't as big as we needed.... and I wasn't employing it in the right way.  I've tried different things this last ten days and have hit upon a solution that works.  For one thing, I have a Kong which is substantially larger than the other two.  I'd purchased it for her stay at the kennel so she could take her evening meal in it, thus entertaining her more than just inhaling food from a bowl.  I've tried peanut butter, but it takes sooooo much to cover the 25 minute drive to the fort, it would simply be unhealthy.  So I'm now filling it with rice and raw hamburger and not giving her breakfast or if later in the day a very small breakfast. 

It worked today and was just wonderful to have peace and quiet.  Gimme only resorted to fussing when we actually got on the training area grounds.  So I let her out of her crate and clicker trained her to sit in the front seat.  By entertaining her while I drove (completely safe in this setting), she was able to be quiet. 

Someone was parked in our usual spot, so we drove around to the top area and parked.  I let Gimme out and we started walking.  We hadn't gone more than 20 feet from the car when I noticed Gimme staring into a clump of trees and saw there were two people and two black dogs just 25 yards from us.  I turned the other way and kept walking, calmly calling her to come with me and SHE DID!  I rewarded her with a lot of peanut butter.  I credit the peaceful ride with this success.  We were both less stressed and able to respond calmly to this most challenging situation.  I was so happy with her, I was nearly in tears.  I continued praising and treating her as we walked another 50 feet... which I hope will leave a lasting impression.

After our walk we drove out to Susan's, with Gimme contentedly finishing off her Kong.  We did several really nice nosework practice searches.  The only real carrying on occurred when she realized there was stuff going on which I was involved in and she was still in the car.  I'm not sure that will ever change, nor do I care.  Gimme was very good and very focused. She continues to love having peanut butter as the reward for nosework. 

After practice Susan and I watched some more of the Leerburg nosework training videos.  Although I don't agree with everything they are teaching, there is a lot of value in it.  Susan and I are both entered with our dogs in the Mt. Angel nosework trial and both of us are going up the night before.  She changed to my hotel and we are planning to get together for dinner.  We'll both search the internet for a pizza place in Salem with gluten free pizza. 

From there I drove straight to Rochester for agility class.  I was able to improve on all the things I'd noticed on the video's William took from several weeks ago.  I used palm targeting immediately when I took her off leash and was able to get her to the start line the first time without big zoomies.  There was just one tiny loop, so I just moved closer to her and got her focus back without clapping at her.  We got to the start line and were able to work the course.  Blynn noticed how much more focused Gimme was and how her ability to work through sequences was much improved.  I was also able to focus on actually giving her the verbal cues in a timely manner and Blynn said it was much improved.

Gimme was so much better, thus Blynn was able to focus on teaching me two really challenging handling sequences.  Gimme stayed with me and was able to repeat them multiple times until I got it right.  It was great fun for both of us... because she was rewarded for trying even if I she went off course (obviously because my inaccurate handling sent her there).  When I got my part right, Gimme ran flawlessly and it was the greatest feeling. 

Then Gimme was quiet and contented on the way home.  So all in all, a wonderful day with big improvements, which I think stem from being able to travel from place to place in peace and quiet for both of us.  

I didn't think it was possible to love this girl any more than I already do.  Still with such a perfect day behind us (rain and all), I'm just bubbling over with gooey love for my beautiful babe.  So, now its time for us to snuggle on the couch.

Agility (1/2)

Gimme has had quite the full day.  We did nosework practice with our friend Susan.  Overall there were 8 hides.  Gimme didn't have any difficulty with any of them.  I'm practicing seeing when she gets in odor and trying to define the behavior change I see.  For now I would just say she gets very "busy" and more focused in an area, as opposed to loosely scanning, which she does the rest of the time.  She sure loves getting peanut butter to reward every time she finds odor.

Afterwards we went walking and put in 4 miles.  When we got home, I took a long nap and woke with a migraine, but it was time for class, so off we went.

