Reply To: Lois & Monza (DRTDT)

[Alana McGee]

[b]Assignment[/b]: buried hides. I’m shooting for finding 3 out of 7 hides.
[b]Location[/b]: front yard, dirt
[b]Hides[/b]: 3 tins and 4 hides in cloth. Tins buried 2 inches, cloth hides 1-2 inches. Dirt.
Run Order: Monza 1st.
Conditions: upper 40s, cloudy. no wind
Aging: 25-30 minutes

Oh boy…Monza is the magnet for major distractions. I REALLY thought I planned the time of day well, noting the BCs down the street were headed home from their walk before I set hides. Surely no one is out on a blustery Saturday at 5:30 when the UT Vols play SC in 2 hrs. Everyone must be eating dinner and prepping to watch the football game….

I did not include the 1st find in the video. She had no problem with a tin buried 2 inches. Video picks up at this point.

Video starts after 1st hide (pecan). Monza’s 2nd find is a truffle piece wrapped in cloth. Very nice!

THEN Speed shows up – husband was not home so this confirm Speed HAS learned the cat pet door. I immediately end that session with a party with both dogs not wanting to reinforce Speed for coming out by allowing him to hunt, but yet not deflate all enthusiasm. I have obviously built value for the game with Speed….

We go back in the house, I regroup and take Monza back out and she picks up where we left off with a 2nd tin (pecan).

At 2:27 I decide it’s time to manufacture a hide, but I’m fumbling with gloved hands for the 1st time this year, can’t get it out fast enough and bury, so i just present it to her, and HAPPEN to be standing next to the buried cloth hide and she paws the ground. With a truffle in hand, I don’t have a TREAT in hand to reward. I’m certain she’s going to stick with but she doesn’t.

At 2:50 my voice is a little frenetic,

At 3:00 I ask her to look in a very specific place and she even accidentally steps right on it.

At 3:05 she starts to look a little frustrated/frenetic. She goes back to the old hide spot where I dropped chicken.

At 3:17 I manage to get a manufactured hide placed, ….and THEN Sophie, the slightly reactive standard poodle appears (I’m sooo happy I didn’t let Speed stay for the hunt). At this point my brain is like a vigorously shaken snow globe. Reinforce Monza for looking at Sophie. Stay put, don’t trot off to the house so Sophie does not think she chased us off and finds this reinforcing (I did Control Unleashed work with these folks 2-3 years ago). They are able to get Sophie to sit. I act pleasant. Monza’s tail is wagging and she sits. Sessions ends. I give lots of verbal praise as we go in house.

This is not in video:
I give Monza a break and work Speed. But feel that Monza has been short-changed. So I decide to take her out for 1 session without interruption. I open the front door, and who shows up? The landscape guy! I’m not making this up. So I turn around, put Monza in the house, remove GoPro from forehead, deal with landscaper, and then get Monza.

To make things easy, I had placed a tin back in the hole where she’d returned to earlier, where I dropped chicken. She found that one right away. We then focus on the spot where I was trying to get her to focus before the Sophie incident and she finds a cloth buried hide and we have a normal party.

I never managed to end the session correctly with “All Done”….

I’m not using this area again. Easy digging but too many unknown distractions. The pet door will be CLOSED.

I’m looking forward to the forest!

I plan to repeat this somewhere else. Not sure if I’ll use the enchanted meadow or go somewhere new.

Thanks Alana and Kristin.