Nosework "Going to class" - Part 5

As I said earlier we are lucky enough to be taking classes with Erica Wells through Dogs Day Out . The rattie's do a great job representing New Rattitude as there are 3 New Rattitude Alum in our group - D'light, Catty and Corwin.

 

a picture from an earlier class of Corwin & his dad at work!

All the video's below are at class and we are doing blind hides.  Meaning neither the dog or human know where the hide is located.  All dogs are working at locating odor (Birch in these video's). 

 

This is going to be a post on trust your dog!  Erica our instructor tells us this over and over and over!   And as you will soon see,  if you don't trust your dog - you the human look & feel like a big goober.  This is a very humbling experience of not knowing where the hide is.  We forget how easy things can be when we know what to expect and where things are.   This work has given me a whole new side of experiencing the unknown. Talk about anxiety and it helps me to appreciate how taxing an unknown situation can be for a dog!

And off we go - I don't know where the hide is located and clearly I'm not trusting that Catty knows where it is.  Wrong thought on my part and this video has me shaking my head each time I watch it.

 

And here's Corwin! When he started out with nose work he was nervous and very cautious.  As the weeks have progressed, he's become more  confident and just watch his tail!  Also, that lit up dog would have scared him in the past.  Once Corwin figured out there was food involved and that he was making his own choice to work he quickly decided this was the best thing ever.  Go Corwin go!  And silly Corwin, he decided past foster dad and foster mom needed a few hello's while he was working.

 

And below Corwin says "hello dad, it's right here!"

  

All the humans struggled with the blind hides and each dog kept telling their person "it's here" and the humans as usual, were about 10 steps behind. Again TRUST YOUR DOG!
 

And the only reason I look like I have a clue below, is because I knew where the hide was with D'light since I was running two dogs.  I was pretty shocked with how uncomfortable I was with the "not knowing" where the hide were located.  I clearly have my own homework to do around trusting that my dogs know where the hide is located.

Oh fun!  Time for another blind hide and I did a great job of blocking the odor and not paying attention... another couple strike for the human.   As you can see Catty knows the hide is in the area and she says "Come on mom!"



 

Here's a nice video of D'light working the different containers in the room.  He still gets a little nervous when the room is staged differently and with the people in the room, thus those shake off. And, he's doing great - watch his tail and he's focused on searching!

 

And now we are in a much larger room with different noises, smells and furniture.  You can see how we work with D'light. This is a lot for him to take him and we let him move at his own pace.  He checks in with mom, then dad and then Erica and that's perfectly fine.  Watch him... he catches the odor!

 

And he know roughly where the odor is located but, being under the table and sticking his nose up onto the odor is scary so we help him out.  With D'light all we are doing is creating a positive experience and building his confidence.  Many thanks to Erica who is excellent with all the dogs and especially with our sweet D'light!  Notice that lean in love that he gives Erica at the end.

 

 

In the big room with Catty and she's ready to go!  Again human not paying attention and not being quick enough.

 

 

And this you may have to watch a couple times...  again back to trust your dog and pay attention.  The odor was right at the threshold and I wasn't watching Catty and I was moving to fast.

 

 

This nose work series of blog posts, gives some nice examples of nose work and I truly love this game/work/sport.  It's great for my dogs on so many levels: builds confidence, assists them in becoming more comfortable in new environments, builds trust and most of all they have fun.  For me it deepens my connection with Catty and D'light and it helps me to slow down, pay attention, trust my dogs and learn more about their body language and movement!  A win win for all of us.