Overall I was pleased with Gimme.  Her first session started off unfocused, but I really think she was responding to how muzzy-headed I was.  Once I was up and moving for a bit, my head cleared and magically, she was suddenly focused.  For our second sequence, she did well the whole time.

Blynn had me do one section over a couple of times until my handling was sufficient to cue Gimme to collect.  The first time she literally landed on my foot.  The second time she missed my foot, but bumped my leg in finishing the turn.  The third time I got it right and so did she.  Its really cool to see how she responds so naturally to good APHS handling.  Blynn also worked on the same segment with other students and it was interesting to see how much harder it was for their dog's to make the change.  It sure makes a big difference how athletic Gimme is, as well as how body aware she is.  I'm sure a lot of it comes from the body awareness exercises we did when she was a puppy.

William tapes many of our classes... so here's two...

This is from last week when Gimme started out so unfocused.  She sure doesn't tolerate late handling.  Frances always fixed my mistakes, Michael not so much, Gimme not at all.  I can see I spend a lot of time "naming" what she's doing, like saying "jump" when she's in the air already. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxnl0qKNz2o

This second link is the second run of the same night when I totally couldn't remember the course.  When my handling was clear (despite whether I was on course or not), Gimme did well.  I hate it when people clap to get their dog's attention - had no idea I'd fallen into such an ugly habit.  I gotta make it go away.  I can also see where I'm crowding her space, which causes her to move out around the jumps.  She really wants to handle at much more of a distance. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeO7LZ-uOoY

From some of the other vids, I see... 

• Gimme really likes doing multiple hand touches and I want to try using it as I take her harness off, instead of after she takes a loop around the arena.  It would be nice to just start off working, rather than recapturing her attention.
• I see I've been naming obstacles for quite awhile.  I've emailed Blynn and asked her to help me focus on either being more timely with verbal cues or just shut up, eh.
• I also see the clapping at Gimme in a couple other videos and have asked Blynn to help me eliminate it.

And now Miss Gimme and I are going to go snuggle on the couch...

Smarty-Pants-Love

I do love my smarty-pants girl.  We've done several different nosework practices today and she's been brilliant at all of them.

We started with two different sessions on her indicator.  Remember, I want paw-hold and multiple nose-bumps.  So I started with an anise tin in my hand and rewarded her for putting her paw on my hand and repeatedly nose-bumping it.  Then I did some with it held between my knees, rewarding the same thing - paw-hold and multiple nose-bumps.  Then I placed the tin on our "ottoman" (a pile of cushions).  She got rewarded as long as the tin stayed put AND there was paw-hold and multiple nose-bumps.  This means she had to exercise extra care with her paw-hold, to be sure she didn't accidentally knock it to the floor.  Naturally there was no punishment for knocking it to the floor... just no treat and delay while I picked it up and replaced it. 

An hour later we did the same thing with a birch tin.  First in my hand, then between my knees and then on our "ottoman".  Gimme did much better this time at not knocking the tin to the floor.  She's brilliant methinks.  Her taking extra care with her paw-hold is a new step that I want her to start thinking about.  I probably won't work that again between now and the trial on Sunday, because I don't usually like to introduce new stuff within a week of trialing. 

After that I went to work and when I came back I set two threshold hides... three feet from the office door (in the hallway) and just three feet apart.  I learned a valuable thing with this...  *I* need to take care to not blast into the search area.  Gimme's tendency is to blast in and I just go with her.  However, if I stay put near the threshold, lo and behold, she comes back to search it more carefully.  She found the birch hide quickly... the anise took longer.

Then back in the office she went, while I set an inaccessible hide (both odors) in the crate in the living room.  When we did the search, it took her awhile to find it, but when she did, she was very definite.  She got a treat for finding it and telling me, then I opened the crate and let her go in and get a lot more treats for multiple nose-bumps.  This is something I was reminded of from the Advanced Nosework course in the Fenzi Academy.  To be fair, I learned to make it accessible in the Inaccessible Hides seminar, but I had not been doing it.  And the times it was happening in our old classes, we hadn't been making them accessible either - which accounts for why Gimme is so willing to alert on fringe odor.  That reminder itself is worth what I paid for the bronze membership.

