When a partridge hunt turns into an iPhone hunt

A week ago Saturday (December 22), George and I took Alder (poodle) and Maple (golden retriever) hunting for gray partridges in a harvested wheat field.  It was not a bad day for this time of year.  Hardly any snow on the ground, temps in the mid-30s, occasional rain spitting.  We flushed a couple of coveys, but George didn’t have a good shot at either one. In the first flush, we had just finished having the dogs search through the cover on the slope in the picture below. 

After the dogs had covered the slope, we were paying more attention to our footing getting up to the top of the slope and ignoring the dogs.  Alder went tearing over the top and kicked up a flock on the other side of the slope. Later, as we were coming to the top of a different rise, I was insisting the dogs stay, although they were acting birdy, because I didn’t want them rushing ahead again.  We were both focused on the dogs when a flock took off very close by, and dropped low and out of sight, fast.  I’m sure the dogs were both wishing for better hunting companions.  Obviously we need to work on our human-dog teamwork.

Anyway, the day took a bad turn soon after that flush.  We were cutting back to the van when I realized I didn’t have my iPhone. We tried to retrace our path through the field.  Did you know that a few thousand acres of mud with leftover wheat straw looks pretty much the same in all directions?  Our footprints didn’t show in the semi-frozen mud.  We weren’t sure exactly which rises and draws we had walked through. 

After about an hour of fruitless tramping around, my initial panic subsided and it dawned on me that there might be an app for finding a lost iPhone. Using George’s phone, I did an app search and came up with Find My iPhone right away.  Hooray!!! It was just what the doctor ordered for this situation.  Using George’s iPhone, it would show the location of the lost phone on a map.  It installed quickly and asked me to log in with the account of the lost phone.  My euphoria increased with each password character I tapped in.  I was mentally writing a draft of my 5-star review for this wonderful app.  Wait.  What is this message?  “You have entered a valid Apple ID and password, but this iPhone is not registered on iCloud. For this app to work, the lost device must be registered on iCloud and have iCloud turned on in settings.” 

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! 

I told George to take his phone back RIGHT AWAY.  I had to get it out of my possession before I slung it out into the muddy fields and we had to replace two iPhones. 

After some more tramping through the fields, I remembered that I had looked at the Google Map satellite image before we turned back to the van.  Perhaps I had dropped the phone when I was returning it to my coat pocket with cold gloved hands.  I could picture the Google image. We had been on a ridge approximately in the middle of a V formed by the road curving below the field.  I had calmed down enough to be trusted to hold George’s phone again.  I followed his iphone map to approximately the map location I last remembered.

We tromped up and down the ridge in the mud a while longer. George continued to call my phone periodically, but we could not hear the soft ringtone in the wind.  It was George that saw the orange edge of the Otter Box case and the reflective Apple logo on the back of the phone, sticking up from a furrow in the field at about the location where I had looked at the map.  The phone had a few sprinkles of rain, but had suffered no damage. 

We were ecstatic, me because I had my phone back, George because he was the one that had found it.  He milked the moment for all it was worth.  He demanded I sing “You are my hero” all that way back to the van.

The story doesn’t end there.

On the way home, I set up my phone with an iCloud account so I could use the Find My iPhone app if the phone got lost again.  As soon as we got home, I wanted to try it out to see how well it worked. 

The rain was a little heavier by the time we got home.  I gave George my iPhone and sent him to the far corner of the yard.  I took George’s phone and signed on to Find My iPhone from inside the house.  Sure enough, George’s phone showed a green dot in the corner of our yard. It wasn’t exactly where George was standing, but I didn’t expect pinpoint accuracy with a phone GPS. I went out to tell George it worked.

“You still have to find the phone,” he said. 

“I found it,” I said.  “Look, it’s showing a green dot over there by the fence.  It’s within about 20 feet.”

“You better go get it, then,” he said.

“Give me the phone.  It’s raining.”

“It’s not on me.  You have to find it.”

