Sunday is My Fun Day

  Every now and then we get a rare glimpse into how far we have come in short time.  I have been training Tarot for Agility competition since the end of January and there are weeks when I think we are moving too slow.  Other weeks, Tarot is showing more understanding and flies forward with the next steps.  It continues like this and I never see the overall progress because I know there is more to polish.

  A friend has been holding a "Let's Work On That" class on Sunday mornings and I try to make this class as often as I can.  All of the dogs are being trialed and the class is set up for issues that have risen and need to be worked through.  Tarot and I make the attempt on the segment even though it might prove too far advanced.  Sometimes we pull it off, but most times obstacles need to be modified for success which is fine with me.

  Today was one of those "marker" days, where that glimpse into the future becomes the flood water rush into the present.  One minute you are working independent contacts or pausing to offer a reward for something done absolutely perfectly and the next minute you just ran a 13 obstacle mini-course as efficiently as your retiring Masters dog.  Better yet, you had to haul to keep up with your dog that is running twenty feet ahead or pulling in to work at six feet.

  A set of runs like this make the late night practice sessions worth driving home after 11pm for.  Experience with developing a training program, training when you are exhausted, drawing on patience, learning to support more, dealing with distance, distracted by tennis balls, suddenly all slam together in a few neat performances run at full tilt and focus.

  Do I expect tomorrow night's late night practice will go like today?  Nope.
  Tomorrow we will go back to working on our weak points while on the road to more strengths.

Tarot kicked butt on this mini-course

  Have a fun week!
  Joyce

ORT Results for Tarot

  Odor Recognition Tests are the first step before a dog can trial at any level within the NACSW.  Each dog has to be tested for each of the three odors before it can be entered into that level's trial.  For Level 1 trials, the dog needs to be ORT'ed on Birch, Level 2 needs testing on Anise, and Level 3 needs Clove.  The dog has to process through the levels in order and cannot jump ahead like in hunt tests.  As a handler you can choose when to test a dog, one odor per level achievement or all three.

  In February, Tarot was ready to try her first ORT on Birch, but Anise and Clove were months away from introduction.  I elected to test her on that one odor and waited until now to try the other two.  When I entered this passed weekend's ORT, I did so with the idea we would have a round of practice in a new environment.  I know she knows both scents, but I was not sure how she would handle a different location.  Would she remain focused or would existing smells cause her to stray from the task?

  Tarot's nose is not connected to her brain the way it is for every other dog.  Where Niven, Torch and Desi"just focus in and stay on it", Tarot has this ability to process all information which causes her to try to act on every impulse at once.  The result is a "ping pong" type of working style or would be noticeable as ADHD in humans.  There is no way to change this, but I have been working threshold hides or other non-NW behaviors to help stop her from bolting through odor to chase it to the other end.

Getting ready for this round of ORTs, Tarot and I have spent a lot of time practicing with boxes and typical patterns.  During each session, there was a marked difference in her focus level and almost immediate detection of the hot box.  One element I wished would could practice under was working in a location with other animal scent, meaning a dog training studio.  Using ground where other dogs have worked is so different than a parking lot, wide open field, or playground.  We can practice in class(es) and these types of crittering issues do not pop up because they are familiar.  It is similar to the dogs who practice Agility or Obedience in the same building, but have problems with trial distractions.

  During Tarot's Birch ORT, the issue was not finding odor source, but dealing with linoleum flooring that did not support a dog who was trying to get around a musty church basement as fast as she could.  Tarot dropped her nose to each box, but was drawn to the wall, short staircase, and low stage area that pooled odor.  Fast turns resulted in slipping paws and broken concentration.  We must have circled the boxes fifty times before she abruptly stopped at one and would not move.  Her movement indicated the type of behavior where a human forgot why they walked into a room and suddenly remembered the purpose.  "Oh yeah, that is what I was doing."

  I jest with the number of times we circled, but it took a good minute before the indicating behavior emerged.  I learned in this situation to let Tarot order out what was not relevant and figure it out herself.  Under testing, I have to depend on the dog to tell me which box to call and in this case that requires patience.

  From that day in February, I knew there was an issue that would require more work, but I needed to figure out what was compounding the problem.  It took until June for me isolate issues and start to work on them.  There has been progress in working more slowly and I can tell Tarot is working to sort out her own thought process.  The more we practice, the more even-keeled the searches are.

Tarot's nose was finding everything

  I had hope the next round of ORTs would have Tarot make one pass and indicate the hot box immediately.  The passed two weeks of practice had her doing just this and I was keeping my fingers crossed.  Unfortunately, that was not the case in both tests.  The building was awesome for people flow and dog footing, but it is used for Agility and Rally classes.  Since we have never been here before, Tarot needed to work through the foreign scent before she suddenly remembered where the hot boxes were.

  She passed both her Anise and Clove tests, but I walked out into the parking lot each time feeling like we searched forever.  It was not until the next morning when I received an email with video of each test.  I was shocked to find we did not do what I remember us doing and more importantly completed the searches in thirty seconds and fifty seconds.  Here I was worried about the three minutes warning coming?

  I wish I could include the video, but the formatting is not allowing me to post anywhere or to even convert it to a new file extension.  I am however, thrilled to have it for at lease personal  use!!!!