And then back in the office she went while I set two more hides, well apart from each other.  When we went in to search again, Gimme was checking out the crate, so I opened the door and let her go in.  She snooped and then left it.  I was still getting the crate door latched, when I looked around and realized she had alerted on the birch hide, just four feet away and was staying right there with it.  Demanding payment, doncha know!

Afterwards she spent an excessively long time looking for the anise hide.  She went so close to it so many times and was so obviously still looking, so I concluded the q-tips must be weak.   It took her significantly longer than I thought it should to find the anise tin on the threshold hides.  Thus, I've since refreshed the q-tips in that tin with new ones in case we do more searches tomorrow.

She just went outside to tinkle and when she came back in gave me the most disgusted look.  Clearly I had plenty of time to set more hides and failed to do so.  What is the world coming to?!?!

Nosework (2/1)

We had two different exercises for class.  The first was set up in the front of the training area as an interior search (cordoned off with expens and sheets from the rest of the room).  There were 3 hides, one of which was supposed to be hard.  Dorothy said based on the prior class, two of the hides had been hard.  Gimme didn't find any of them hard.

The first she found was under the pedal of the trash can.  It was funny when she hit the pedal with her paw and the trash can lid flipped up. She startled and stepped back.  Then boldly bapped the pedal again.  Glad I don't have any of those trash cans at home or Gimme would always be playing with it.  On the other hand, Candy and I came up with a cute trick for RallyFrEe - where you have a small flip top trash can set up for your free choice exercise - the handler pretends to wipe her brow with a kleenex, gives it to the dog and who then takes it over, steps on the pedal and drops the kleenex in the trash.  Just us being silly.

The second hide was in a small box on the shelf.  Gimme found it readily.  The third was in a cap on the end of the rod for a contraption they had expens stored on (vaguely like a bicycle rack).  Many dogs apparently found it challenging because it was about 3 feet high and they only had the expens to put their feet on.  Gimme didn't mind it at all, but it did take her a little time to get into the corner.  I was pleased with her efforts.

Then we did the other exercise, which was 26 boxes and egg cartons and 6 black plastic flower pots (like the kind you get with large plants from the nursery) in four rows.  We did three searches.  The first search 1 hide, the second 2 hides, and the third 3 hides.  The first search Gimme did a pretty reasonable indication on the box.  The second search her first hide she did well (egg carton), the second one the box was flimsy and the top crushed in when she put her paw on it, which set her off.  For the third round, she just went into box-killing mode.

I don't consider this a valid test of where she is at with her indicator.  For one thing, its unlikely she'd run into a test with mostly boxes at NW2 level - its possible, just not likely.  Usually there has been quite a mix of different types of items.  Second, any boxes they used would never be flimsy - it has to withstand the action of up to 40 dogs, so it'll be more sturdy.  And third, we won't keep going back and doing it again and again, getting her more and more excited.

Today I set up a two exterior hides outside my store and then worked for 3.5 hours.  When I came out I set up containers (9 bags and 3 boxes), putting one hide in a box and the other in a bag.  I had her PB tube in another bag right next to the odor bag.  After her potty break we did the exterior search and she found both of them much faster than I expected.  They were in between two walls forming an L shape - one on the AC unit and the other on the ground behind the edge of a step.  I didn't think there would be much airflow, so expected her to take her time.  Not so - I didn't time her, but it was under a minute for both.

For the container drill she bypassed both hides as she scanned the twelve containers.  Then she came back and snooped around the food distraction bag, but left it when I kept moving and immediately alerted on the odor bag next to it.  Then went down the row and quickly found the odor box, she stepped on it and it "gave" under her foot, but she didn't paw.  I rewarded her a LOT and should have walked her directly away from the search area.  Unfortunately I didn't and when I passed by a box, she decided to trash it.  I don't know if it was the idea of having another box... or because I gave her so many treats for her calm indication of the box.  So clearly a lesson learned for the trial - once I've got our containers, leave the search area without passing by any boxes.