What!!!???  Seems George had decided to turn the Find My iPhone test into a real test.  In the frickin’ rain.  With MY phone as the guinea pig.  So, after asking him at least 5 more times if he was kidding (because I couldn’t believe he would put my phone down in the yard in the rain), I was finally convinced and went looking for the phone.  At the edge of our yard is a 10-foot wide ditch, which we leave unmowed as wildlife habitat.  I’ve planted trees and shrubs among the tall grass and have a few brush piles for cover. 

I went to near the fence where the signal indicated the phone probably was.  “You’re close,” said George.  (He was risking his own life by being within earshot of me.) 

“It’s right under the pine tree there at the edge of the ditch,” he said.  “It should be right in front of you.”  I looked all over the ground near the indicated pine tree.  I saw no phone. George, muttering about my wretched eyesight, came to help.  He didn’t see the phone, either.

“I’ could have sworn it was this pine,” he said, “but maybe it was that one.”  I’ve planted three sapling pines on that side of the ditch.  There was no phone under the second one. There was no phone under the third one. 

I recanted all of the “You are my hero” verses I’d sung in the wheat field after we found the phone the first time.

We looked under all three pines again.  The rain was getting heavier. In the meantime, all four dogs had been bounding around us, happy that their people are outside playing in the ditch.  It dawned on me that one of the dogs was Maple.  Maple, who is notorious for picking up anything and everything.  Uh, oh.  I had the sinking feeling that Maple must have picked up the phone.  George had put the phone where the ground was fairly clear of vegetation, but Maple would only have had to carry it a couple of feet to drop it into dense vegetation or in one of the big piles of sticks.

George tried phoning my iPhone.  We didn’t hear a ring.  (As an aside, the Find My iPhone app can make the lost phone emit a loud tone for two minutes, even if the lost phone is set to mute.  We probably would have heard that tone, if we’d known the feature existed.  But I had not acquainted myself with all the app features and, standing the rain in the yard, I didn’t have the presence of mind to review the help section.)

“Maple,” I said, “Find mine.”  It’s the command I use for scent articles and for having Maple find misplaced toys.  Maple turned and went bouncing down the ditch.  She’s looking for a toy, I thought.  I went back to looking through the tall grass for the phone.  A few seconds later, George yelled. “Kelly, Maple has your phone in her mouth.”

The day had a certain symmetry.  George went from hero to dunderhead. Maple went from thieving devil to retrieving angel.  Guess I have to keep them both.

Today, by the way, is our 10-year anniversary.  We’re celebrating with a take-and-bake pizza from Papa Murphy’s and a movie on the DVR. Living it up on the Palouse.

Long Overdue Update

I see that it has been 2 months since my last post.  Yikes, time flies.

The executive summary since my last post:

In a word: Training.  In two words: More Training.  I’ve been training for Utility with Alder and Maple and occasionally polishing Maple’s Open training.  I didn’t show at all in obedience this fall. I learned my lesson with Alder in Open.  Don’t show until you’re reasonably sure you have a chance at a Q. 

There’s been lots and lots of hunt training with Maple.  I showed her a couple of times in hunt tests.  She now has 2 Junior Hunter legs (an AKC title that requires 4 legs) and 1 Started Retriever leg (a NAHRA title that also requires 4 legs).  A dog can coast through the beginning hunt test titles by relying mostly on retriever instincts with enough training for reasonable control.  The real training is needed for the higher titles.  I plan to have Maple ready to show at the intermediate level by next spring and show simultaneously in the intermediate and beginning levels until she finishes the beginning level titles.  You can do that in hunt tests; in fact, you can totally skip the lower levels if you want, which many pro handlers do.  I am such a novice at hunt tests that I still learn something new about test rules and handling techniques at every trial, so I plan to get both the intermediate and beginning titles.

Here’s a picture of Maple with her Junior Hunter ribbon at Scooteney Reservoir in eastern Washington state:

Articles: Nearly finished with this phase.

Both dogs were so consistent about getting the right article among 2 pairs of unscented articles, I added another pair of articles on a third mat a couple days ago, including an article dangling off a mat.   Neither dog was fazed by the additional pair.  I’m began to send them from about 20 to 25 feet and sometimes added a little formality.  Last night after training, I zip-tied the last two pairs of articles to the mats.  I let the articles and mats air overnight and tested the dogs today. 

