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.