In any case.  I think the container exercise in class worked against us, because we ended with worse behavior than we started with.  I'm guessing this will be the case for awhile.  Class exercises are not set up for our individual training, its the whole one-size-fits-all mentality.  So I've concluded, in some ways, classes will sometimes work against my goals for her indicator.  Which simply tells me, I have to work harder at it outside of class to compensate.  When I do 150 good repetitions over two days in our training, it will overcome 4 bad repetitions in class.  Not an ideal way to train, but it is what it is and I'm sure we'll get to what I want in time.

BTW the last search in class was to simply to do the expen holder again, but paired.  Gimme found it instantly.  She didn't need it paired, but it was nice to work a corner again, since I don't usually get to do corners when training on my own and it could come up in a trial.

Another BTW - even if we do get faulted for trashing a box in containers, its not really a problem.  The NACSW rules say they can only give us one specific fault per element.  So we would have to get a pawing fault in every element (or with a combination of other faults) to not qualify in the trial.  What this means is, even if there are several boxes and she trashes all of them, she can only get one fault for pawing and possibly another for disturbing the search area.  If we get all of our hides and no more than one other fault, we'd still title.  So, while this is an training exercise I'll continue to work on, its not the end of the world.  I'm just sayin...

Well, luscious Gimme is certain she needs my attention, so this is all for now...

Additional Note

I remembered something I meant to put in yesterday's post - about the nosework practice. 

The first indication was lovely, just a paw placement.  The second one she started nicely then went completely out of control - I was shocked to see her digging vigorously, with dirt just flying out behind her!   

Remember all the hides were set low, three at ground level.  Turns out I placed that second hide within 6 inches of a mouse hole!  Gimme started out okay with her indication, but putting her nose that close - her instincts took over and she went straight to her hobby of enlarging the entrance. 

I was determined to have her give a "proper" indication so tried several things to get her back into nosework mode.  Nothing was working until I basically put my foot on top of the mouse hole.  Then she got hold of herself and gave me a nice controlled indication.  From there we moved off to find the other two hides, also with nice controlled indications.

I just thought it was funny - the look on her face was priceless.  Odor AND a mouse hole!  YEEHAWWWWW....  Fortunately that is not likely to be the case at a trial or we'll fault for sure. 

Busy Gimme, Agility (1/1)

While today was a day off for me, it turned out to be very busy for the two of us.  

I got a message from the trial secretary for the Nooksack trial (Jan 19th) and learned that we are now 1st alternate for getting in the trial.  So if anyone else drops out, we're in.  Naturally we haven't done anything nosework for almost three weeks, so I sure appreciated the heads up.  I'd planned to take Gimme for a walk on the fort, so stopped nearby and set 4 hides.

Then Gimme and I went to the fort and walked 3 miles.  She had a great time and is getting really playful again.  I think she's getting close to giving up psuedo-motherhood.  She was playing a little with me last night... though later she went weird and couldn't even play because she had to have her baby.  But then after that she brought me her new toy to play.  She's leaving the baby more of the time.  She checks where it is, but then may just leave it there.  And, she didn't take it to bed last night - poor little baby slept on the hall floor all night.

After the walk we drove to where I'd set the hides and the instant I got there she started carrying on.  She recognized where I'd set hides 90 minutes earlier - even though we've never done nosework there or a place remotely like that.  I'd set four hides, in two pairs 8-10 feet apart and all low.  She did a fabulous job finding them all in 2:39.23...  Given the time it took me to reward her AND hold her back while picking up odor, I'm pretty pleased with that time.

When we got home from walking on the fort and nosework practice -- she just had to find baby... but then just left him there. Ninety minutes later we left for our first agility class at Rochester.  Class didn't start until 7pm and its a full class, so by the time we got out of there... we didn't get home until almost 9:30.

