Zora found my glove!!
Ok the start at the beginning
Today we went on our usual Tuesday walk with our friends.
Usually on Tuesdays we go to a different place to walk, but they recently decided to make that place “on leash only” and they made some “improvements” so there have been people there lately. Which we chose our walking spots by the chance we won’t see another living soul. So anyway, no more going there for us.
Instead today we went to another state park. In part because it was cold enough we figured no one else would be there. Otherwise the place can be very crowded, so we only go there on rainy, snowy, or super cold days. We were right. Today it was dead. Because so few people were there, the dogs could be off leash the majority of the walk
So about 2/3 way around the big loop there is a huge huge field the dogs like the run and sniff and chase balls in. We did that and as we were wrapping it up there to continue our walk, I realized “crap, I lost a glove!”
In this huge field. No idea where I’d lost it. Or where it was. Crud crud crud.
Then I thought “Wait! Zora has been doing really well with her scent discrimination practice, it’s a long shot but let’s see…”
“Zora, mine”
And she found my glove!!!!
The skill works in real life!! So super cool!
Yay Zora!
I was thinking of teaching scent discrimination, and I saw that All Dogs Are Smart had several videos on it. Was there a particular video/method you used, or did you just do it your own way?
Um, I meshed together bits and pieces from a number of methods. I used canning lids and plastic container lids to start. I never ‘baited’ anything with food actually on it, but rewarded with food on it. Started with lie down head resting on the correct one. then switched to leather, metal and wood dumbbells with a retrieve. Started with 1 then built up quickly to multiples of diff kinds. found having my husband do a couple with me early on helped her to solidify it was MY scent I wanted her to find. I had a systematic process but it wasn’t any one system.
Cool!
This is awesome! I love seeing practice turn into something in real life. Bruin, my dog found bentley, my other dogs boot after it flung off in the snow, it was so exciting!!!
Yay Bruin! That’s super exciting!