Scentwork class 05/28
What I love most about this is how clearly I can see her work the whole space. Even more, we see a working breed work the perimeter, as they tend to be big on, in order to follow the odor to the center of the room.
Frank helped teach scentwork this morning and was a good sport for my buried/container combo. #scentwork#dogtraining
Frank worked hard tonight on his supervised separation/out of sight stay with duration in Home Depot. A month ago when we first introduced this exercise here the distractions were really tough for little Frank and the stress of being separated from his human was a lot. Tonight after a lot of practice, we returned to Home Depot on a busy night. He knocked this out of the park and speaks to how much work his humans have been putting into him. #dachshund #dogtraining #positivereinforcement
For our last intro to scentwork class I wanted to work on levels but more importantly for our last hides before the new year I wanted to make sure they won. What I mean is: we used a familiar (containers) and each container had something in it. We had some challenging hides today so we were going to end on a high positive where all the choices were valued choices. Can’t wait to work with them again in the new year! #scentwork #dogtraining #sportdog #positivereinforcement #corgi #cairnterrier
A case of the yips
Vienna and I, I think, are a little rusty when it comes to our scentwork training. In the last year she definitely lost out on training time in part because of weather, in part because of the wedding. We have jumped back into trialing at the next level but what I think has happened as I reflect is that I should have taken the time to catch us back up. Instead we have hit a rough patch sprinkled with some Qs but also with false alerts and not saying alert fast enough and timing out. Truthfully, we’re having a confidence issue as a team. When you were a team that placed in nearly all of their runs to now not trusting each other, it forces you to take a step back and reflect. What would I tell a student in these moments? Take a step back and make it fun again. Practice winning again. So we’re practicing winning again and having fun.
Week 5: intro to scentwork
Intro to Scentwork: Week 5!
From week 1 until now I have had the opportunity to watch Kenzie come out of her she’ll and gain confidence in her own nose! This week we focused on both containers and some shelf searches.
We’re more than a little excited. Need an outlet for your dog? Sign up for scentwork. Want something to do with your dog but you’ve already done obedience? Sign up for scentwork. Need to give your unconfident dog some confidence? Sign up for scentwork. Have a dog that maybe for whatever reason cannot participate in other sports because of age or eyesight or such? Sign up for scentwork.
Brought a long a familiar face to help teach distraction work in Home Depot today. Here Frank is demonstrating his down stay while a child skipped nearby.
Teaching puppies to enjoy their first walks on leash with their people, is one of the simple joys I have the honor to be able to witness. #dogtraining #positivereinforcement #leashwalking #puppies
Spend a Saturday training with me!
All dogs need enrichment but it’s especially true of dogs bred to work and hunt. My dogs are trained in scentwork, but my dachshunds also do Earthdog. We just got a tunnel to practice going to ground, and it will help keep them tired while also tapping into that part of their brains that is related to the instinct to go to ground.
