Home › Forums › Developing a Reliable Truffle Dog Team › Homework Forum – Developing a Reliable Truffle Dog Team › Mary & Salu › Reply To: Mary & Salu
It’s interesting how you describe his laid back personality. Because we only see his training videos, we view it more like his searching style is more methodical and thoughtful while Lola enjoys all the movement involved. Neither is better than the other, although we all have preferences. I personally, have a range between mine. Callie loves to run and cover a lot of ground. She rebounds from errors and mistakes quickly. Da Vinci is very thoughtful and, while I challenge him, I do not push him. Cash is methodical and probably the most efficient of the three, but I never allow him to be wrong. Between Lola and Salu, you have a lovely range of working styles and that is wonderful!!!! You will see 😀 You may be working harder with Salu right now, but you will find that he is the easy one at other stages of the game. It all balances out and each personality is quite wonderful after you understand each other in the context of the hunt. You may need to offer one more encouragement while keeping quiet for the the other. The important part is not to compare. Enjoy each one and see the beauty in what each of them does. You have TWO very good dogs there!
0:28 Perfect pup!!!! Look at his alert. Really nice and precise!
1:30 You know he found it and is motivated to stay at source so give him the opportunity to nose target it for you. Pretend you can’t find it (we know you can see it).
2:00 This would have been a good time to end OR play a game with the targets you collected to increase the energy between you. Toss a target into grass and away from your other hides and see if that generates some excitement for him. Don’t spend time at the find when he locates it. Just pick it up, reward (lavishly), and toss again. Then send him on to search for more placed hides. Knowing he had an upset stomach, we’d recommend ending if he looks like this though.
The ground cache needs a little work. Try some nose targets for those so he doesn’t get in the habit of picking them up. That said, one of my dogs picks them up and throws them at me 😉
We would also like to see how he does if you give him more room. You are quite close in this video and that applies pressure to the dog. Try relieving pressure with your body language (side body and gaze) as well as giving some more space. Make sure you aren’t staring at him. Watch him closely without staring AT him. This takes practice in softening your gaze so you don’t necessarily have a focal point. Staring is pressure.
Looks like he enjoyed that chicken!!! Have you considered switching to some REALLY high value treats like deli meats, chicken, meatballs, etc?
It’s not unusual for dogs to find the fresh ones first! That’s a good thing 😀