Our first Nosework Trial

[JamieHalverson]

So Yogi and I had our first Nosework trial today... did not go so hot.We entered an elements specialty trial. There are four elements in Nosework - containers, interiors, exteriors and vehicles. Our trial was containers. There are four searches total, 4/4 earns a title, 3/4 is a leg. Yogi and I got 1/4 searches. So title wise, obviously we were not very successful!Yogi was so much more interested in trying to meet everyone at the search than he was in searching containers... We were successful in the very first search, then when we went to the second search I was overly confident and called it too soon. After that, he was totally off his game, I swear, he was like "boxes, what boxes? There's PEOPLE!!!!" The judge even chuckled at him. Then when I got him searching again he false alerted multple times, stepped on boxes, pawed and flipped over boxes, he was kind of a disaster. But a friendly, clownish, funny disaster, lol! He just does not have a strong work ethic, for him everything is just fun or it's not worth doing.We DID have fun, it was not a total failure as there is value and something to learn from every search. I REALLY learned where we need to go back and focus in our training for next time!

 

[Hector]

Of course things never go as expected!!! It's called real life!! lol I'm glad everyone had a good giggle, silly boy.

 

[EverythingEnglishMastiff]

Plus it was his first trial. It doesn't sound like he was in a closely controlled environment like he was in the classes. It should be fun or not worth doing. At least he doesn't do it because he's afraid to NOT do it. You'd prob get better results but you'd be a terrible person IMO. lol

 

[JamieHalverson]

Plus it was his first trial. It doesn't sound like he was in a closely controlled environment like he was in the classes. It should be fun or not worth doing. At least he doesn't do it because he's afraid to NOT do it. You'd prob get better results but you'd be a terrible person IMO. lol

I went in knowing we hadn't practiced as much as we should have, and I don't get too worked up over "failures". At the nosework trial I volunteered at in April, a woman was walking back to her car sobbing because they didn't earn their title. I know some people take titles and trialing VERY seriously, and that it takes a lot of work to get there, BUT when she was talking to her husband on the phone about it, she was totally blaming the dog. It was really pretty sad. You are totally right that it wasn't a closely controlled environment as in classes. We actually just finished a class that was held outside of the training facility at different locations every week. However, they are almost exclusively outdoors, it's pretty hard to find an indoor, public place you can take 4-8 dogs for a nosework class. We have had them at my boyfriend's game store, but other than that, I've never been to an indoor class. I think that is part of the issue, too. We need to find some random places we can set up a couple hides. I could do it at petco, and I know there are some bookstores and stuff around us that allow dogs, maybe I could try that. Yogi is also at the point of his training that he has started false alerting to get a treat. It was blatently obvious at the trial. He would paw multiple boxes and look at me like "ok, treat me!". He's learned the behavior of alerting gets a treat, and got lazy on actually identifying the odor. OMG, do you know what I realized as I was typing?!?! We've been practicing "touch", he was totally confused as to what I wanted, DAMN IT! Ok, no more touch for Yogi until we earn this damn title, lol!Anyway, that all tells me we need to really work in distractions and on odor obedience.

 

[EverythingEnglishMastiff]

Hey good catch! Glad I could help lololol