Her attention span is pretty short... the trainer did bring out a clear plastic rat house with a rat in it so she could see the actual rat and smell it, then have a visual to associate with the smell. She was much more interested in the rat in the clear house, then she was more willing to find the rat in the tube hidden in the hay.
She doesn't really have a high prey drive; honestly though, I think with a rat in a tube, prey drive doesn't have much to do with it, it's really like any other scent work. It could be anything in a tube, if that's what they are taught to find. It is different for dogs bred to hunt rodents, but for every other dog, I don't know that it's that much different (except the setting) than, say, nosework.
Lillie has literally sat on the deck and watched a chipmunk run right across in front of her, totally freaking out and chattering with legs flailing everywhere, and WATCHED it, without moving a muscle. It then hid under the deck on the other side and chattered angrily for about 5 minutes, she never once went to look for it...