No hesitation, and no problems with either. Obviously, they have figured out this article thing.  What a thrill!  The only other dog I’ve taught articles to was my first standard poodle, Hemlock.  He figured it out so quickly (I think with just 3 or 4 sloppy training attempts on my part), that I didn’t learn anything about really training it.  Hemlock, from the day I got him, would always seek items with my scent on it.  

On other training fronts, I’ve also been concentrating on Go-Outs and Directed Jumping this week.  Both dogs are now trotting (Alder) or running (Maple) to my PVC box in front of ring gates. Alder did a new thing tonight of running out, hopping in the box, and running right back, so I worked on getting him to run out and stay in the box.

Alder had a seizure on Sunday and another during the day on Monday.  He hadn’t had a seizure in over 6 months, so, of course, that was depressing, but the vets always tell me that an occasional break-through seizure is normal.  He was unusually perky and attentive in training this evening, probably because we are having a cool spell. The high today was 71.  I had to put on a jacket when I went out with the dogs this morning.  Summer, alas, is coming to an end.

A shout out in praise of technology

Saturday, I went to Spokane for a hunt training session with Maple.  Alder came along for the ride.  On the way back, the tire pressure light came on.  I nearly dismissed it, because it’s a little glitchy on the van.  Sometimes it comes on because it doesn’t get a reading from a tire.  The problem always goes away by the time I get it to a mechanic. So, I ignored it for a couple miles, thinking it was the old problem recurring, but finally ran through the tire pressures.

It was getting readings from all four tires.  Three tire pressures were between 35 and 37 psi. The left rear was 28 psi.  Okay, low, but not too alarming, except that I wondered why it would be low instead of high on a hot day.  (Gas expands in heat. The pressure should go up, not down.)  A mile or two more down the road and the pressure reading on the dashboard dropped to 27 psi.  Uh oh. Not good. Not good at all.

I was on a two-lane highway with a narrow shoulder running through vast rolling wheat fields. I had 2 dogs in the van and the temperatures were in the 90s, or probably closer to 100 on the black pavement. Colfax (the largest town between me and Pullman) was 25 miles away. Steptoe was 10 miles closer, but Steptoe is a speck on the map.  It’s not a one-stoplight town.  It has no stoplights, as far as I know. It probably has a couple of stop signs, but I know it has a little roadside mart with a couple of gas pumps. 

The tire pressure sank to 26, then 25, then 24…. It was dropping at the rate of about one psi/mile.  I was keeping one eye on the GPS watching the miles go by and one eye on tire pressure on the dash watching the psi drop.  (For those of you keeping track of eyes, I was watching the road with an eye, too.  Guess that makes three eyes.)  It was clear I’d be driving on the rim before I reached Colfax. 

The psi was 17 when I parked in the shade under the awning over the gas pumps at the little market in Steptoe.  The clerk gave me a phone book and I called Les Schwab in Colfax, thankfully open after noon on a Saturday.  They sent their roadside assistant fellow out to change the tire.  (Yeah, I know, I could have changed it myself, but it would have taken me a half hour of reading the owner’s manual to figure out how to crank that spare down from the cable that holds it underneath the van.  Also, I hate jacking up a car on those miniature emergency jacks.)

I am grateful for my van’s dashboard tire pressure indicator and warning light, even if it is glitchy sometimes. Without it, I would have had no idea the tire was losing air until it was flopping on the rim, probably between Steptoe and Colfax on a blazing hot highway with the two dogs in the van and no shade for miles. Technology is a wonderful thing.  (And so is Les Schwab’s roadside service.)

Tie-down mat pics

This blog has been long on text and short on photos lately, and now that I've remembered my cheap cell phone takes pictures, here is a shot of my tie-down mats for articles:

At this stage, I have 4 articles tied down to two mats with zip-ties. A close-up:

And last, a picture of the yard from our dining room.  Maple is wondering why I've quit training to stand on the deck and take bad pictures.  Alder is waiting his turn.

