NW2 Clinic

In April, Porter and I attended a seminar to work on NW2 hides. Although I've read the rules over and over, I learned a lot of small details and cleared up how things are run.

I rarely do multiple hides with Porter and it shows. I'm horrible in my handling when it comes to preventing him from getting back tot he first hide he found. He's much quicker and stronger than I expect, although you'd think after a few times I'd learn, but not quite yet.

We avoided a lot of multiple hides earlier in our training since I wanted Porter to stay at source no matter what. I've seen other dogs find a hide but quickly move on in search of another. If their alert is subtle and their handler wasn't paying close enough attention the handler might miss that first hide. ome dogs might get back there and re-alert...others won't if they were not rewarded the first time. Plus I didn't want to get ahead of ourselves and focused mainly on NW1 strategies. But now I need to step up our training so we are prepared when a trial is close enough for us to enter. Currently all the NW2 trials that are on the books are several states away. Two friends are headed to Colorado next month for one.

At this seminar I elected to keep Porter on leash when we did interiors searches so I had more control over where he went and to prevent him from going back to the first hide over and over and over again. The first room was very small and packed with round lunch tables and chairs, so it wasn't easy to get out of his way. Once he found the first hide he did manage to make it back there once or twice more. I used the leash as well as blocking with my body to keep him from accessing that corner again. Unfortunately I realized that he wasn't finding odor on the side of the room he was on and to get to the fourth corner we had to pass the first hide very closely. It was tough, but I did it...hopefully without too much manhandling (doghandling?). He still found both hides in under 2 minutes.

The next room was larger with everything along the walls and Porter did very well. The second hide was inside a file cabinet but at first I thought he was showing a lot of interest in a small radio next to it. Luckily I waited him out until he committed and we got it correct.

The best part of the day was our exterior search. Porter was #7 on the running order, and all but one or two dogs before him peed (and one even pooped) on the course. Some of those dogs had a second turn before we went, and they peed again! Porter normally doesn't pee while searching, but just the week before when we were entertaining and out of town fellow certified nose work instructor, both of our males peed in the search area! I was floored.

So with all of that in mind I watched Porter like a hawk. He quickly started sniffing in the grass and I recognized it as his "I'm smelling pee" sniffing and moved him on. Later he beelined to a spot in the dirt where I could clearly see the dampness from another dog's pee, so I redirected elsewhere.

I was so proud he did not pee!! But...we did have trouble finding the last hide. I did not take the time to really look at the search area well or the way the wind was moving and we go stuck along a wall and some tall bushes where the wind was causing the odor to pool. Porter and I were circling and circling and instead of realizing he wasn't being productive and perhaps moving up wind, we kept at it. I need to tink strategy for when we get into a bind.