clearly the toy for a reward was a non-starter... my finger test for the air was that it was coming through the door and curling right over the odor...
in this case the odor was being drawn out the window by the little fan and it was just right at his nose level... he couldn't miss it.
this one he caught after he passed it... I forget what I found in the finger test...
I do think when we stood still and the dogs were faced with the "dead zone" it made this harder for them. In this one, he just wasn't getting enough and kinda stopped... until you tapped the wall and then when he got his nose close he found it.
The searches after this you were moving in with him...
About 2 seconds faster with you moving in with him.
I didn't see anything from the start line that he knew where it was, but he dived right to it once he got past it.
I'm inclined to think that moving through with them allows them to move back and forth over the threshold and makes it easier for them to get in odor - depending on which way the breeze moves.
This spot in the room is really a tough for them. I don't know why the air would be so dead right there, but it clearly is. I liked that you kept him moving. I think we should do this again someday and try two things... one is pairing. The other thing that I'd like to try is making it a room search off leash with a hide right there and then another somewhere else in the room. Just as a comparison.
Now the dreaded containers...
Interestingly he spends a bit of time on the odor bag, but then he leaves it. I think we need to find a way to get the reward for finding odor to be so powerful that he won't leave it. Its not healthfood, but maybe he needs a big chunk of muffin. You could try less messy things, like marshmallows (one of Gimme's faves). It may take experimentation to find what really flips his trigger and part of the picture might be the delivery. One thing we did see was that when he stalled and you repeated the search cue, he went right to it. So clearly he knew where it was. Also, look at his body language when you are giving him the treats... I don't see excitement to be getting it. He may like those treats well enough, but he doesn't loooooooove them. Both of which, I think, supports that the reward isn't valuable enough for him to commit to odor in the face of other possibilities.
Again, he got the odor bag fairly early and then left it. This one was faster and he was less persistent than the first container search.
Another thought that comes to mind is that for dogs even sniffing food is rewarding - self-rewarding. So I think, especially for Tucker, we need to keep him moving. And comparing these three searches... when you did keep him moving he was more persistent about the odor bag much sooner.
BTW how did he do with the bag of Fritos at the trial (one of the interiors)? I'm wondering if we might do well to introduce food distractions in other elements. We could play with that and see what kind of response we get. I know there was a food distraction in the last exterior search we did in class... but I think its important that we have containers he can't crush and also secured so he can't play with them either.
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