Course Details
Do you have a dog who tends to find hides by accidentally bumping into them? Does your dog tend to check objects verses working the air for scent? Is your dog better searching an area with LOTS of hides verses a single hide?
Often we create a “nook and cranny” type search style when we focus on object searches and get too involved with over directing our dog around a search area. We can also get multiple hide happy and forget about the importance of finding one hide in a large area. Quite honestly it is easier to find those 8 hides verses those 1-2 hides in a search area!
We can let the natural wind direction do the heavy lifting for us! Our dogs do this naturally, but not necessarily for essential odor scent plumes. We need to set up these more natural scent environments for our canine olfactory specialists!
We want to teach our dogs not to rely on objects to search for odor. They can learn to rely on their natural air scenting ability to direct them where to go. This can be very hard for dogs who tend to work small areas, are handler focused and depend on us to cover an area.
The longer we set hides on predictable objects, they default to using past memory experiences to check for hides and don't learn to check the air for information. I've seen many dogs panting in a search and only close their mouth to take in odor when they get to objects - they won't source those hides that are not on obvious areas (ground, tree, pole).
Start this NOW with your experienced and young dogs !! Getting our young dogs used to working areas void of objects is as important as working cluttered areas!
The drills we will cover are:
- Working down wind of odor so the scent plume is blowing into your face.
- Working perpendicular to the scent
- Ground hides.
- Large opwn areas.
- How to play indoors!
- Building up to Elevated hides
You will need a large outdoor area that your dog will comfortably work, ideally OFF leash but you can also work ON leash. Tennis courts and secure parks are ideal for this setup!
Supplies needed: Large tin or teaball and lots of scented qtips!
Watch the Trailer:
Lecture Publish Date: Sunday July 19
Video Submissions Due Date: Sunday July 26 @ 12pm noon PT
Feedback & Questions Video Publish Date: Wednesday July 29
[INST]