Maple's first Started pass in NAHRA

Maple has gotten 4 titles in her life: RN, RA, RE, and CD.  And how many title shots do I have of her?  A grand total of one, for her first title, the RN.  I think I have title shots for all of Alder's and Camas's titles. Maple is like that child with parents that took a million photos of their firstborn, and none of the later kids.  Maple always seemed to finish her titles on a Sunday when I was facing a long drive home and didn't want to corral the judge and photographer. 

Sunday, Maple got her first Started Retriever leg at the NAHRA trial.  (She got her first JH ribbon a month or two ago.  Junior Hunter is the AKC equivalent of SR in NAHRA.)  Our camera broke a few months ago, but I saw someone else taking a photo with a cell phone and (duh) thought "Hey, I have a cheapie, old cell phone, but it takes pictures!"  Well, sort of.  Ultra-low rez pics and I couldn't see the screen image in the sunshine.  Still, I decided I had to have a picture with one of the hunt test area ponds in the background.  I didn't get Maple's legs in the photo (because of that problem of not being able to see what I was shooting in the sunshine).  Her legs are pretty short, anyway. 

Here 'tis:

I'll tell you, one nice thing about hunt tests compared to obedience trials is that the background in hunt test photos is almost always more scenic than the background at an obedience trial.

Maple was HOT today in Started

Unfortunately, Maple was hot only in the sense that it was blazing hot today.  Not a cloud in the sky and nearly dead calm.  It was one of those days when you guzzle a quart of ice water and still don’t need to urinate because you’re sweating it out as fast as you drink it.

Started dogs had 3 land marks, all at 75 yards.  Maple nailed the first.  The second was thrown from under a tree to the base of a stand of sagebrush.  The path to the bird was through some brush and sticks.  Many of the dogs started hunting right after they went through the brush.  Maple kept going to the area of fall, but then couldn’t find the bird. The judge thought it was because the (very faint) breeze had completely died down and there was nothing to carry the scent.  But trying to analyze why dogs have trouble with some birds is a lot like trying to guess what they scent when they’re looking for an article. Who knows?  She looked for a long time in the heat.  I think she would have looked even longer if it had been cooler.

Since it was a small NAHRA trial and NAHRA is much less formal than AKC, the judges had the bird girl toss the second bird again so she could find it. They also let Maple get her third bird.  After the qualifying dogs had run their 2 water marks, they let the non-qualifiers run the water marks if we wanted to.  I most definitely wanted to, because retrieving in water is a big reward for Maple.  She got both her water marks, despite a detour on the first bird to check out the decoys.  I’m a bad trainer.  I bought a bunch of decoys a few weeks ago, but have twice forgotten to bring them when I’ve had a chance to train in water. Maple ignores them when I put them on the ground, but water is different. She needs to see more decoys in water in practice! 

The decoy incident was interesting in another way.  There were four decoys in a line parallel to the shore. The dogs had to swim through the line. Maple swam to the first decoy, quickly ascertained that it wasn’t a real duck, and swam down the rest of the line to check out all of the decoys.  The judge behind me commented that she would now go for the real bird. “If she still remembers where it is,” I said.  “I think she will,” he said.  Maple turned in the water and swam straight to where the duck was on shore. I guess she did remember it, after all.  On the second duck, she totally ignored the decoys and went straight for the duck. 

Poor Maple was panting all day long.  We went directly back to the hotel after the water series.  I turned the A/C so high I had to get under the covers.  Me and Maple napped and snacked the rest of the afternoon.

Article results continued

Articles and Alder

Alder was wrong on one of the articles on August 2, then correct every time until Aug 8, when he had issues with both.   The weird thing is that, on Aug 8, I was happier with his articles than on any of the prior times.  He was more enthusiastic.  He trotted out to the article mats instead of plodding slowly out.  He apparently understood the concept much sooner than Maple, but either lacked confidence or simply didn't like articles.

On Aug 8, he missed the metal, I think, because he didn't sniff carefully enough on the first article he came to, which happened to be the scented one.  His speed looked like  a sign of either increasing confidence or it indicated he was beginning to like the exercise.  When I sent him back again, he was more careful sniffing the articles and did not hesitate on the correct one.

