A Nose With Feet

Here it is folks, the blizzard search. This search began at the threshold coming from inside a barn into the exterior area. When we started this search, the wind, snow and hail were driving right at the start line and Winnie thought it was best to stay inside. With a little encouragement, she finally stepped out but stayed near the building for shelter. With how hard the wind was blowing, I can't believe she was catching odor from the bathrooms on the far side, but she ventured out with purpose, found two hides in the first bathroom and cleared the second. When it was time to go back outside, once again she was like, "Nope. Not gonna happen." This dog will do anything for me so off she went back across the big open area and right to source on the pipes to the right of the start line. "Alert" finish. What an amazing experience.

The construction company has been doing roadwork in our new neighborhood and when I found these 5 pieces of various machinery parked in a row nose to tail, what choice did I have but to plant some odor and play with Winnie's nose.

I ran Winnie in this freshly sheet-rocked house first with no odor and in two minutes she found every piece of crackers and dropped crumbs the laborers had left behind. I placed odor (4 low, at thresholds and one high) in a bathroom. It was interesting to see Winnie rush in, her sole interest was finding more food. She doesn't catch any odor until she reaches the kitchen area and locates the hide in the doorway the pantry. The entire great room area is blank and Winnie goes back to finding food. We move on and Winnie locates two more low hides in doorways, and the one under the stack of sheet-rock. Neither one of us knows where the fifth hide is as I had forgotten, but Winnie catches odor from a previously found low hide and works her way into the bathroom to effectively source the hide in the outlet socket. Nine rooms, 5 hides, 6min. If it had been a trial we probably would have run out of time. : D

On a cold, quiet morning, Winnie seems to move faster and odor seems to move slower. Having no hesitation, Winnie moves past the containers with distractors (food or toys) and settles on containers with odor. The odor from the elevated container falls to the ground for Winnie to easily source it. I now have proof of why Winnie seems to smell better in Colorado. It's the COLD!

This a good example of why I don't do blind container searches in practice. As Winnie works enthusiastically, she pounces on and bats around the containers. By knowing where the odor is I can minimize the destruction and hopefully get in to reward her before the behavior starts. That is the goal in theory but as you can see that is not how it goes in execution. We have tried many ways to alter, avoid, retrain, you name the method of changing this behavior of mauling the containers to no avail. The result can be faults given in a trial situation but the videos are pure entertainment to me.

In this exterior search there was a threshold hide and a “triangle of doom”, three hides seat about ten feet apart in a triangular shape. My goal was that Winnie continue searching, solving the converging puzzles and sourcing all hides without stopping to see if I’d call finish. Fascinating how she went back twice to the ground hide by the closest pole on the left. Several of the dogs solved this puzzle using the ground hide to complete the clear picture of the other two hides.

Taking advantage of the pristine conditions of new construction, I placed a suspended hide on the rope pull for the garage door on this tall, 45’ RV bay. Winnie knows almost instantaneously the odor is up and makes quick decisions while demonstrating behaviors indicating high hide. She triangulates off the walls, doors, and catches falling odor directly under the source. From the doorway as she begins to go out, she concludes the odor is inside and when she swings her head in the windshield wiper motion, her nose catches the directional she needed. She turns and looks right at the source then looks at me as she walks towards it. Good girl, Winnie.

With six coffee cups, one source of odor, and a bag full of treats, Winnie and I play with her nose. The object is to get her to put her nose at the cup with odor for the reward. When moving the cup with odor source, I distract her by tossing a treat for her to fetch which adds to the fun. When she returns to the group of cups, I even hold treats with open hand as if offering them to her but she quickly realizes the offer is a tease and puts her nose to the cup with odor for her proper reward.

This was a fun search the first room, the rest was too dark. In the first room Winnie works the inaccessible nicely especially since the odor was escaping out the counter-less top. After the one in the cabinet, Winnie starts to source the fireplace hide. She gets pulled away by the hide at the doorway to the garage and the hide at the front door. She works hard to sources them. The rest of the video is too dark 😕

It’s been a month since an accident took me off my feet, no Nosework and it’s been excruciatingly boring but Winnie has spent much time in the backyard. After pursuing a gopher for some time Winnie actually caught one, a juvenile with no experience avoiding getting caught. In this video Winnie, giddy with the recent successful kill is stalking again but this time only come up with a clump of grass.

