Nose Work Group Class Auditing-Class 1

Recently, I began auditing a nose work class with Pam Belcher, who gives classes in a couple of Maine Dog Training facilities.  The great thing about auditing a class is that without a dog it can be half the price.   The bad thing about auditing a class is you are without your dog.   Even if your dog is going to be in a crate for much of a class like this, this tends to be good experience for your dog.   However, I inquired too late, and figured this is something pretty simple that I can take home and do myself.

Apparently there is a sport out there where you can get nose work titles.   In fact, it appears there are events going on this year in Massachusetts.  I thought (in addition to tracking) this might be a good thing to get my dog, Leon, into.   Leon has bad knees, and therefore does not compete with me in obedience.  However, six year old Leon is a very active boy with a high drive level for fun and work.   Leon may pace himself, but even when having been heavily exercised during the day, he is the last one to want to stop even of the younger puppies.  Leon is also a show off and an attention hog .   So I have felt bad that he hasn't had the outings that he deserves for working and showing off.

So the first lesson was basic and easy stuff, as most first lessons are.   However, in any first lesson, the main point is to start the foundation to your goals down in an easy way for the dog (and yourself).   The quiet non interesting things are many times of such great importance to the training of the dog.   So it started with about six boxes, one that is used for treats although they are shuffled around.   The boxes started off in a line, and were uniform.   Ms. Belcher explained that uniform was not so important when you went home.   A bowl was places in the designated "food" box so as not to contaminate the box too much with odor.

Boxes were used to get the dogs used to putting their noses in the air to look, rather than looking on the floor.   The top of the boxes were open with the lids folded inward.  A bowl is placed in the designated "food box" to put food rewards in.   Then you bring your dog online or off leash to inspect the boxes, and select the one where the food is, which he/she is allowed to eat.  There are a few things that I did different than what they did in the class:

1. I do put my dogs in stay commands before they start.  I may very well rethink this if I do this as a sport, but in general my dogs need very little motivation to do this sort of work .   Again, I may rethink or regret this later on, but I am the sort of trainer who experiments and mixes stuff up.   I do take note of what I do different, so I can kick myself upside the head later.   The worst that happens is I need to develop fixes for mistakes that others may make.
2. I do not use the "smelliest" or "tastiest" treats possible as most of my and my clients dogs get quite excited over dog kibble.
3. I do have my dogs separated from the space the set up is in at the very beginning point, as they do not seem to have a problem with the concept, and I don't like to make it too easy for them.

Even more things that I was tempted to do differently:

1. I worry about putting treats that they may eat in the box at this point.   I would rather that they take them from my hands, as I suspect this may cause problems later on.   We will see, I figured I would experiment with this and see what I think will happen will happen.
2. I think I would start not with the line of boxes but with the mixed up boxes, as I think that makes it way too easy for the dogs, but I may be wrong.   I do understand the value of breaking things up into the smallest increments possible, and so I did not experiment with this:)

My work is a bit sloppy here (I say quiet at one point, and then realize that I have no intention of backing it up because I am trying to work another dog LOL---and other things like that), and my video awful, as I am multitasking.   I could not find my tripod attachment to the camera, this would have made this much easier.  I have now located it, so hopefully other days work won't make my audience quite so sea sick.

Oh and you might want to turn down the volume, as my puppy Boris is being crate trained (ie in that he needs to be in a crate with other dogs working and getting treated in front of him, I am not talking about basic in home crate training) in this video (translation squeaky male Doberman crying).   Leon is usually involved in the training, and he is being kept behind a mock wall in the basement while I work other dogs.   He hates this, and I am working him on this as I do want to bring him to group classes like this this year without him being a major SUPER BRAT, while he needs to watch others working.   YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED:)



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