On the leather article, he veered off with a hint of mischief in his eye and went to my training bag to look for his toy.  I should not have set it so close to the line.  Too much of a distraction at his fragile stage of confidence.  I kind of liked his little show of mischief.  With Alder, any sign of initiaitve is a good thing.   Overcoming his tendency towards passivity is a constant uphill battle with the dopey poodle boy. 

Maple and Articles

Maple seemed to take longer to understand the exercise.  Either that, or, being the determined little retrieving fanatic that she is, she HAD to test those tied-down articles.  On the occassionas when she has selected the wrong one, she didn't just give it a little test pull.  If it didn't move, she would put her back into trying to yank it up.  Good thing the rubber mats are heavy.  If I had been using a peg board, I'm sure she would have drug the whole board back.  No blankety-blank article is going to get the better of Maple if she has anything to say about it!

Future plans are to stay with the 4 tied-down articles until both can find the correct article reliably when sent from about 30 feet away.   Then we'll move to 6 tie-downs (3 pairs).

Article progress: up to 4 tie-downs

While I'm chilling out in a hotel room, I might as well post the scent article progress.  I am literally chilling; the A/C in this room is working great. 

Memory is a quirky, unreliable thing, so I am putting my results in  table.  Now to see if Blogspot can publish it without making it look weird.

Date, time	Number of articles tied down	Alder			Maple
		Metal	Leather	Comments	Metal	Leather	Comments
Aug 2	2	X	Yes		Yes	Yes
Aug 3, AM	2	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
Aug 3, PM	2	Yes	Yes	Very slow on return	Yes	X	Tugged at both metal and leather tie-downs. Scented article to side in grass. Not so obvious
Aug 5, AM	2	Yes	Yes	Did retrieve of lone scented, tossed articles first, with Alder on flexi. He walked out to mat, but tail up. On flexi, so return faster.	Yes	Yes	No problem at all, and perky on return.
Aug 6, AM	2	Yes	Yes	Removed flexi on second, and he was slow on return. Replaced, did metal again with flexi to encourage speed	Yes	Yes	No problem
Added a second mat and 2 more articles
Aug 6, PM	4	Yes	Yes	On a flexi.	X	Yes	Did Maple after Alder. Did leather first. Might have been lingering scent pool for metal or Maple might need to test. Tugged at both metal and leather tie-downs before selecting correct metal.
Aug 7, PM	4	Yes	Yes	On a flexi, slow out, but clearly understands. Very hot day	Yes	Yes	A little perkier than Alder. Didn’t test tie-downs today. Not sure how to speed up on out.
Aug 8, PM	4	X	X	Working from further away. On metal (first), checked all articles, but barely skimmed scented one, which was in front. I sent him again and he found it. On leather, took a detour to look for his toy in my training bag.	Yes	Yes	No problem

From a hotel room in Medical Lake

Maple is entered in a hunt test this weekend.  She'll be in Started (the beginner class) in NAHRA (North American Hunting Retriever Assn).  A couple months ago, at her first NAHRA event (and her second ever hunt test), she did great on her morning water retrieves in steady rain, wind, and temps in the 40s.  I don't know how she would have done on her land retrieves because, during the interval between water and land, we took a walk and Maple picked up a dead porcupine.  Yikes!  It was a long afternoon in a vet clinic.  

The conditions this weekend will be the opposite of her first NAHRA trial.  It will be hot and sunny.  Maple does much better in cold, wet, wind.  The big challenge tomorrow will be making sure she doesn't overheat.

So, it's Friday evening and it's just me and little Mapies in a hotel room in Medical Lake.  This afternoon, we checked out the walking path along Medical Lake.  The path is a nice biking path, but doesn't have very many places where we could get down to the shoreline.  Luckily, on a hot Friday afternoon, there wasn't much competition for the good shore locations.  We found a secluded spot where I could throw bumpers for Maple.  After a long drive, she needed some swim time.   I worked on getting her to carry the bumper out of the water and come directly to heel without dropping the bumper to shake first.

I brought a sheet to cover the hotel bed spread.  A damp and tired Maple is snoozing on it right now while I update my blog.

