We've been doing nosework for about a year, and Shyla has become quite advanced. She hasn't competed due to her fear of strangers, strange dogs, and bustling environments. I may work on that at some point because Shyla's love of nosework may end up outweighing her worries about a new environment.
I wanted to share where Shyla's training is now. You may remember that the first step in teaching nosework was me holding a tin of scent in one open hand and a bunch of treats in the other open hand. Shyla learned that she needed to put her nose on the scent tin for me to let her have treats from my other hand.
The incredible part is how that simple little exercise translates into very complex searches before too long with the constant being that Shyla always gets lots of treats for finding the scent source. Today, we were working on situations where I'd hide the scent in one place but air currents would cause the scent to accumulate in another place. Shyla had to figure out where the source of the scent was.
In the short video, you'll see a classic example. I hid the scent in a kitchen cabinet under the sink (together with our stinky garbage). We had a heating stove burning for a couple of hours across the room while the scent was in the cabinet. The heating stove pulled room air into it, including the scent in the cabinet. You'll see Shyla closely examine the area near the stove, the butcher's block between the stove and the cabinet, and then finally she focused on the crack around the cabinet. Believe it or not, when I called "alert", she'd put her nose almost exactly where the scent tin was inside the cabinet.
The outdoor searches were based on a similar set-up except that the wind was what was causing the odor to pool in areas away from the scent source. Shyla was very sharp today, sorting out the puzzles very fast.
Also, notice her incredible enthusiasm! That's what positive training does - it makes training super fun for a dog so that they look forward to every session. Shyla was so excited before we started each search. Notice how she sprinted into the search areas in the outdoor searches. That's what I love to see!!!!
I like the video and I will look through your post for other videos you shared, I will try to use your way for Phenny... he has some kind of cabin fever with the bad weather and needs entertainment :o)
ReplyDeleteThere's an introductory course for nosework happening now at http://fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/15. It is a very fun course, and it's not too expensive if you take it at the "bronze level". You can sign up through 2/15. No, they're not paying me for advertising :)
DeleteNosework is so awesome, and I love that video. Seeing her reaction tells you everything you need to know about why positive training works so well.
ReplyDeleteWow, is she keen! Those were not easy hides. So fun to watch her enthusiasm!
ReplyDeleteSeeing Shyla after all the training for this, I understand how tracker dogs and ones at airports go through a long training program. She is so happy there, and you put so much fun into it all, Snow and those trees, , I always so enjoy seeing that.
ReplyDeleteShyla you are a very quick learner!
ReplyDeleteLily & Edward
Way to go Shyla!!
ReplyDeleteWow, she's quite good and super enthusiastic about her work! So cool.
ReplyDeletePositive training should be the only kind of training. We suspect most hoomans do not know what we pups are filly capable of! Good job on the nose work!
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
She is doing so well! Those searches didn't take her long at all. It makes me look forward to moving on to more complicated hides with Luke. It really is so much fun!
ReplyDeleteJan, Wag 'n Woof Pets
looks to me like it should be called Nosefun since it doesn't look like work!
ReplyDeleteShe is so very good at it. We hope one day she will be able to compete - she would win the gold medal for sure.
ReplyDeleteFirst -- nice job Shyla! We also do nosework with both our reactive dogs: Walter and Sherm. This sport is so much fun - and brings shy dogs out of their shells. I loved all your searches but the kitchen search was awesome. I think those interior searches are hard. Pooling and converging odor is tough for me to call and my guys don't have nearly as strong an alert as yours does! Sometimes Sherm looks at me but we haven't shaped that yet. Awesome post.
ReplyDeleteIsn't nose work an awesome sport! Bailie and I are in our 4th year of classes and we compete. It is such a great sport for everyone including the human! Hope you can get out and help your pup overcome some of her fears. We've seen a lot of fearful dogs learn to work even in scary environments, really amazing! Sniff on my friends!
ReplyDeleteBoy would we love to have nose. We have a hard time finding anything with our nose. When the snow melts can we come to your house for some training? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are just brilliant, Shyla! We love watching you work!
ReplyDeleteYou can really tell how much she enjoys her work.
ReplyDeleteYou have such an interesting blog. Thanks for sharing. I'm a life coach blogger. Reading blogs is my hobby and I randomly found your blog. I enjoyed reading your posts. All the best for your future blogging endeavors. Please keep in touch with me in Google+, +sridharchandrasekaran Twitter @lifecoachbloger
ReplyDeleteI'll be looking forward to seeing if you end up competing! Noseworks is great for shy or reactive dogs. Our trainer included the class as part of the reactive dog sequence, so that's how Barley and I got into it--several of the dogs in the class were reactive, but all of the dogs were so excited to be working that they didn't even care about the other dogs or the people. I think that at competitions things are pretty low-key in terms of not having a lot of dogs/people watching during your turns, so it might work really well for Shyla! Good luck!
ReplyDelete