OTCWF Intermediate Scent Work - Week 1

We rolled out just after 5pm.  It was a brisk 45 degrees.  I thought it felt good.

Poppy....

....Well not so much. 

Once we dropped her off at day care we headed out to the OTCWF.  The mirror room was set up for container and interior searches.

Waiting for class mates to arrive.

Oh I hear someone!

My class mates this term are Clooney the corgi, Caspers (From the trial) brother, and Cooper the JRT.

Miss Martha began the class letting us know what we were going to accomplish this term.  We are going to start handler discrimination. Our pawrents will get a glove to hold their scent and soon we will be able to find that glove in a standard container search.  In more advanced levels they will add a glove from the judge and we have to find the glove with mommas scent only.  Cool beans!  With the HD glove we must keep it separate from our oils/tins/supplies  and no other hooman can touch it as not to contaminate it.  The glove can only be touched and scented by our pawrent.  When training at home we train for it seperately as well.  Do birch hides one night and hd another.  We will also need a new command like "Find my glove" or "Find Momma".  This will help us determine that we are not looking for oil but searching for mommas scent/glove.  Not sure what I want to call it.  I may put an instagram poll out and have furiends vote.  In class we received our official HD glove,  labeled it wif our name and our pawrents initials.

Next Miss Martha went over buried hides.  New regulation are novice buried are in playground sand and more advanced levels are in water.  With sand she said the odor will go directly up then disperse throughout.  Sometimes going to the sides of the container before coming to the surface.  For practice the sand can be stored in air tight rubber maid containers and reused multiple times.  Just make sure to label the container used to hide the oil and only use it for hides.  Oil will stick in the sand and can confuse us.  Sometimes dogs can have issues of digging or nosing in sand.  Yea that would be me.  Martha said we can use a cooling rack over the sand to prevent this. 

We will also be adding vehicle searches.  Just like the drug detector dogs.  The hides will be along the front bumper only and elevated.  Vehicles are tricky sometimes the odor can fall back into the grill and go under the vehicle.  We will need to go back to the original training method of the treat on the tin.  This way it gets us interested in and finding value in looking at vehicles. 

In class we did vehicle searches, elevated interior searches and a refresher on container searches,   No buried or handler discrimination searches yet.  Containers was easy peasy.  Interiors were a bit tricky.  Those elevated hides bamboozle me.  Momma said thats our weak spot and we are going to incorporate them more and more.  For the vehicle searches the weather  was wet, cold and drizzly but that didn't stop me.  I found it quite refreshing.  The tricky part was again the elevation.  Even if it did take me longer I found all three.  Yippee!

Inbetween searches I found true love!  Momma may I go play?!?!!?

Mr Clooney the corgi. 

I shook my but in his face, play-bowed, jumped around and flirted.

He whispered sweet things in my ears.  Oh Mr Clooney!!!! 

All of a sudden it was 7pm and class was over.  The rumblings of the advanced class could be heard from the other room.  Time flies when your having fun.  I said good bye to my class mates, hello to old friends coming in for the advanced class and then hit the road.  I tried to take a photo of me and my HD glove but was much too tired so this is all momma could get. 

Sniffs,
Lucy