Gimme did very well for her first turn.  She was distracted at first, but then got her focus going and was doing a lot of very nice stuff.  My new classmates had very complimentary things to say about her.  For our second turn, she started out more focused, but then halfway through lost her focus and I actually had to put her on leash to work with her a little bit to get her brain back.  Then took her off leash and Blynn had us run a nice sequence to end on a good note.  

 

It didn't help that I didn't have any peanut butter with me.  The jar in the car is EMPTY!  That's probably the first time that's ever happened - me being without PB.  Though I did decide at the fun run that I want to bring her generic Nutter Butter cookies to agility, I just forgot them.  She is almost as crazy about them as she is about real PB, but we won't have to wait for her to lick her leg after them.

I thought maybe her loss of focus reflected a need to potty, since she hadn't done anything before coming in the second time.  However, when we went outside, it took awhile before she peed.  Now that we are home, she has baby and is being clingy.  So, now I'm thinking that even though she's getting close to giving him up, it was just too much time away from baby all on one day.  I also think I may need to make it a point to give her evening supplements to her before leaving for class, even though its early.  We'll just have to wait and see how she does next week.

So now its time for some couch time. 

Friday thru Sunday

We've had a busy, busy weekend....

Friday after working all day, I met with my client with the puppy mill rescue.  Harry is a sweet and fearful Silky.  Since our first meeting 3 weeks ago, he's made great progress.  Unfortunately he is now biting more often than before.  The honeymoon is over.  After getting this news and from something the owner said on the phone, I expected to see a dog that is much over-stressed.  That was not the case.  He napped just six feet from me during our follow-up interview.  The client had done a beautiful job on keeping a journal for me, so it was easy to see what the triggers are - not obvious since he voluntarily snuggles with the person he is biting the most.

Originally I thought BAT would be farther out in time, while we got him generally used to life outside a puppy mill or kennel and in a real home.  We were just about to get down to the nitty gritty, when the client's daughter and granddaughter arrived with their two dogs.  I was pondering how to politely say this wasn't the best time for a visit, when the phone rang.  The daughter says, "Mom you have to take that, its why we're here."  It was someone calling to say that someone in the family had died that day!  As soon as I could I excused myself and we'll get together again when life settles down.  

After that I met with Susan and Tucker for a nosework practice.  It went well, but Gimme had real difficulty with one of the searches.  I will be setting that one up again, so she can learn to sort it out.  Afterward Susan and I went out to dinner.  Susan told me something interesting that really strikes home to me because I'm planning to use my Home Depot to do obedience heeling work over the winter (we really need to work on duration).  Our mutual friend had her class of three asked to leave a local Lowe's last week.  She's held classes there many time and with more students and there's never been a problem, so she assumed they'd hung out too long in one spot.  It turns out the real problem was that the students were using clickers and one of the store employees, a military veteran, has PTSD.  Apparently the sound of the clicker was really upsetting to him and the store chose to ask them to leave.  

I'm so used to using/hearing clickers, it never occurred to me that it might be a trigger for someone with PTSD.  Both Lowe's and Home Depot hire a lot of veterans.  So, you can bet I'll be using "yes" to  mark Gimme's efforts when we train there.  

We spent the weekend at my parents' house.  Because it was so cold I brought Gimme in the house for most of the time on Saturday evening and for part of the day on Sunday (she usually stays in a crate in the car).  It took her a long time to settle down.  Mostly we had to wait until Grandma settled down on the couch.  She treats Gimme like a canine garbage disposal unit.  While I dont' like it taken to such an extreme, Gimme thinks its a fine idea and that its her personal mission to help her Grandma deal with all that excess food.  Thus, every time she moves, Gimme is right there demonstrating her willingness to help.

Such a wonderful partnership for Gimme and her Grandma... such a "fragrant" evening for me in the car and after getting home.  I am choosing to feel blessed that my parents welcome Gimme in their house, since they haven't had a dog in 35 years and were not so welcoming to my other dogs...