This search was set with two threshold hides and a ground hide deep in the search area. Using the Sternberg-Zinn method of “membrane theory” Winnie quickly sources both threshold hides then goes to work on the third hide, an odor source in the concrete. Winnie works the swirling odor around the area with the railing on one side and the trash receptacles on the other as the only surfaces to gather info. This is when the handler literally stands in the way, (I’m standing on the very crevice Winnie would like to use to source this hide!). Making a very difficult odor picture, Winnie continues to work and her behavior says she’s in odor, but I’m reading that it is possibly elevated or somewhere behind her. At one point Winnie stalls and looks up at the beam above the ground hide. Fascinating 🧐 We hang in there, Winnie gets a favorable swish of breeze when I’m out of the way and goes to source. We find three of a pissible four total hides and Winnie does a great job covering an unproductive area before catching odor from a previously found hide. She sources it and I pay as I call finish. This search felt really good in spite of my unintentional sabotage 😆

There were four hides and like a million distractors. Winnie starts off really focused but then falls prey to a distractor (I believe it was butter) in one container and I call a false. As we continue, Winnie's arousal level rises and her behaviors become harder to read. After the false, my confidence wanes and Winnie senses this responding with frustration. The more containers she approaches, the murkier becomes our communication lines. It is amazing we got out of this search accurately calling three hides with only one false and a fault for "roughing the quarter-back."

Winnie tries to rest from our trip North to Ferndale,CA but I want to share her accomplishments. I am very happy to say we worked well together like a machine. Like a tractor in the fields we dug in deep with nubby tires, and stuck to the rows as we kept in low but purposeful gear. Earning three Qs on Saturday, Winnie earned an Element title in Containers and an individual 3rd in Buried. On Sunday she brought in another 3 Qs and a very deserved Interior Element title earning 3 Qs 3 trials in a row. Winnie and I are not a fine sports car, timed and tuned to perfection, but even a tractor has to run well to get the job done.

Even after a busy, busy day, Winnie wakes up running. The refreshing ocean air leaves us recharged and ready for another sniffy day.

The tables are turned as Winnie searches a fleet of University Police Squad Cars. She finds 2 hides but don’t worry the police are not busted. We are no it searching for drugs or guns or contraband. Essential oils only and no police were harmed in the making of this video 😉

The fearless and cunning Puggle silently stalks her prey waiting for the opportune moment to spring into action. Ooops, too soon. Maybe next time.

After earning her Excellent level title in AKC Scent work in Sept. 2019, we took a hiatus in 2020. We focused on NACSW sanctioned Nosework Trials where Winnie leveled up from NW3 to Elite-1. By Oct. 2020 we were ready for some more AKC Scent Work Trials and the time away didn’t seem to hurt Winnie’s ability. As always I’m so proud of this little Puggle and always grateful to God for giving her to me.

After a valid attempt to get to Laramie for an Elite Trial, this surprise sneak attack Winter-like storm finally won. Much snow and numerous road closures on I80 between Salt Lake and Laramie was Mother Nature’s signature for the past 24hrs. It was a thrilling roller coaster ride that included many switches and mind changes before we gave up the fight. Without 4-wheel drive or chains, we carry Auto-socks (don’t judge 😆), we were simply out gunned and were forced to surrender. We will live to sniff again. With Riverside Elite Trial on the horizon, in two weeks we ride!

WinnieBelle sits relaxing in the warming sunshine after a busy weekend of trials. She poses patiently as I show off her ribbons. Winnie is proof that small dogs can do big jobs.

Winnie works diligently to exterminate the infestation of squeaky squirrels in this plush log.

Winnie is such an honest sniffer, she worked this area diligently and though she wasn’t catching any hint of odor, she thoroughly covered deep into corners and up on elevated surfaces. Funny how clear areas used to seem so mystical to me but Winnie’s strength in skill has given me such confidence.

Sploofing on the deck in the warm sunshine is Winnie’s favorite thing. It’s as if they created this stuff toy in Winnie’s exact image.

Three rows of six containers, the challenge was to not false on residual or fringing odor. With two hides in the first row on the left of start, The white cardboard seems to have a lot more odor available to source. The plastic tool box next to the white box has source but there weren’t even venting holes in the container. This exercise was to show the dog calibrating odor, and handler not jumping out to call “alert” too soon. It’s a fine line for Winnie because if I don’t call alert soon enough, she will shred the containers but if I call too soon I give her no time to work the problem out. Fun search.

This was an L shaped area with 5 hides, the breeze was blowing towards the face of the building creating some swirling odor.

This a search was an NACSW Elite style exterior, a large area with 8 hides. The was a steady breeze swirling off the sides of buildings and obstacles giving us a very dynamic picture as our dogs worked to source. There were ground hides, inaccessible hides, and elevated hides. A long video worth watching to the end to see Winnie decide the last hide and insist. Read her body language and pay. Loved this search, love this dog of mine.