Note: this post represents Tim and Skip in the first couple of weeks of class a couple of months ago now.
Now that we had prepared Tim for what he would be facing when we went to our first class, as far as searching boxes for food rewards, we were ready to go! We knew Skip would be fine going to class as long as no one got into his personal bubble without him being ok with that. Tim on the other hand, who is noise sensitive, worries about new people and environments, we knew he would have a lot to take in when we went to class. Our Nosework instructor, Erica Wells, is really awesome though, and she knows how to work within each of her canine student's comfort zones. So Tim had a special "dirty box" (only box that holds the food treats), that was low and had no flaps. And Skip gets all the space he needs without anyone getting too close to him until he was comfortable. He got comfortable with Erica, our instructor, right away as she is super dog savvy and so Skip was fine with her reaching toward him and the boxes from the beginning.
Here is Skip doing his stuff in class on the first day.
I didn't get an video of Tim in class. When he is taking his turn it is important for us to be fully present to his needs. So I put the recorder away and camera and just focus on Tim. Erica and I are always making sure he is feeling safe and within his comfort zone. In class he can worry about noises and movements he is not expecting. But here at home in our yard where he feels safe he shows lots of progress with the game.
I like this video. Tim takes a moment to "think" and then he picks up the odor of the treats in the box and goes right to it. Learning in class how odor moves and pools depending on air current, temperature, even things blocking it or splitting the odor, is so fascinating.
As class sessions go on we were given "threshold" search as a homework project. The goal is for our dog to begin searching the instant he enters the search area or room. So putting the box where the dog will be walking right by, or just outside a threshold really challenges them to be using their noses all the time when we are doing a search. So you can see Tim blows right past the box and goes out into the yard to search the other boxes he sees out there. Just means we need a lot more practice.
In this video Tim takes a quick notice that the box is right there when he crosses the threshold and he comes back around to find it. He might not have caught the odor when he came out of the door. Odor moves in different patterns so it could have been more in front or to the other side, again it depends on air current and temperature and any blockages in air current too.
Another search is the "elevated" search. In an elevated search the odor is most likely not on the ground or even close to the ground, so again the dog has to learn how to try to catch odor by sniffing higher than they might normally do. Beagles who normally are very "nose to the ground" really have to practice this a lot to learn to think differently. In this video the dirty box is in the chair and even has a couple of other boxes blocking the odor from the top. It might look like Skip is aimlessly sniffing around but what he is actually doing is catching the odor and following it back to "source". He has to do a couple of rounds to hone in on it and follow his nose to it. Then it is like magic and he figures it out just like that!
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| Stay tuned! Class #3 was searching for the food treat among all these novel things. So fun! |
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