Scenting Videos

Cabana and I are signed up for a beginning scenting class this weekend, along with career changed pal Dagan. The instructor sent the students an email, saying that we should bring crates for our dogs to hang out in when it's not their turn and to bring some "stinky" treats. She also told us to watch this short clip on YouTube of a dog doing his first search exercise.


(Video description: a young doberman searches a line of empty boxes in a hallway, looking for a treat.)

After watching the video, I decided to practice with Cabana. She hasn't been in her crate for probably a year, so I figured it would be good for her to get comfortable with being in there again. I set up some empty boxes and put a treat in the one closest to me, thinking I'd make it "tough" on her by putting it far away from her. It didn't really work that way....


(Video description: Cabana is in a red collapsible crate in our backyard, she comes out when I call her and comes toward me; she gets treat out of the box closest to me and furthest from her crate.)

It was too easy, so on subsequent attempts, I tried to make it more difficult, moving the boxes in different configurations and even rubbing the treat in the other boxes to throw Cabana off the scent.

Here's a video of Cabana on her last exercise. I think she was getting tired (it was our 9th round), so she isn't searching with much zeal. Then, at the end, because I was having her get in her collapsible crate after each search, I told her to "kennel" (enter her crate). What she did INSTEAD is hilarious.


(Video description: Cabana comes out of her red crate and goes to our side yard where I have the boxes set up, she meanders about for a while, then finally finds the treat in the farthest box; she comes back toward me and around the corner toward her crate; I keep pointing at the crate while telling her to kennel; she ends up jumping on top of the crate and making it collapse.)

I don't know if Cabana got turned around and couldn't find the entrance to her kennel, or if she'd just had ENOUGH! In any case, she literally "packed it in" for the day.

Practicing Nice!

Nice!! Nais. Nice. My mother-in-law in Tennessee might say, "Naaahhhs."

Nice is our new marker word for Guide Dogs for the Blind. It is used for certain behaviors, like Go to Bed, that will be rewarded with a treat. When the dog does what we are trying to teach, we mark the behavior with a clipped "Nice!", and then the dog gets a treat.

Right now, we are familiarizing our pups with the word "Nice!". When they hear the word, they know a treat is coming. So, there's no behavior or expectation associated with the word yet. They do nothing at all, we say the word and give the treat.

Today, during our walk around SB Lake, I stopped to practice "Nice!" with Cabana. We don't want the dog to lunge for the treat, so I also practiced holding the treat out a few inches from Cabana's nose for a few seconds before giving it to her. Cabana did great with this, waiting patiently for the treat to come to her, rather than moving forward to grab it.

We also stopped a few times during our walk for Cabana to practice sitting. When our CFR was here a few weeks ago, she noticed that Cabana tends to take a few meandering steps before sitting, sometimes wrapping herself around my leg to sit in front of me, rather than facing forward at my side. So I've been practicing this regularly with Cabana during our walks, and she has improved. She still takes those extra steps sometimes, but I think she's getting it, by George.