On to the tie-down board

At the end of the last scent article post, I had eliminated the food from the cookie tins. I tried a more formal test.  I lined up all four cookie tins with the scented tin in position one. I sent the dog to find the scented tin. Next try, I put the scented tin in position 2.  I moved the line on tins further down the driveway so that the unscented tin in position one was not sitting where the scented tin had been.  Next try, the scented tin was in position 3 and lastly in position 4.

Both dogs correctly identified the scented tin on the first try, were more tentative on the second, and seemed confused on the third and fourth.  I was scenting the scented tin by rubbing my hands all over it and rescenting for all tests.  It dawned on me that, even though I was shifting my line of tins further down the driveway each time, there might be so much scent wafting around from the scented tin, that they were confused.

The next day, I did not rub the scented tin on the outside. I rubbed the inside of the tin only and handled the articles.  I handled the scented tin from the outside, but only enough to close the lid and put the tin in place. I did only one rep with each dog. Both found the scented tin without difficulty.  I concluded that I should be much more careful about not overscenting the scented articles. I also thought I should be more careful to not scent the unscented articles. I was handling the scented articles with baggies over my hands, but baggies are somewhat porous. I know many good trainers say their dog uses “hot” scent and that they don’t worry about briefly touching the unscented articles. But, I think my dogs both have a very good sense of smell and drifting odor or lightly scented “unscented” articles confuses them. 

I felt, at this point, that the dogs more or less had the idea of looking for my scent.  It was time to move to the tie-down board.  The local hardware store didn’t have a peg board, but they did have a heavy rubber door mat made of strips of rubber with gaps between the strips. I bought a package of zip ties to tie down the articles.  I bought a pair of rubber gloves and I made a handle for the mat with a cheap leash (the kind they use at vet’s offices).  The evening before I introduced the dogs to the tie-down mat, I zip-tied one leather and one metal article to the mat and attached the leash handle.  I sat the mat outside in the shade on an outdoor table with a metal grid for a top.  I hosed down the mat with its articles and left it outside to dry and air overnight on the table.

The next day, I did only two reps with each dog, one with a scented metal and one with a scented leather.  I didn’t write down my results, but my recollection is that both dogs got one right and one wrong. The next day, Alder got both correctly while Maple spent a little time tugging on the tied-down metal article before she went for the scented leather.

Today, I made myself a table to record results.  I’ve decided I won’t add additional unscented articles until both dogs get each article correctly two days in a row. Today, Maple got both. Alder tried to take the tied-down leather before he picked up the correct scented metal. 

I have stopped rubbing the scented articles vigorously, as Janice DeMillo does in the Round-the-Clock method, to reduce the problem of a scent pool.  I like the tie-down method because I don’t have to correct the dogs.  They already have the scented cookie tin background to give them the idea that they are looking for scent.  The tie-down method lets them figure out, on their own, how to cope with drifting scent and to look for the correctly scented article.

Connie Cleveland’s description of her method called for a tie-down board with ALL the articles tied down initially.  The dog is supposed to paw at the scented article, like he did at the cookie tin.  Because my dogs have already done many partial starts of the Round-the-Clock method, I felt that would be too confusing.  They already know they are supposed to pick up an article.

I’m not concerned that neither one was error-free on the tie-down mat right away (although it would have been nice!). Because of my tooth issue, I have been on antibiotics since we started with the tie-down board.  I’ve heard that antibiotics can throw off a dog doing scent articles. Also, I think my overscenting of the cookie tin during that phase may have confused them a bit.  For now, they seem to have the idea and need to teach themselves how to solve the practical problem of drifting scent.

Speaking of the tooth…I took the day off work and napped and read all day.  A week of tooth pain, way too many NSAIDs, and not enough sleep at night, with all of it culminating in a root canal really wears at a person.  I feel great now.  No tooth pain to speak of and completely rested.  Now, my problem will be getting some sleep tonight so I can get up at 4 am tomorrow and go to work.

The joy of a root canal

Really, I’m not kidding.  I’ve heard it said that you need a root canal when you look forward to a root canal.  I was there today, let me tell ya’.

