We are teaming up for sniffing practices at our house these days. We have a lot of sniffing in the next six weeks or so. All of us are at different levels and have different struggles. To make things easier, Mom pairs us up for practice. Nelson and I practice together most of the time and Madison and Bailie work together. Sometimes I practice with Madison too. Nelson and I are also working on tracking together, and he is working on some CGC training. The above photo is from an outdoor session the other day with the hide under the trash can lid.
Nelson and I have no issues with motivation. We are both eager to search and work really hard at it. I’m at the highest level, Summit, Nelson is at NW3. Even at high levels there are easy hides as a lot of that game is a human mind game. Mom likes to challenge Nelson with tougher puzzles to help him be a better searcher, so we work well together. She put a hide on the counter of the food kiosk. It was not easy for Nelson to figure it out, but he did. As you can see it was “a stretch” for the young guy, LOL! The odor is in the round smiley face tin in the middle.
We love to practice outdoors and now that kids are in school and the weather is cooler, we can practice at parks during the day. Both of us started our practice with a high hide on this utility post thing. I caught the odor from behind first.
My nose took me around the post to the front where I could stretch and get my nose right on the tube with the odor. You can see the odor right in front of me nose between the boards.
Nelson wandered around first and then caught the odor and also was able to get his nose on it.
We have a lot of sniff trials at camps, so it is important for us to learn to work through all the great smells of squirrels, dropped food, dog pee, and more. Picnic tables are a common place to put hides and they are full of smells. No problem, I can find what I am looking for and get treats from my mom.
Nelson also searched the picnic pavilion looking for three hides. It takes him longer than it does me, but he is three years younger. For his age, he is doing fantastic. The hides were placed in a triangle on different tables, so we had to sort out the converging odor of all three.
Lastly, Nelson had this sign hide. This is tricky as it is above his head, and he will have to figure out how to get to it. He knew quickly there was a hide up there somewhere. To you it may look easy, but we don’t know what this “stand” is. Can we put our paws on it? Will it move?
Mom gave him some support to put his paws up on it and he did. There is the hide, and do you see his tongue? He knows a treat is about to land in his mouth.
Being out in nature to practice sports is always a lot of fun. We are happy there are so many places to go and work. Hopefully our practicing will bring some good results at upcoming trials.
I’m joining my friends at Living Laughing and Barking in Our Backyard for their Nature Friday blog hop.
Good job, Olivia and Nelson. Practice makes perfect!
We sure hope so. There is always more learning to do too!
The photo on today’s blogpost is Mackie’s dad – my ex for 44 years. His services are today.
I’m sorry. We didn’t know but figured it must be someone special in your lives. Hugs to you.
I miss our sniffer classes! I’m hoping we can start going intermittently in the next week or so. Especially since we are trying our first Barnhunt trial in two weeks! We are excited but a little nervous too. So many rules!
Have fun at barn hunt and enjoy novice. Except for Madison who just enjoys the hunt, we don’t do well after novice because we want to be paid for every rat and waiting until we find more than one to get out of the ring for a treat makes us go on strike, LOL! Happy hunting!
we wish you lots of success for your sniffing events… … oh and better run when it comes to such blue cans… oscar the grouch can be inside…
Yikes! If he popped out I would never sniff a can again.
I love team work! We are heading out to Purina for FASTCAT. I’m excited because I haven’t run in a year or so – what with having puppies and all.
I am going to try to do a couple runs this weekend since they have day of show entry and we didn’t know there was FastCAT this weekend. Maybe we will see you there, but Nelson and showing is the priority.
OMDs your have very valuable and hard working sniffers. Whomever does the hiding surley has to work twice as hard to make sure you 4 are challenged.
Hugs cecilia
Mom runs out of ideas sometimes but she usually comes up with a good puzzle or two.
Mom worked you very hard. Practice makes perfect
We do work hard at sniffing but we love it.
You are so nosey – literally!
Very nosy!
Great work Nelson and Olivia. Zachary is going to be sniffing at a nosework trial on Tuesday, and we will practice a little this weekend.
Have a blast! What trial type are you in?
It looks like your practice time is lots of fun and you’re continuing to learn more things about hiding spots!
There is always something to learn about how odor travels.
Team work makes the dream work, right? Good job working together on those sniffing skills, Olivia and Nelson! 🙂
Most of our dog sports are all about the team.