  While we gear up for our first NW1 trial in mid-November, Tarot will be searching for Birch.  I have a couple of ideas for practice and problem solving and it will be interesting to see what develops.  Now to charge up the vid cams and get out there!

Hope you all had a great weekend.  We did.
Joyce

School Is In

  A break in the early September heat wave encouraged me to pack the van full of dogs and head out for Nosework practice.  Being this is Labor Day weekend, I did not want to go to the normal park locations in fear I would be distracted by or run out early by people coming to set up family park parties.  Normally, I would take that as challenge, but this particular morning I just wanted to work the guys.

Elementary School
Parking Lot and Playground

  I found two local spots, one an elementary school and the other the pool park.  Even though the pool area was empty when I stopped by, I knew once I got working this would change.  I elected to try the elementary school despite the possibility of someone calling the police about a woman wandering around and placing things near the building.  If I was worried about this as a real possibility, the person who did show up happened to be my neighbor who owns the yard where I normally practice.

 ORT Boxes & Containers
  The asphalt parking lot was still relatively cool and I set up objects for Desi, ORT boxes for Tarot, and Containers for Torch & Niven.  If the surface temperatures were causing heat convection, it was not enough to create issues.  Neither was the wide open field with it tempting breezes and birds in flight.

• Desi is working Primary Odor (food) and it took her about five seconds to realize she was playing the Nosework game in a new location.  She moved over the plastic containers, some stacked, others needing to be pushed into with speed and grace to find them all.
• Tarot stayed focused on task for eight rounds of searches, four each for Anise and Clove.  Each odor box was found relatively quickly and only twice did we have to navigate the line up and back.  I was happy about Tarot's focus on the boxes and not on the field or asphalt cracks.
• Niven has already passed her ORTs, so the boxes were moved around to form a circle Container search.  I kept Anise and Clove for her to search, which both were found fairly quickly.  I just need to remember she will crush boxes if I wait too long with the hot dogs.
• Torch worked the same circle pattern, finding his two hot boxes just as fast as Niven.  Fortunately, he is more gentlemanly about his indications and does not crush box lids.

 Playground
  For the next round of searches, I decided to work a NW1 Exterior, placing two Birch hides (only one in testing) within the playground area.  One Hide was placed in a metal container on the playground equipment. The second was placed in the ground using a medical centrifuge vial.  Each of the dogs was walked up to the back side, so everything was to the right.

• Niven pulled between the playground and shed (not seen) and almost to the school's wall before turning back to find the Playground Hide.  From there, she moved to the Ground Hide.
• Torch also passed the Ground Hide to search near the shed, then tracked back to it.  From there he worked the playground area to find the elevated hide.
• Tarot searched similar to Niven, passing the Ground Hide to work from the school wall to the Playground Hide.  Moving onward, she worked the shed area to the Ground Hide.

   Later when everyone was done working, I did set up a series of hot dog hides for Desi.  One piece was placed near the wooden shed ramp, one on the ground near the corkscrew, and two on the plastic climbing benches.  Both Ground hides were found first, followed by a cubbyhole hide.  It was the hot dog on top of the plastic bench that gave her the most trouble and it was not because of height.  We eventually walked around the outside of the playground and immediately Desi tracked it straight to source and jumped up to get it.

Dumpsters

  We ended the practice session by working a series of Dumpsters.  I put out three Birch Hides; one on the backside, right, and under the lift sleeve of #2.  One was placed front side, right, and bottom of #3.  The last Hide was placed on the front, left, midway up #4.
  For all three dogs, we weaved in and out, up, down, and through the Dumpsters to find the #2 and #3 Hides.  It was the one on #4 that gave the most trouble since odor was probably traveling upward or outward toward the field behind.  Everyone needed to go about twenty feet out to come back to find it.

  One of the biggest take-aways I have from this search was with Tarot. Like Niven and Torch, she had difficulty with that #4 Hide, but her overall performance wandered.  For some reason, Tarot does this with Dumpsters and Vehicles and I have excused it away as needing more practice.  I am starting to see is a pattern where "metal" causes her to search harder or lose focus, almost like she is not finding odor at all.
  A few weeks ago, I had set a Clove Hide on a fire extinguisher and had the worst luck in having Tarot find it.  Two weeks later, a Birch Hide was placed on one during class and the same behavior started.  I dismissed this as either needing more time with other chemical scents or that odor was traveling upwards.  I am not too sure now this is the case.
  Oddly, we have had serious time searching metal folder chairs, racks, and stools without issue.  Could there be a limit for Tarot when the object being searched is "x" large?  To see if this is possible, I do plan on driving around one night with her to find dumpsters and other training opportunities.  Should be interesting to see if this helps.


  For a two hour practice session on an early September morning, we accomplished a lot.  All four dogs got opportunity to stretch out and use their noses in a new location while I enjoyed being outside with them.  Niven and Torch are both entered in their first NW1 trials and  I am waiting for word on Tarot's entry.  In the meantime, I get to look forward to next Saturday's ORT with her for Anise and Clove.

  We need to have mornings like this and I am really glad to have left the video cams behind.
  Hope you enjoyed the weekend!
  Joyce