I’ve been a bad dental patient for about 3 years. I haven’t been going in for regular cleanings and check-ups.  The dental gods punished me this summer for my transgressions. An old crown broke in June and forced me into the dental chair.  The crown was replaced and teeth were cleaned and X-rayed.  Three cavities were discovered. The dentist warned me that one filling was very large and would most likely need a root canal. Things were hunky-dory for about a month after the fillings.  Then the tooth began to hurt. A lot. As in, pain radiating from that lower left molar to my left ear and down my neck.  The dentist tried a last option of antibiotics and pain meds.  I made it 5 days before I was ready to beg for a root canal.

The deed was done this morning. The pain is not entirely gone this afternoon, but it’s already much less than at any time in the past week.  I learned I have an unusual molar characteristic.  The dentist said most people have 3 nerve canals in the molar he worked on. About one in 20 or 30 people have 4 canals.  I have 4.  Not such a great thing when all four need are being drilled out, but interesting.

I’ve been lounging around the house recuperating all afternoon, alternating between reading a John Sandford novel and watching NCIS reruns on TV.  I am not much of a TV watcher.  I mean, won’t there be plenty of time for TV when I’m in a nursing home?  I’m not sure I’ve ever watched an entire NCIS episode before today.  TV, I must say, is a great thing when you are recovering from root canal surgery.  You don’t even have to push a button at the end of a Kindle page. You just lay there like blob and let it all flow over you.

Well, you could do that if you didn’t have DOGS!!! Not just any dogs. One type of dog in particular: a young golden retriever. Those three words (Young. Golden. Retriever.) should strike fear into the hearts of convalescents everywhere. Maple has kindly tolerated my slothfulness for the afternoon. (After all, I’m usually at work that time of day.) Now, the evening has arrived and she is ready for action. Groan.

Scent article frustration and progress

I’ve been working on and off at scent articles using the Round-the-Clock method.  It seems like a good method, and would probably have gone better if I had focused solely on RTC until the dogs understood completely.  As it was, I would get partway, be making some progress, and then slack off for some reason or other and then have to back way up when I returned to it.  One reason I tended to slack off is that it is very boring (for me) and time consuming. A bigger issue was the conflict with Maple’s hunt training and scent articles.

Hunt training and obedience overlap in many ways, but also have many areas of confusion.  One example is in how a dog in hunt training is conditioned to react to a pile of objects, such as bumpers.  In hunt training, a part of teaching fetch is “Force to Pile.” The dog is supposed to run to a set of bumpers, scattered a few inches apart, and grab a bumper without any “bumper shopping” (inspecting the bumpers and deciding which one he prefers to pick up).   Obviously, teaching scent articles involves teaching the exact opposite. The dog is supposed to “article shop.” 

So, Maple, the golden, was especially struggling to understand the scent articles. With RTC, as the cheese was removed, she couldn’t get it out of her head that the retrieve was the goal.  I read Connie Cleveland’s method of teaching scent articles in such a way that the scent detection was taught separately from the retrieve.  It sounded like a great idea.  She runs goldens in obedience and hunt/field tests, so she knows a heck of a lot more about training for both simultaneously than I do.

Before starting CC’s (Connie Cleveland’s) method, I needed four cookie tins big enough to hold two scent articles.  CC writes that she chose cookie tins, partly because “almost everyone has some packed way somewhere.”  I don’t know about everyone else, but, while I may have had a cookie tin or two sometime in the past, I didn’t have a single one at this time in my life.  Off to the department store, which had no cookie tins.  I tried the local store full of home craft, cutesy-type stuff. No luck.  The local Bed, Bath, and Beyond, chock full of any kitchen gadget you could ever want?  Sorry, try back closer to Christmas.  It turns out that July is not a good time to look for cookie tins. 

I briefly tried substituting disposable aluminum cake pans for the cookie tins.  I wired one on top of the other to make a cover. Within a few days, when the dog is supposed to paw at the correct container, it became obvious that my flimsy aluminum contraptions would be flatter than pancakes after a good pawing session.  I did what I should have done in the first place: resorted to the internet.  Did you know that there is website with the address www.cookietins.com? Neither did I, but if you are looking for cookie tins in July, it is the place to go.  I ordered 4 identical gold-colored cookie tins, 8 inches in diameter and about 3 inches high for about $25, including shipping. They arrived in about a week.  I punched holes in the lids with hammer and a screwdriver. I hammered the holes from the top side of the lid and pounded down the sharp edges on the underside.  I used a Sharpie to write 1, 2, and 3, respectively, on the tins I intended to leave unscented and wrote 6’s all over the one I would scent.  I used “6” for the scented one, because that’s the number of the article I scented in the RTC method. 