Nosework (4/16), NW Practice & PD (34)

Last Thursday Susan and I met with our kids for a nosework practice.  Overall both dogs did very well.  Gimme got a shock on her nose when she touched a downspout (too close to a lighting strip), while the building owner stood and watched, without warning us that it could give shocks.  So while we hadn't planned another exterior search, we did one to make sure Gimme wasn't put off downspouts - no problem.  She did well in the interior as well.

Happily she also did a good job with her indicator.  The way I worked on it at home is making it more clear to her what I want and she offers it pretty quickly and without fuss or escalating in frustration.  I had wanted to do a quick warm up with it at the car before class yesterday, but we were first up.

We met at Home Depot.  Joyce moved the hides to a new location in the store after each dog... so they all got two searches that hadn't been searched by anyone else.  It was a little time consuming, but there were only 4 of us in class.

Gimme had her first search in the entryway.  Fortunately it was her searching, since the HD workers dropped a heavy and loud thing very close during her search and the noise didn't bother her, though I jumped a foot.  I did see her again tending to offer an indication in the general vicinity (but 3 foot away) for an inaccessible hide.  I mentioned what I saw, that it had started with the seminar and Joyce agreed. 

On our next search, Joyce set another inaccessible and put it 2 feet in on a 18 inch high shelf, placing insulated outdoor spigot covers in front of it.  As Gimme started concentrating on that spot, I'd move them one at a time.  Until she was finally getting to it and even then she had to get her nose on the odor tin to get paid.  All that was left of her outside the narrow spot on the shelving was her back legs and tail.  This teaches her to persist, ask for help, and persist some more.  I'll be setting that up some more in practices.  She's always been so clear and accurate on her indications, I certainly want that back.

For the last search we all did the same one, two hides on two circular door carousels.  It was an interesting challenge because the openings at the center near the upright and under the doors made scent flow in a way that might lead the dogs to the wrong opening.  So, a scenting puzzle for them to figure out.  All the dogs did very well at sorting out the challenge.

Joyce concluded after watching me that I'd given up on the paw indicator and asked me about it.  I said no, I still wanted them, I was just adding the multiple nose touches to the picture.  She then congratulated and praised me for giving up the paw indicator and told me how happy she was to see that!  Proof positive that she doesn't actually listen to what I say, eh...

Yesterday we had Public Dog class too as well as a long walk.  Class was simple working on different Therapy Dog behaviors.  Gimme had fun.  I think they've backed off on the more chaotic stuff because we have a couple new dogs that are coming to these classes who couldn't participate at that level. 

BTW I noticed at agility class that Gimme got out of the car, did her potty walk and then went around the building to the holding area without pulling on the leash.  Yesterday on our 2 mile walk, she only pulled once.  Getting to class yesterday, she didn't pull getting out of the car or going to the building.  Methinks she has finally generalized loose leash walking as a lifestyle concept.  Yippeeeeee...

Yesterday was our last Public Dog class until next spring.  And this is my last blog entry until I come back from my trip. 

NW Practice & Public Dog (25 & 26)

Monday's Public Dog class was at Lowe's and Miss Gimme was not mentally present.  I lose one to two days when she is in season.  I just worked on attention and by the end of class I had a bit of really nice focused work.  When I could, I wandered away from the group and meandered over to electrical to get something I needed - rewarding Gimme for attention along the way.  I think relieving the pressure of the proximity of other dogs helped a lot. 

When we got back to the group, the task we did the best on was to pick an aisle and walk around and around and around the same aisle, clicking and treating as we went.  The idea was that each time we were walking the same area, so it would be less and less distracting and the dogs should be able to go further between clicks.  The goal was to see how infrequent we could get the c/t, the ultimate goal to get around with just one c/t.  Our first aisle had guys working on shelving at the other end, so I moved over an aisle.  Despite her mental condition, Gimme was able to go all the way around on one c/t. 

