Home › Forums › Introduction to Truffle Hunting › Homework Forum – Introduction to Truffle Hunting › Mary Hammond & Salu › Reply To: Mary Hammond & Salu
“The first time he did paw at the dog food bag but I ignored it and he’s never done it since.”- Good, that is valuable information, and the correct response- just be aware in the future that perhaps things that are edible, that he wants, that he can’t access directly he will paw. Just file that away in your Salu hunting file in your brain.
You are brave with the doo-doo- but well done. We commend you on that. Even better if it was from one of your other dogs as opposed to Salu’s. DEFINITELY a distraction odor, and a hard one at that.
Again, good on ignoring the containers where there is no odor.
Your video:
0:14 YAY. On several accounts: Not only did he alert on box (paw) but he nose targeted the source. This is precise and fantastic. AND he stays with it. Great job- you’ve don e a good job building value here. AND then he offers the passive “lay down”.
Great. So based on this 7 seconds of interaction, we’d say the alert chain exhibited here looks like a variation of this:
Paw, nose touch, LOOK, (this was prompted by a lick- but we venture he will have a look as part of it) Nose touch, down. The nose touches he using for precision. The down is to indicate YES I’m sure. His initial is a Paw, so be ready for that when outdoors, but also be willing to understand since he won’t be able to access it as readily it very well could be a look at you until more encouragement is offered, as a look is part of a chain he is comfortable with.
0:25 Good. nice timing and nice persistence.
1:01- nice bringing him back into the area- he’s so very responsible to you in that- that was good call.
Your connection & energy by the way is very nice.
He’s working really nicely- and very hard for that 2nd one. This is a nice level of dicciculty to stay at and work on a bit
1:34- watch from here again. If you’ll notice the entire video (until he finds/ alerts on it), he doesn’t actually go to the hot box. He hits every other box. We don’t think that in of itself is significant, just how he happened to search the area. But look at the video again form 1:30 on wards and see if you can visualize the way odor is moving in this environment. Follow Salu’s nose. Watch it- particularly around 1:34 you can see him hitting odor and trying to figure out why it is concentrated there. From 1:36- 1:44 he’s eliminating erroneous areas. He’s, cleverly, as as a product of space available, created a search permimiter for himself based on what odor information he knows.
At 1:45 make sure you are not looking directly at the box here, we can’t see your face but your intention (and feet) are directed at it (he’s not looking at you- but just be conscious of that) in the future
2:06- you’re clicking nose touches. That’s fine! the other behaviors are unlikely to extinguish, unless you want them too- which we don’t suggest, because you are also praising them.
That’s great about the ball- on all accounts- playing with it is great- he obviously loves it- but we’ll find that in the field with dogs who work with toys who also love playing this game, in the field- they’ll come across scent and they will often drop a toy if they are playing with one. Again it’s example of how much he likes this truffle game which is a testament to you building really nice positive associations around it- so well done!
Yes he is looking more independent in searching patterns, which is great- but he is still VERY responsive to you when you cue it (note the moment he is out of screen searching too far). It’s a nice balance right now at this level of difficulty, so we’d encourage you to build up this reward history a bit to keep it solid.
Really well done Mary. Pets to Salu. You guys look very nice, and again your energy and connection is lovely. You’re doing great!
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Alana McGee.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Alana McGee.