Hi Alana,
We are getting back on track, Having a few IT issues!!!! should be able to post vid again in next couple of days.
Ok This is whats been happening.
Tried to reward with food, worked briefly then lost its appeal.
Tried two balls, kind of worked.
My biggest concern was Molly leaving the source – lead me to thinking reward wasn’t enough,
looked at how she interacts with ball with my other dog when playing and guess what she runs around wit hit in her mouth encouraging the chase then turns, guards the ball and off again. Pretty much exactly what she was doing with me.
So I gave her a week off truffling and got her back on the ball.
Alerts have gone backwards a little, but thats fine we are back to hunting at full force, maybe even keener than before. Its like the key to the dogs drive is having possession of the ball.
Oh yes she is starting to anticipate me giving her the ball and moving off scent towards me when she’s located target. Think I’ve pretty much stopped this.
alerts at the minute look like this Molly alerts with PAW I click and throw ball in to source. (trying to stop her coming in to me for ball) at this point I’m moving in on target- kneel down molly jumps up getting mucky paws all over my shirt shoulder receives a darn good fuss. I take ball. she immediately re alerts with paw.
I’m intentionally leaving out nose touches for the time being but will bring back at later date. Might possibly work on show me command in completely different scenario.
I can really see the value of a nose touch over a paw but at this point in time I want a rock solid initial alert with paw.
At the mo just doing lots of searches similar to the last video posted and it seems to be working she is red hot keen again!!