Morning sessions were awesome and both of my instructors helped us more than they even knew. Returning home, I decided to use my neighbor's property to work a few more hides. Renovation work has been on going since their house fire in early April and a semi-permanent dumpster has been beneficial for practice. There is a heavy smell of wood damage and debris still litters the landscaping. Where Niven and Torch have extensive experience with Anise and Clove, I knew this would be a new challenge for Tarot. I paired all of the hides and she was fantastic, salmon treats doing their job of helping her home in one each.
Four of the hides close to the house were left to sit for about forty-five minutes so I could run Niven and Torch. Although we have lived in this location for eight years, the dogs have never been in this area and it would offer a new experience. After both were worked, this crazy idea popped into my head. I know curiosity killed the cat, but I really could not resist running Tarot over the same hides, this time unpaired. My hope was scent from the other two dogs, hot dog rewards, and source odor would assist in location.
I did pull out the Action Cam for this search and the Christmas gift from my husband two years ago continues to prove invaluable. It is not easy to watch a dog while working, handle the lead's constant motion, balance a treat, and video at the same time, but I like to think I do well enough. The camera is normally held free handed at my waste level and is the least priority to the dog's needs. Sometimes I get great shots of the ceiling or floor, but I get a lot of what went well or wrong.
While I can re-see what I saw (or not) with the dog, it does not provide my own handling feedback. There are times when I remember stepping backward or moving a few paces 'that way', but the video never shows it. I might have to make a point to dramatically move so the video defines that and hopefully helps the dog.
I did pull out the Action Cam for this search and the Christmas gift from my husband two years ago continues to prove invaluable. It is not easy to watch a dog while working, handle the lead's constant motion, balance a treat, and video at the same time, but I like to think I do well enough. The camera is normally held free handed at my waste level and is the least priority to the dog's needs. Sometimes I get great shots of the ceiling or floor, but I get a lot of what went well or wrong.
While I can re-see what I saw (or not) with the dog, it does not provide my own handling feedback. There are times when I remember stepping backward or moving a few paces 'that way', but the video never shows it. I might have to make a point to dramatically move so the video defines that and hopefully helps the dog.
Niven:
Niven is the most experienced with working Thresholds and will normally stay focused. As we approached the porch area start line, Niv has already been air scenting. This is marked by her attention to the left and a head flick, plus her instant knowledge of where we are going. I gave her a few seconds before releasing and she moved directly to where source was hidden. There may have been a piece of salmon remaining from Tarot's earlier paired run, but sometimes it is hard to tell. Bonus for Niven if that was the case.
Moving across the porch, the next hide is picked up along the brick landscaping border, followed to the wall, and then back to the ladder hide.
I was surprised Niven stepped away from the ladder and immediately went to the shrub line to work a short distance to the next shrub hide.
We continued along the shrub-line, cut the diagonal to search the end of the area, and move up along the house wall to the last ground hide.
Personally, I see this as my version of textbook searching. Nothing was wasted and there was clear direction on the part of the dog. Considering the problems I had with Niven at this time last year, I am ecstatic about how she worked. From the start at the edge of the porch until the fourth hide was located, I guesstimate 1 minute, 3 seconds for four hides.
Torch:
Torch is not the strongest on thresholds and stopping him is normally not a great idea. Instead I let him stay ahead of me and rarely hold him back to work while we walk. It seems to work for him, but the advantage of an extra few seconds to draw in additional information is lost.
From the start line to the first hide, you can see Torch catch odor, track to the wall, move to the pillar, and work the debris to the hide. This was different from Niven and Corgi height may have come into play. He was able to pick up the odor plume in a different way that caused further investigation.
After leaving the first hide Torch did head-flick in the area of the brick border, but scent may not have been strong enough to capture his full attention. I was surprised he continued to the shrub line to work his way back to the ladder hide.
Moving from the ladder, I think he caught the odor trail back to the first hide and I limited him from doing so. Once he realized he was returning to a found hide, Torch had no problems continuing on to find more.
Quick movement carried Torch over the shrub hide, but he tracked one odor to the house wall and back to the clear area. At this point two sources of odor are converging and I let him determine which hide to find next. While he was working along the wall, I think I began to move a bit too soon to reward, but when I arrived, his nose was on the canister.
The remaining hide posed the most issue. Torch decided to head to the rear of the house, walk along the shrub line and got caught in converging odor from three hides. I had to limit the area he was working to help a solution emerge. As soon as he put himself near the shrubs, the remaining hide was found in three steps.
Torch has been true for working one hide to the next, so this was really cool experience. It was not as clean as Niven's search, but he continued through three converging odors to work for 1 minute, 32 seconds.
Tarot:
Video of our searches has been so helpful with Tarot because she moves very quickly, changes direction a lot, and creates her own chaos. Being able to sit back and watch her work without handling allows me to see.....I need to stop working thresholds while holding the lead. I need to be moving with her using the harness handle. The threshold would have been less chaotic for both of us and Tarot would not have been so distracted by the other neighbor mowing his lawn.
For a start, this was the best Tarot has been able to keep even keel. I held my ground and stayed inside the porch area while she tried to go further out. I wish I could say she was in odor from the Ladder or Shrub hides, but I honestly think that is not the case. It took her a few passes to settle into searching and eventually found the hide.
Tarot decided to stay to the outside of the porch area and we hugged the parameter of the yard to find her shrub hide. Ironically, the porch and shrub hides were both Anise which she has more experience with.
Again, she wanted to work the parameter and of course got distracted by the landscaping neighbor. Back to working, Tarot followed scent back to source, but never indicated she has found anything. Worst yet, I could not tell where she was in relationship to the hide and could not move in to reward. I realized my opportunity was lost and we circled and side stepped while I kept her limited to the area. When she finally did stop, odor was picked up and traced to source. To me, this was an awesome learning point for her, especially since this was unpaired Clove.
Setting out again to find the last hide, Tarot rediscovered the shrub hide and was re-rewarded. Moving on, there is clear indication she discovered Clove and worked back to the ladder. This was another perfect learning point. I did find it funny that she found the two odors separately, but still found all of them in about 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
The order in which hides are found does not matter, but all of them being alerted to does. Niven, Torch, and Tarot found four hides within my person goal of three minutes without giving up or slowing down despite the level of difficulty.
One other really cool point, I use empty pen cases as hide containers and thought the discarded pen laying in the dirt would be interesting. Not one dog went to investigate a very potential hide.
Enjoy the video!
Joyce
