Reply To: Alyssia & Spring (DRTDT)

[Alana McGee]

Thanks Kristin. If i am reading this right, Spring finds the truffle, I verbally praise, take it away, food reward, but she is no longer being rewarded at source or do I still do both? In the video, it was actually at the edge of the carpet, but her “digging” pushed it under, so I had to uncover it for her.

Regarding blinds, I was actually forgetting where they were when I had all the blanks out, because they looked the same, so tossing them around should work.

No video today of the training, the tripod shifted, just before she found the first hide and all I had was sky. I did 3 hides in a much smaller area, about 15×15. I walked all over the area and had my BC walk all over too. Three Hides – one slightly buried, had a 1/4 of the top exposed, one just out on the grass and the 3rd under grass clippings. She found the buried one first and I did delay the reward and asked her to show me and she dug it up pretty good. She had the hardest time finding the hidden one, probably from the grass smell and the wind and she kept leaving the area to chase odor, when I kept calling her back in, that stressed her a bit as I had two sides fenced off. So I didn’t show her, but I moved to the area and asked if she looked over here and then she found it and lots of rewarding and we ended.

Since she had a good time with the buried hide, I think I will try 2 next time, not 100% buried, with a 3rd hide in sight just to keep the confidence up. I may have to remove the fencing and just let her chase odor as that’s how she works. Weather is cooling off quick, so that will add another factor.