Wednesday we met Susan and Tucker for nosework practice.  I set tins low on the uprights of the fencing around a tennis court.  Diagram shows black dots for fencing uprights, purple for odor and orange for prime pee places.  When I devised this plan, my idea was to give the dogs multiple low and easy hides.  First we went in one direction and then took a brief break (walking the dogs out far enough and offering them the opportunity to potty).  We first searched coming in from the right and even though we couldn't detect the breeze, both dogs would over-shoot odor by a foot and come back to it.  I hadn't planned for the pee distraction, but realized as we were doing it that the distraction was there.  Its feasible to run into it in a trial, so certainly worth training through.

After the potty break Gimme tried to pull a fast one, running to the nearest post and indicating before sniffing.  It was kind of funny as she then brought her nose down and realized there was nothing there.  After that she checked very carefully.  Tucker had the opportunity to work through his greatest distraction BALLS!!!  There were kids playing ball in a field really close and he was strongly attracted to them, got very aroused and had to let it go to work.

Our second search set was also a bunch of low hides in an area of landscaping.  I set the first two hides on two posts with a chain between them (to keep people from driving on the park grass), then four in the landscaping.  As I was setting the other hides, I saw someone walk their dog along and it peed on the post right where I'd placed the odor.  I was glad that I had placed that one about 12" off the ground, so the tin didn't actually get peed on.  I'm sure those two posts and the one tree were prime pee spots for dog walkers.  So both dogs got to work through that distraction yet again.  

So while the hides were easy, the distractions were hard.  Happily neither Gimme or Tucker even tried to mark over any of the pee-mail they found.

Today we had Public Dog class at Ursula's new training building and got a tour of the new facilities.  It is very nice.  The kennels consist of a separate room for each dog.  Ursula reports that most dogs are much happier and calmer in these.  The floors are heated concrete.  There are still the traditional chain link kennels for those dogs that object to the isolation.  There are now two large play yards and they have plans to add four smaller play yards.  There is circulating air exchange for each room.  They have electronic combination locks at each door for security for the boarders.  It will be interesting to see which Gimme prefers.  I think the rooms would be less stressful; on the other hand, she may not like the social isolation.

The training room is upstairs and about twice as big as the building we've been using.  Today we did exercises to wean the dogs (and ourselves) off treats on our person.  Gimme was a little distracted by the totally new environment, but got into working nicely.  We did three sequences.

1. With treats placed on chairs at each end of the room, we each practiced LLW in a zig zag path around a series of small room dividers.  Ursula reminded us of the human tendency to wait until we are close to the food to mark and then reward.  It is as much our reliance on food as it is the dog's that we have to wean away from.  I was third, so picked a bit of good LLW to "yes" and then raced to the food stations.  Gimme thought that was fun.
2. Using the dividers to form two "gates" we practiced having the dog go through and then reorient to us, marking it and then returning to the nearest chair.  Again, we each showed our reliance on food by tending to non-verbally require another behavior when we got to the food, before giving the dog the treat they'd earned at the gates. Gimme totally knows this behavior at home, as she basically pivots through the gate to end facing me for her treat.  I realized that one reason she doesn't transfer the behavior to class and other locations may be that I don't use the "g'won" cue at home - so she sees them as separate things.
3. The last exercise was to place two treats on each chair and leave our treat bag in our chair.  Then we'd walk to the center of the room, cue a behavior the dog knows well, verbally mark it and walk to a chair to give one treat.  Then repeat three times.  I cued "down", "touch", "sit-wait" and walk around, and "grape".  Gimme did really well with this and was the only dog who clearly understood that a verbal marker still counts even when the food is 25 feet away.  You could tell whether the dog understood by observing their body language when they heard the marker.  Of course, we've done a similar exercise a long time ago.  Interesting though, when she realized that was the game we were playing, she voluntarily slipped into heel position on the way to the chair.

I'm thinking she got her brain back...

Nosework Practice

I'd forgotten to put my odor kit back in the car, so I didn't get the hides set in the morning.  Instead I went over well before we planned to meet, set them, then took Gimme for a 3 mile walk on a nearby trail.  That gave us a cook time of roughly 2 hours.

