Reply To: Rachel & Vidoc FE520

[Alana McGee]

I am so challenged when it comes to the kind of trees and stuff like that. Well will better do an effort and educate myself!

As for the toy… I was lazy and didn’t want it to stuck out of my “butt’ on film so to speak. In our last search on video Vidoc’s toy was placed by the camcorder. But today I had it on me each time. You are right it’s a nice and clear way to end a session plus very rewarding for my dogs!

Today we did two searches. The first one was by the edge of a forest. I worked both boys in the same area but their search areas were apart. Neither Vidoc nor Esprit crossed the other dog’s area on the way there and back.

Vidoc struggled in his first search. He located the covered hole (was about 1” deep and unmarked) but dismissed it as “already done”. I actually started to fear another dog came by and stole our training truffles as I walked the dogs for about 40 minutes after planting the truffles. But they were all there.

What I noticed is that they lost their smell – at least for my nose. It seems to me when they are wrapped in a paper towel and hidden in earth they get all dry and loose their smell. Using a fresh piece is fine but not re-using training truffle pieces. But then Esprit had no issues finding his and he had the same conditions except the search area.

For that reason I did a second search in a more familiar area. We never did a search there but cross this grassy patch nearly every morning on our walk.

I think the struggles lie in the quality of the truffles. What is the best way to store them? I can buy every week a new truffle and I am willing to do it if it helps our training. It seems to me the paper towels in combination with earth suck up all the smell.

I don’t care if I use vials or wrap my training truffles in paper towels. I can also buy more tea eggs. Whatever you suggest to provide ideal learning.

I didn’t really understand the vodka part. I did buy a tiny bottle just in case 😉