Yogi passed his ORT!!!

[JamieHalverson]

So proud of my boy! He passed his first birch ORT.

I was pretty confident that HE knew he searches for birch

but I was less confident that *I* would read his alert

.

And, I was kind of worried that we've had less time to train since bringing home Lillie, but he was ON IT!

So now we are going to enter our first NW1 trial in Sept. Can hardly wait!

Ok, so all that said, to any of you who train in NW, Yogi literally walked OVER the entire first row of boxes, flipping them over, stepping on them etc. He's kind of like a bull in a china shop... This is o.k. at an ORT, but can be disqualifying at a trial. Any advice on getting him to be a little more gentle while searching? You really don't want to correct any behavior while searching, or rewarding anything but finding the odor, so I'm kind of at a loss.

 

[tmricciuto]

No help here, but my girls are definitely less than graceful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hector]

Can you cue him onto the next box before he steps all over it or even guide him with a leash and not give him enough slack to walk all over it? Can you use your hands as a barrier to keep him back?

Good luck in the trial!

 

[JamieHalverson]

Can you cue him onto the next box before he steps all over it or even guide him with a leash and not give him enough slack to walk all over it? Can you use your hands as a barrier to keep him back?

Good luck in the trial!

Thank you!

Nope, no guidance. You kind of just let them go where their nose takes them and keep up

 

[maryl]

Can you set the boxes farther apart when you are practicing and then gradually tightening them up as he becomes more proficient?

 

[Hector]

Can you practice at home and maybe shape that behavior of not killing the boxes?

 

[JamieHalverson]

Ok, so got some clarification from my trainer. Killing boxes is NOT disqualifying in a trial, it is a fault. And not a huge deal! Yay!

She also said the best way to work through it is just end the game if he steps on boxes, all the fun is over, rather than try to direct or otherwise "train" out that behavior. You really just want nosework to be 100% positive with the only direction to be to get them back on task if they get distracted or such. It is all about letting the dog lead the way with their nose and rewarding when correct. If you try to redirect or correct anything, you could be "pulling" them away from odor or discouraging them and you won't have a dog that's confident in either their ability or what you actually want from them.

I'm so glad it's not disqualifying, that would have been a pretty big obstacle to overcome for Yogi...

 

[Hector]

Oh great to hear! Excited for the both of you!

 

[KMD]

Congratulations!!!!