As you watch this, note that Gimme only goes into one shed that didn't have odor in it, quickly ruled it out and left.  Odor was in the 3rd, 7th and 9th sheds (relative to the startline).   She does "catalog" the first two and then goes on to find the others before coming back to indicate them.  I let her go behind the 9th shed, because the wind was blowing away from us and I wanted her to have a chance to detect the inaccessible odor from a vent 5 feet off the ground.

The 9th shed has that one in a vent at 5 feet up and then q-tips in the door right above the hinge  which you see in passing at 1:37 and 2:04.  At 2:57 she pulls the odor out from under the support of the 7th shed.  At 3:29 she finds the last hide (3rd shed), which Tucker had pulled down and we neglected to reset, so it was in the middle of the floor.  Gimme found all four in 3:22.4... a very respectable time for 4 hides in one search area - which she'll never see in a trial.

Gimme, even with her cataloging, is fast and accurate.  Our training buddy took over 9 minutes to find all four - with a little help from us.  He's not nearly as driven as Gimme.  Sometimes he is faster than she is, because she blasts by hides.  However, when they are hard, she's always faster.

When Susan was picking up the tins after the indoor searches, she noted that the odor was very faint.  Certainly enough for the dogs to detect, but the lack of air movement other than shoppers going by, would make it a tough search.  I don't remember when I last refreshed the q-tips in those tins.  I'll be setting these same hides on Wednesday for class - using all fresh q-tips and with 7 hour cook time.  So it will be interesting to see how that affects Gimme and Tucker in their searches.  The q-tips for the shed searches were all fresh, having only been used once.

You can see that she localizes one of the hides at 27 seconds...  she doesn't get up to it, but knows generally where it is.  The odor is up above the second shelf, in line with the support between shelving sections, so it could easily be pooling where she puts her nose under the lower shelf, still she didn't indicate there.  She brackets the second hide at 52 seconds.  It takes her 4:38 seconds to find the first hide.  She does get a bit frustrated 6 minutes into the search and throws a false alert at me...  given how quickly she leaves it, I'm certain she knew odor really wasn't there.  At 6:42 seconds I try to "make a corner" with my body to help her find the second hide, but it didn't seem to help.  If you watch carefully at 6:55, her tail wag speeds up (fast enough to strobe on the video) as she finally gets a real bead on the second hide - interestingly well above it.  She found both hides in 7:09.  That's a very long search - Tucker was just a little longer and would have quit if Susan and I hadn't helped him.

Gimme got sooooo close at 1:22, but didn't persist.  While this search was very long, Gimme never needed help or encouragement.  I'm sure she smelled it just enough to make her keep looking.  She never lacks for persistence.  She makes me think if the little boy optimist in an old joke, where he's placed in a room full of horse manure and when they come back hours later he's still happily digging away, just convinced that with all that manure, there has to be a pony in there somewhere.

That's Gimme's approach.  All she needs is success in the end - it doesn't matter to her how hard the challenge was, so long as she wins - she thrives on challenge.  

Another note... I did notice my handling sucked in this video.  I got stuck standing still frequently - especially when I knew she was pretty close to the hide.  Of course it doesn't help that the aisle was narrow and cluttered.  Fortunately I handle well enough most of the time that Gimme doesn't pay any attention - never having learned that I might cue her where it is by getting stuck myself.

We did another search, but ran out of space on my camera's disk.

Gimme had a bodywork treatment after class on Saturday.  I had noticed Gimme was willing to sit, though responding a bit slow, but she didn't want to stay seated unless the rate of reinforcement was high.  She was doing pop-up toaster sits.  Sure enough Tonya found both hips were out of whack, but her right hip was really locked up.  It was so bad she had to do the energy work first, so it would relax enough for her to do bodywork - otherwise it would have been very a forceful and painful adjustment.  So Gimme got energy work twice - once to release the hip and again at the end, as usual.  I did some TTouch and energy work later where Tonya said would need it.  I could really feel the heat from the inflammation when I started, but it would be almost normal by the time I was done.  Gimme is doing much better now.  I'm going to get her treated again this Saturday.