Nose Work Practice

[gsdraven]

Raven and I had out first Nose Work class last Saturday and were doing our homework for the first time tonight. I decided to video it but was sort of sorry I did! Her first couple of tries were a complete fail! She kept coming to sit in front of me waiting for treats. I am also talking to them WAY too much.

Here are a couple of videos of her "runs". Kaiser is whining in the background.

Raven Fail:

You Tube

You Tube

Raven Win:

You Tube

You Tube

Kaiser has never been to a Nose Work class but is a food hound so I gave him a shot.

Kaiser Fail (first try ever):

You Tube

You Tube

Kaiser Win (second try ever):

You Tube

You Tube

Raven did very well in class on Saturday. By her 3rd run, she was going straight for the box with the treats in it.

[LaRen616]

I like these videos Jamie.

I play find it with shoes and I also play find it by dragging the treat around the house making a scent trail and then I hide it.

I bet Sin and I would love nose work.

I would love to see a video of you guys trying this outside or in a bigger area!

[gsdraven]

Originally Posted by LaRen616

I would love to see a video of you guys trying this outside or in a bigger area!

The instructor asked us not to do it outside yet since there are too many other smells and the tendency of dogs to relieve themself while they should be working. We'll do it outside in a few weeks.

Are you saying my living room is too small?

[LaRen616]

Originally Posted by gsdraven

The instructor asked us not to do it outside yet since there are too many other smells and the tendency of dogs to relieve themself while they should be working. We'll do it outside in a few weeks.

Are you saying my living room is too small?

hahahahaha! No I am not saying that your living room is too small, I am only saying that I would like to see more boxes, spread out, in a slightly larger enviorment.

[jocoyn]

From working a cadaver dog, the tendency to mark (intact male) is strong and regular correction of it during training really helps.

However you need to really get them to empty bowels on command and before working. I have had several telll me that it is not so much the odor of anything but they often tend to defecate once they start working an area for scent.

So we always break our dogs first and I have a "poo" command.

So do they imprint the nosework dogs on the target odors [I think they are aromatic scents like peppermint or something] using boxes? A lot of detector dogs have gotten away from that and gone to scented throws or hides (start with hunting) but then they may have to work hours (We just got back from a 20 acre negative [we know that] real life search area then had to go back and work another negative 5 acrea area {pond] on an actual search.

[gsdraven]

Originally Posted by jocoyn

From working a cadaver dog, the tendency to mark (intact male) is strong and regular correction of it during training really helps.

However you need to really get them to empty bowels on command and before working. I have had several telll me that it is not so much the odor of anything but they often tend to defecate once they start working an area for scent.

The instructor did mention that we will work on this later. Raven doesn't typically go to the bathroom anywhere but her yard so I'm not worried about it with her. Kaiser does go on command but also marks.

Originally Posted by jocoyn

So do they imprint the nosework dogs on the target odors [I think they are aromatic scents like peppermint or something] using boxes?

From what I've read and seen, they do continue to use boxes once they start using target odors. Right now, we are only using smelly treats to get them started. Intro to Odor is the next class.

I hope I answered your question right. This is all new to me so I'm just learning.

[gsdraven]

Originally Posted by jocoyn

From working a cadaver dog, the tendency to mark (intact male) is strong and regular correction of it during training really helps.

I'll keep this in mind for later. Right now, they aren't allowing us to correct at all. Raven was barking in her crate during class and I just turned and said "Hey" and got yelled at for correcting her.

[jocoyn]

Originally Posted by gsdraven

From what I've read and seen, they do continue to use boxes once they start using target odors. Right now, we are only using smelly treats to get them started. Intro to Odor is the next class.

I hope I answered your question right. This is all new to me so I'm just learning.

Just curious - it is a tried and true and fast method. We have gone away from it seeng a little more handler dependance and tendency to false alert using the boxes than with starting with scented throws.

[jocoyn]

Originally Posted by gsdraven

I'll keep this in mind for later. Right now, they aren't allowing us to correct at all. Raven was barking in her crate during class and I just turned and said "Hey" and got yelled at for correcting her.

They may not be as used to dogs with working drives - where a correction won't shut them down.

[Minnieski]

We're just starting nose work too! Thanks for posting the videos, it's fun to see your dogs work!