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Hi Mary Sorry for delay!
Hard, dry compact soil is difficult, yes. Odor doesn’t cling as readily and dissipates faster, so it may help yes. As we say “odor clings to wet things”.
0:05 NICE headcheck! She’ll get to a point where you’ll start to notice when she is zero-ing on odor, and it is during this time you can verbally encourage and praise behavior. This is more important in situations with more complexity in the forest where it is harder, but good to start to recognize when it is happening now. Keep an ‘eye’ out for those moments.
0:22 and right before this is a really nice representation of odor moving in a space. It is fascinating and Lola is a great example you can literally see her following the odor column and how it is moving in the vicinity! Fabulous!
She’s very persistent. We love that. Nice sequence Mary!
She is so fun to watch.
You do a good job at one point asking her “watchu doing Lo?” as a means of having her redirect her focus to around. As you get into larger and larger areas this will be your task as a handler to mentally keep track of spaces she has visited with her nose in the area and direct her to new spaces to investigate. Wind plays a factor in this too, but if you haven’t start taking that into mental account, start trying to pay attention to that
It won’t necessarily be the same for Salu but it is part of her style.
You are doing a good job on asking for higher criteria of a nose touch. Just remember that if she starts to walk away, drop the criteria of what you are asking of her. It doesn’t have to be perfect all the time 🙂 that’s why we work on it! 2:24 was great! 2:58 PERFECT- right there!
Rock star. Nice reward parties 🙂