Dave Kroyer Seminar 9/17/22, page 3
See An Illustrated Explanation of Nosework for Those Unfamiliar with It
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When we moved to the training arena, Dave worked all of us on detailing, which is helping the dog to search by our indicating where.  We worked “W’s,” alternating high and low, using wooden boxes.  Dave had us work down the line of boxes, then make a circle back to the beginning, so that we always worked the boxes in the same direction.  To test commitment to the indication, Dave had us drop the lead and keep walking when the dog indicated, then wait before clicking to release the dog to come to us for its reward.  After a while, Dave took pity on some of us who had long, fast moving dogs and separated the boxes farther from each other.

Detailing (W’s with boxes close together)

After that, Dave set up a HUGE interior search, using most of the arena with all kinds of items that could possibly hold a hide.  No one could watch the others work, so we all came into a blind search, and it was pretty intimidating, especially since we didn’t know how many hides there were.  A lot of teams struggled, and several dogs gave false indications.  Dave then helped the team find the one hide.

Hopeful doesn’t have a lot of experience yet, and it showed in today’s big interior search.  She got rattled in that HUGE area with all those things to check and finally false indicated when it was too much for her.  We took her over to the real hide and Dave helped her find it and be rewarded.  Next time she’ll be more confident.  I asked Dave for suggestions to deter Hopeful from body slamming me when I click to release her from an indication.  I know there’s a fine line between discouraging the inappropriate enthusiasm while encouraging enthusiasm for the hunt and the reward.  He pretty much said it will smooth out as she gets more experience – but he’s not the one who might be knocked down…

Interior search

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