Birch, Anise, and Clove. Oh, My!

Porter's Nose Work practice group met again today.

The other two dogs are on all three odors, so the first two times we met, I either paired the last two odors with birch or with his primary reward (food).  Today I did the same for the first half of practice. We ended on a vehicle search (three vehicles actually) and did three rounds so each odor was searched for. This time I did not pair and Porter easily found the anise and clove hides. I didn't delay, but jumped in to reward him the second I could tell he knew where it was. I didn't wait for him to give an alert, or more likely, second guess himself and move on. I'm very proud of my little hunter! He's doing amazing.

We haven't had any problems with marking even though Porter has no interest in peeing before a search. I give him the opportunity, but he knows what's going on and wants to just get right to it.

Our next goal is to widen the search area and practice on a big field with the hide somewhere in the grass or dirt instead of on an obvious object.