First step in CC’s description is to put the cookie tins, without their covers, in a row, being careful not to touch the unscented ones. Rub the scented tin and put a treat in the tin. Send dog.  Follow dog and give more treats and praise when the dog finds the tin with the treat. No surprise, Maple and Alder thought this game was pretty darn easy.

Next step: Put the lids (with holes) on the cookie tins, with the treat inside the scented tin.  Here, I ran into a problem.  Without the lids, I could handle the unscented tins with tongs. With the lids, the tongs didn’t work.  I eventually hit upon the idea of handling the unscented tins with my hand in an inverted sandwich bag.  I never reused the sandwich bags, even within a session.  CC says that the dog cannot simply sniff the tin with the treat and look at you.  He has to give a “persistent indication” meaning lots of pawing and nose shoving.  No problem.  Both dogs were happy to nudge the cookie tin, lick the top, and paw at it to try to get the treat.  Maple, persistent retriever that she is, could get her mouth around the edge and would try to drag it to me. I made an effort to walk in and praise and treat before she got that persistent.

Next step: Scent a leather and metal scent article and put those in the scented tin with the treat.  The lid is still on the cookie tin so the dogs cannot retrieve the article.  No problem.

The next step is the real test: Put a treat in all of the cookie tins to see whether the dog understands that he is looking for your scent and not the scent of the treat.  CC said her dog did not get it the first day.  He pushed tins at random and, when he didn’t get a response, would go to the next tin until, by chance, he got to the scented one. CC says she was quite discouraged that first day, but the next day, Micah (her dog) had figured it out.

My experience at this stage was less positive. Maple would paw at a container and, if she got no response, would usually try the next one.  If she hadn’t found the right one by the third attempt, she tended to go off and sniff grass.  I had to put a leash on her to keep her from wandering off. Alder was worse. He is a passive dog under the best of circumstances.  His response to anything he doesn’t understand is even more passivity.  The first day or two, he would put some effort into finding the right tin, and I thought he was getting it.  By the third or fourth day, he would go reluctantly to the tins, half-heartedly sniff and, if it wasn’t the right one, he would simply stand with his head hanging, staring into space.  The dogs were actually drooping when they saw the cookie tins come out. Clearly, this was not working.

I took a day off training to mull it over. I use treats all the time to train.  The dogs simply could not understand that they weren’t supposed to follow the treat, just as they often had in the past when I would initially train an exercise by luring. 

So, next training session, I deviated from CC’s description. I put down only the scented tin with no treat in it. I gave the command to Find Mine.  As soon as the dog sniffed the scented tin, I praised and treated. I did it again a couple of times, but now waiting for a more persistent indicator than a sniff. Then, I put out an unscented tin a foot away from the scented tin. Neither tin had a treat.  As soon as the dog sniffed the scented tin, I praised.  Next repetition, I waited for a more persistent indicator of the scented tin than a sniff.  Both dogs quickly figured out that they needed to find and paw at the scented tin. 

Today, I started with two tins, one scented, one not, neither with a treat. On the next rep, I added the two other unscented tins.  The first couple of times with four tins, both dogs would sniff a bit at the unscented tins but would quickly move to the scented tin. Finally, we seem to be back on track.

For my dogs, I think that, up to the step of putting treats in all the tins, the dogs were well on their way to knowing what I wanted, but that the treat in all the tins only confused them.  Why could my dogs not figure it out while Connie Cleveland’s dog could?  Who knows?  Maybe, in retrospect, my treats (a piece of string cheese) were too alluring?  Perhaps a boring piece of dry dog food would have been less distracting. Maybe it was because they had both spent so much time on the RTC method, they were too conditioned to look for the scent of cheese.

Regardless, I am now feeling more encouraged and ready to move to the next steps once we have a few more days of tins without treats.