Meet Cuilan
Cuilan does Scentwork with For Paws
A few months ago, Cuilan was finding scentwork a bit hard, he was giving a few false indications
It was suggested by another trainer that Cuilan didn't really know what he was doing & would just find the scent by accident
Having known Cullan since he was a pup, I knew how much Cuilan likes to please and how much he needs to know he's doing the 'right thing'
We reduced the length of his indication so he got his rewards quicker, changed to working him on lead so that connection is always there between him & his human Mum and when he had to give indications on different finds in one search, we slowly built up those multiple hides and gave Cuilan a 'reset' cue in between each indication
All this, along with homework, and most of all, making sure that everything remained relaxed & fun for Cuilan, has led to a huge improvement
His Mum has learnt to handle him on a longer lead, to stay calm & encouraging and helped boost his confidence
Cuilan is happy to give multiple find indications in one search, has developed a lovely calm methodical way of searching, is giving less false indications & is happily searching without getting stressed
Here's a quick video from the wkend, with some lovely indications
The first find is a hard one as it's right at the beginning of the search area. Cuilan used to rush along, missing areas as he was so eager to get things right
Now look at how steady & thorough he was
Isn't he a handsome lad, but most importantly, he's a happy handsome lad 💙