Reply To: Lois & Speed (DRTDT)

[Alana McGee]

Read Monza’s post first for details about area.

[b]Assignment[/b]: buried hides. I’m shooting for finding 3 out of 7 hides.
[b]Location[/b]: water feature area, mix of leaves, mulch, dirt
[b]Hides[/b]: 5 tins and 2 hides in cloth. All bured ~2 inches.
[b]Run Order[/b]: Speed 2nd
[b]Conditions[/b]: upper 40s, cloudy. no wind
[b]Aging[/b]: ~60 minutes

I didn’t get a chance to replace the 3 hides that Monza found. I should have but when I brought Monza in the house, Speed was fired up and I didn’t ask him to wait and he was out the door. He should not have gone out without being released but I had just let him out of his crate, and wasn’t very clear about what he needed to do next. So off he goes founding out to find truffles!

This was also a good session.

He checks out a spot at the I’m uncertain as to whether one is there, he doesn’t alert strong, and he moves on. There actually was one there. He moves on and finds another one. I worked on rewarding at paw/source, and asked for a touch and held that reward at the paw/source to keep him steady and not fling it since it was a cloth one.

He checks out a place where Monza found one, digs a little but moves on. The next find is in close proximity but it’s REALLY dry mulch. I was wondering how it would effect the dogs. He does manage to flip it out. At least it’s a large tin. I got REAL lucky when I said ‘Touch’ and he paw touched it. Again I went in with reward over foot to keep that foot stationary. I’m not pressing down on his foot, simply offering reward directly over the foot with the hopes of keeping him steady.

I had snuck in a cloth hide in the rock wall earlier in video. We go to look and I see that tail wagging faster so he knows something is out there. I kind of wondered if it was me talking to him that got the tail wagging, and it may have been a little bit of both detecting odor and me chatting it up. Now it gets fun.

He grabs it out of the wall and the truffle piece falls out. I take the opportunity to work through the leaves thinking COOL, this feels realistic. He doesn’t make it easy for me to help while he’s standing over the area, then he wants in my treat bag, I placed one tin on the wall and he nose touches that. I reward and move tin to my pocket. Again, it felt realistic and it was fun.

Then I spot the loose truffle and I’m thrilled. Speed has this body language of “HEY, you’re thrilled. I’m thrilled. What are we thrilled about? Can I have a treat?”. He’s so funny.

Speed is tagging along on the trip to the tracking workshop this weekend. We’ll do hides in a new location this weekend and may have a chance to do some precision alert foundation games.

Thanks Alana and Kristin! I’ll get our final video posted late Sunday or Monday.