Reply To: Laurie Mathews

[Alana McGee]

Forwarded Response:

Good job getting down with him on the first find, and excellent job at elongating your reward sequence.

The sequence starting around the 1:00 min mark is fabulous. You can really seen him getting on odor and working it there to source. Since we couldn’t see this angle as well- it does look like he offers a paw alert, is that correct? You timing on coming in to actually pull the truffle out of the ground looks pretty good. You’re not rushing and pushing him off odor. It is well timed.

Putting him on lead for the last one is perfectly fine, and helping him have a success before ending. This is a good reason and reminder to always have a target on you as well in case you need to manufacture a success. If he had continued to struggle with that hide we would suggest you offer an easier scenario via the target you have possession of and then be done with the game.

This looks good though Laurie.

For other students watching:

One thing to work on which will be very helpful later, is the re-alert. Watch the sequence again around 2:05. Around 2:15 it would be helpful if Rudy could actually show you where the truffle is in the ground. Truffles are hard to see in the ground sometimes, and so the most useful tool we have at our disposal is that bundle of sensory organ of our dog’s nose.

See if you can slow build in a scenario where you have Rudy re-alert on the truffle in you hand and then slowly bring that down to soil level and see if you can have him re-alert on cue for that. It will be VERY helpful later. He does that exact thing at 2:19! Fabulous.

Excellent on your reward on the last one!