Today, I was not sure what locations I wanted to work, but I did not want to use all the same areas as last time. I ended up re-using one of the loading docks, but found a Bobcat and its accessories parked in the spot where I had before. Oooooooh.
With my van parked around the building corner and I figured would long walk each dog to mimic a trial environment. I set seven areas in two sets with the first set having four areas with six hides and the second set having three areas with five hides. My plan was to allow each dog to work, rest, then work again.
First Set
Area 1 - Vehicles
The biggest mistake I made in setting these hides was the one placed on the Backhoe. There was more than enough room for the dogs to catch odor from all sides, but I forgot they can go under it while I cannot. In the case of Torch, Desi, and Tarot, this was NOT good. We survived with a tangled lead, but the hide was found. It would have been nice for me to not contort around heavy machinery to deliver a reward.
All four dogs were brought in from the back of this photo, with one of the parking lines as the threshold.
- Niven pulled to the left and found the Backhoe hide immediately, searched the vehicle line around to the Hide on the outrigger. Ironically, her normal "alert" returned today. Figures.
- Torch pulled to the left and had to work his way along and under the bent arm until the hide was found. From there he continued to the outrigger hide.
- Tarot pulled to the right and worked herself first to the outrigger hide and then around to the backhoe. Like Torch, she had to traced odor by working up, back, and under the arm until found.
- Desi pulled to the left, but being inexperienced skipped the backhoe hide and worked to the outrigger hide. From there we continued around the Bobcat until she picked up scent. She had to weave back and forth to the backhoe hide. Interesting note for Desi, all hides today were unpaired and she worked these pretty quickly.
Area 2 - Vehicles (or giant Container)
When my neighbor had demolition work on his house a few months ago, a similar dumpster was dropped off on the street. Three of the dogs have had experience with this type of container, but Desi has not. A splotch of pink paint dead center was used as the Threshold, with the hope of the left side hide being strong enough for an immediate find.
- Niven immediately found the front hide, then moved along the outside length of the dumpster to the hide inside the niche.
- Torch followed Niven's search with nearly the same pattern. He started to move to the outside, caught scent and worked it back to that front hide. Continuing along the outside of the dumpster, the niche hide was found.
- Tarot started by going to the right, but realized she was out of odor and came back to find the front hide. From there she turned to work along the outside length to the back end, but used the yellow poles to track to the niche hide.
- Desi had the most difficulty with the front hide and chose to move along the inside line, placing me between the wall and dumpster. I had to be able to change direction while keeping the area open for her to work to the front hide. Once found, she worked the inside dumpster wall to the yellow poles and found the niche hide almost immediately.
Area 3 - Loading Dock
I had worked this area the last time and did not realize there was a six foot drop along the back wall near the docks themselves until after we started. This put a limit on how far I was willing to let the dogs use the corners to search this time. The hide was placed on the ground in the broken concrete about three quarters of the way in. Surprising it was Niven who had the hardest time with this.
The yellow pole was our threshold and all four dogs chose to walk along the wall toward the back of the dock. Again, I had a limit on how far they could go due to deep drop where the metal covers had dislodged.
- Niven moved along the left wall until she was stopped by me. She turned toward the stairs, worked the wall for a few feet and circled the open area. She caught scent near the stairs and traced the plume to the hide.
- Torch moved along the wall until he was stopped, then started toward the stairs where midway he changed direction. Using a line of broken concrete, he channeled the odor to the hide.
- Tarot used the wall halfway, then cut an angle beyond the hide, turned and went straight to the hide.
- Desi moved along the wall just past where Tarot pulled from it and did a similar bee-line using the broken concrete to the hide.
It was this area search that impressed me for each dog. Niven threw me off while Tarot AND Desi wasted no time with technicalities. Not kidding, Niven had the longest search and it was no more then forty seconds. The other three had to be in the low twenty second range.
Area 4 - Rear of Store
The threshold faced us directly toward the wall. For Niven, Torch, and Tarot, the threshold was farther out to allow them access to a dumpster to the right. For Desi, I started her closer to the area I wanted her to stay in.
I learned another thing about hide placement and that is where odor emanates from. Stick a hide under a piece of metal and it will shoot out the other side and top. Bad me for poor placement.
- Niven went straight to the wall, worked right toward the grey door, turned around, and went straight to the hide.
- Torch moved toward the dumpster and corrected himself to work the wall. Like Niven he searched the gray door and back along the wall. It was here that he alerted to the backside of the metal guard. It dawned on me at this point odor was coming from the top and would not be an easy find. Although this alert would be correct for an NW2 or NW3 search, he had to find odor source and this is why I need to be hurt for my placement. It took a few more seconds, but Torch continued to work until the hide was nose touched.
- Tarot also moved toward the dumpster and quickly went to the wall and the metal guard. She had to work back and forth about five feet from each side before alerting to the top of the metal guard. Sigh......I had to wait for her to figure it out and she did just as fast as Torch.
- Desi was started closer to the wall, but still had to go to the the dumpster. Very quickly she indicated there was nothing there and moved directly to the area around the metal guard. Like Tarot, she worked about six feet on either side, and looked at me while on the opposite side. As soon as she moved to the correct side, I dove in with treats.
I think I spent more time setting the hides for these four areas, walking each dog, and traveling to each area than I did actually working them. I do wish I had video for timing reasons, but each dog worked all of these hides in under two minutes a piece.
Second Set
Areas 1 and 2
What I had planned for this round was more introduction, reintroduction, or training. I had some containers in the van from a previous class and thought it a good idea to see where we were with a "luggage inspection". Good idea, bad idea.
For Area 1, all four dogs struggled with my horrible version of a luggage search and I had to pass over each about four times. Even Torch who is the master of boxes struggled and I now know where we are weak. Each dog did a beautiful job of quickly sniffing each object, but struggled to find my hide.
Area 1 and 2 were kind of built on each other and my hope was to get a straight line "search". For Area 2, the line of concrete parking blocks allowed for this, but again everyone needed multiple passes before finding both hides. I am glad I did set this up, especially since all of my guys had a hard time. That is not a dog related issue, but a training/experience/exposure issue. At least I get to be creative for practice exercises and maybe use the Goodwill store to get real luggage??
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| Area 1 |
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| Area 2 |
Area 3
When I set the first two areas, I wanted to end the day with something familiar. There was a large grass area with picnic table that I knew would be a relatively easy search. The threshold was far back to the left of this photo and gave the dogs plenty of opportunity to pick a direction.
- Niven stayed to the left and found the picnic table hide, went to the support beam, and traveled along the wall to the grass hide.
- Torch followed Niven's path and search. The only difference was he needed to travel down the wall to the wall jut-out to track back to the grass hide.
- Tarot moved to the left, found the table hide and cut straight to the grass hide.
- Desi started by going to the wall on the right, shortly worked it before being distracted by the table hide. Oddly, she was almost on top of the table hide when she pulled to the grass on the left and found a discarded french fry. For once I was faster than the dog and got to it first. Table hide was then found and she went back to the opposite wall where the grass hide was located. Three other dogs ignored the fry........
Despite the second set being more about training, each dog again found five hides in under two minutes. We still need to some practice work on the Containers (other than boxes), but that can be a fun thing to work on as the colder months force us to find indoor locations.
Glad to be outside today. Hope you had a great Sunday.
Joyce
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