Large machinery can make for big fun if you are a nose work dog! Minnesota has two seasons – winter and construction. We are now officially in construction season. Around our neighborhood the streets are all being torn up and worked on which makes driving no fun. Lucky for us we can still have fun practicing nose work on the jumbo vehicles on the weekends.
What do these big pieces of machinery have to do with nose work? At trials one normally sees cars or vans, right? Well, if you go to a trial out on a farm, you may search a big tractor or other farm equipment. Some dogs may be afraid of the size of the machinery, and then there are all the smells from the dirt and stuff to work through. Bailie did search on a farm a few years ago and found a hide on a giant tractor!
I was sniffing the back of one of the giant dump trucks. There was so much dried dirt and mud, Mom said he had a hard time getting a hide to stick! I sniffed around and found it. Emma also practiced sniffing on big farm machinery, but it was clean stuff at a John Deere dealer.
Olivia was sniffing around one of the tires. She is a tall girl, but not in comparison to these wheels!
Mom used our 3D printer containers for some of the hides because they blend in with the machinery colors so well.
She placed on on the front of one of the big dump trucks. I sniffed around for a while and then I stood on my back paws and got my nose on the odor. Good thing I’m a pro at balancing on the back paws!
Olivia did some bracketing before settling in on the source of the odor. She started off to the right of it.
Next she passed the hide and went to the left. Bracketing is when we find the edges of the odor and work our way in to the source. Since Olivia is tall, it was an easier hide for her than it was for me. Where the odor travels depends on the wind, and where the hide is places. It was coming from behind and under the machine and probably pushing the odor up and out.
Alas, she found the source. For a young one, she is a lot of fun to watch. Olivia takes her work very seriously. Can you believe she is tall enough to get her nose on the hide while sitting down! Oh man!
I got to find another hide on the side of one of these big things. Mom says it was swirling around in there a bit as I kept going in circles trying to locate the source. Eventually, I tracked down the location which is right behind me in this photo.
The bucket on the other piece of large machinery was an interesting hide. Being high made it difficult, as well as the fact that there was a gap between where we could put our paws and the odor. I’m too short, so Mom has to read my behavior to see that I’m telling her it is up there, but I can’t reach it.
Of course, my tall baby sister can get her nose right on it. Olivia is also pretty fearless, and we hope she stays that way. Jumping up and putting her paws on things is not a problem for her. Many people and dogs are bored with the stay at home thing, but we are thankful to have lots of sports practice. It is fun, and also wears us out mentally. Every weekend there are different machines in different places for us to practice on, lucky us!
My GBGV Life is joining Brian’s Home Blog in the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
that was such a super idea to go out and to do some nose work…not only our paws need eggs-ercising our head needs it too… before we end like our mama who has no clue what day we have LOL
Mental exercise is exhausting but we love it.
Those machines are so BIG! You and Olivia did pawsome, and you have fun in the process. I am going with Puffin to her basic obedience class this evening. YAY! XOXO, Sparkle
Cool! We can’t have school because of the virus. Hopefully soon we will get to go again. Have fun.
My goodness, y’all sure did great with all that big equipment and it looks like you had fun practicing! Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
Lots of fun, hard work, and good sniffing.
Wow, what an awesome place to practice! I love those hide containers – very clever.
They are pretty cool. We have lots of containers, but they are the most unique.
What a great event, good work!
Nice spot to work on our sniffing.
That’s some very good work. You got to capture all those smells and you know how to do that.
Have a woof woof Thankful Thursday. My best to your siblings and your wonderful mom. ♥
Sniffing big dirty vehicles is always fun.
These are awesome! Creative nose work at it’s best! The photos tell great stories! Thank for sharing ,you girls! You sure have a fun mom!
We have to stay in practice so we can do well once trials start again.
Wow – you girls sure are brave around those big machines. Don’t forget to wear hard hats at the job site.
We go on the weekends so no one can bother us 🙂
You girls are very brave to be around such huge machines! Great job on your nose work finds!
Thank you. It was some fun sniffing practice.
That is so cool that you have such great places to practice all the time. We have some machinery around here on the farm, but nothing that big! Great job, girls! It’s amazing how tall Olivia has gotten.
I’m sure Luke would enjoy practicing on your own vehicles and machinery.
How fun to be able to keep up your nose work! You can keep busy AND have fun!
xoxo,
Rosy, Jakey & Arty
We have to keep practicing our sports so we are ready when we can compete again.
That looks like so much FUN!!!!! I do that with Shyla sometimes but she’s not a pro like you three. I am so impressed with you three.
Doing it just for fun is a great thing, and that is what Shyla does. We are on the mission to compete, so we have to practice more and work on difficult puzzles. Hopefully competitions will start again one day. We really miss them, and our friends there too.
Glad y’all are gettin in some practice.
Practice makes perfect is what they tell us.
Hip hooray for great practice sessions! Thanks so much for the photos, i love seeing these girls at work.
We love doing our sports, and Mom is always amazed at how we work.
Good work, those are some big equipment.
They have some super huge machines!
What an exciting way to practice your scents! Y’all should try to drive o e of those big trucks. Heeheehee!
I think if the motor turned on, we would run for the hills!