Reply To: Bev & Wolfy

[Alana McGee]

Hi Bev!

We love when friend’s and family can help out with training 😉

“My indications that Wolfy is still hunting is the position of the tail, which is more horizontal than his usual tail carriage, this indicates he is working and his overall demeanour.” Good. Very good you are recognizing the differences in various different types of scenting activities. Keep watching for more subtle clues.

The dry conditions are hard. We think you are correct that Wolfy was using the fence as a guideline or clue as to where scent was catching and pooling, making it easier for him to navigate where the odor source was coming from. The jumping up also we might attribute to a frustrated behavior because he is searching really nicely (and HARD) for odor, so he’s checking elevation.

It also almost appears as if you are working with the wind/breeze. It eddies in yards of course, but on the second hide it looked like you were approaching from upwind side of targets. Try to be conscious of where the wind is blowing when you enter an area and work into the wind, and when it shifts. It looks like it does a couple times in the video. That also could be why he was using the fence as a guide- which is perfectly okay. Smart Wolfy 🙂

The transition at 1:33 was good. What would be even better next time you try this when you transition from ball to treat to working again is position yourself near another hide so as soon as you ask him to “go find another one” he is right there and can have a success stumbling across it RIGHT away!!!

This will take some positioning on your part and ideally knowing where the wind is coming from so you can position him right in the scent column, but by doing this he can have multiple successes right in a row and get to play with his ball more. This is anthropomorphizing but He’ll eventually think… “ the more I find truffles, the more I get to play with my ball— WOWEE!”

At 0:25 you do a good job pumping him up trying to send him off on the next hide. It’s not quite the same energy level, although you are elevating your voice and body energy. 0:35 is good, and a good spot to encourage with that kind of energy. Well done.

The reward sequence with the liver was really nice at 0:55

2:04 Good! This was a good place for encouragement, and your husband was right on the money too for when to encourage him more. Wolfy is very responsive to this, it changes his energy visibly. He’s going to old hides because he’s on the edge of frustrated here. You could if you wanted here throw out a target for him to find to keep his successes high. If it went on much longer, we would suggest you do that. He does eventually get there, but with Wolfy we want to work on successive finds and building that confidence. Don’t be afraid to offer & manufacture success when needed. You won’t always need to, but it’ll build more confidence and provide more scenarios for you to practice transitioning.

That was well done, you can see him thinking really hard through those dry conditions. Good job guys!