For the first time in weeks, Mike and I had a day without needing to be some place and there was no forcasted rain. Everyone was packed into the van and off we went to the local park for a walk. I would have liked to go longer, but there were two separate walks and no where to walk to. The park was empty since the temperature has finally started to fall and the day threatened to be wet. I figured no one would be using the playground area and took advantage of a mulched border. This made it easier for Mike who was going to take photos of the dogs while they worked.
I set six hides, grouping three odors in the same area. I figured we have not been searching much and scent might travel farther in the open area. They dogs could work through converging odor to find each and figure out which one to find first. Like everything planned, it did not go exactly that way for each dog.
The threshold/start line was a gravel pathway that cut between two hides. The water fountain on the left was Clove and the park bench on the right was Birch. From the start, all four dogs nose-flicked toward the park bench, but all of them went straight to the water fountain. From that point, it was about me following each dog to dispense hot dogs as the next hide in whatever order was located.
While the first Clove hide was relatively easy, the second Clove hide placed on a swing seat seemed to disperse odor further away. Each dog used the swing set legs, mulch divots, and border, but
struggled to look up at the correct hanging seat. We did move the metal container back and forth between the different swing seat to see if that helped, which it did not. The Corgis were disadvantaged by having short legs, Niven struggled to look up, and only Tarot found it almost immediately.
The Anise hide pushed into the mulch caused the most problems, but at least each dog caught odor and tried to track it. I thought the moisture would hold scent close to source and the general area, but instead it traveled further and pooled in two different areas about four feet away. All I could do was limit the dogs to the area and let them sort through the challenge. Ironically, Niven never found this hide and offered the "I have nothing" indicator.
The only thing colorful in a dreary day needed an Anise hide to find. This was stuffed in a hole where odor seemed to stick as it traveled upward, backward, and underneath. The Corgis had no problem going under, but the Labs had to duck, if not crawl. Everyone quickly figured out how to go around from the back to front to find source. Tarot was the one who had to climb high, but discovered odor was coming from below and she could not contort without using the sliding board.
Both Birch hides were set to be easy and I was happy to see the wind was kind and kept it that way. I was not sure how environment conditions would affect the rest of the search and I wanted something I knew would be straight forward. I am very surprised that out of all the hide placements, none of the dogs went into this area as a first or second choice.
So we got out for an hour or two and had some photos taken. Of course we are all now ready for another outing, but we are back into Holiday mode with the New Year and we need to go to work to pay for more dog time.
Hope the warm early winter is kind to you too!
Joyce Smuda
www.foxglen.net
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