Cocker Activities > Other Activities
Activities for NOses
lescef:
I was doing this with Maddie today (can only do it when we're out on our own or Bramble interfers!)
Take a favourite toy, ball, sock, glove, make sure the dog knows you have it, as you walk across a field, drop it, make a big fuss and send them looking for it. Reward for bringing it to you. Maddie loves it yet she won't retrieve a thrown ball.
I know someone who lost her car keys and her dog traced them back on the beach!
Finvarra:
Thanks Lesley, will give this a try. It'll have to be the tea towel! :005:
Lesley and Dylan
AlanT:
It took very little effort to get mine tracking. Only a week or so.
Just as a joke really, I marked the patio slabs with a treat, so as to make a trail and left the treat at the end.
Then I marked only a few slabs. One day for fun I marked no slabs at all. This made no difference.
Then I used a ball and hid it all over the garden. There is a video on here of Archie at about 18 months old finding in the garden.
I went on to training in a Maze and then we started underwater retrieving. It just came naturally.
Although he cannot see when I hide, it actually makes no difference if he does. Even if I put the ball in plain sight in the middle of the lawn he won't see it. He will just track my steps until he can smell it.
I have even seen him follow the scent of a cat around the garden while the cat sat looking at him.
But if you throw the ball, he follows it perfectly by sight. So this is just how he focuses his mind.
This is one of the few ways that you can actually know what they are thinking. You can watch as he solves a problem, like the trail has stopped and there is no ball.
This happens if I stop and then throw the ball into the bushes. This requires a change of tactic.
Usually he searches out in ever increasing circles. But often will pick a best guess by heading for a tree or other likely hiding place.
I do a few "impossible finds" like keeping the ball in my pocket. I've worked out a few things that beat him.
A really long backwards throw. Walking out a long way and then hiding almost at the starting point make it harder.
Then I use pointing, or vectoring with left/right - away/come. We have been working hard at this. It's quite difficult. He's over confident and "knows best".
See how I am combining obedience, swapping, sit/stay, recall into all of this. It's just painless "learning on the job".
Finvarra:
Well I took a bit of his tea towel,for,our,walk in the woods this morning. Started by dropping it on the,path, then at the side of the path,so he got the idea, then hid it in the bracken and undergrowth. Then I hooked it on low branches, and chucking it further into the trees, on top of a drystone wall and then three feet off the ground. He found it every time! I don't think he was tracking me, as he seemed to sniff the air mostly, sometimes he used his eyes, but it was definitely his nose when it was out of sight. Lots of distracting smells, other dogs, wildlife. He loved it too, joy to watch. He doesn't, retrieve much though, once he's found it, it's job done, and he either races around with it in his mouth and drops it, or just leaves it where he found it. Milo retrieved the first ball,that was ever thrown for him and never looked back, but Dylan just hasn't grasped this :lol2:
I've watched your video Alan, great stuff, what a clever wee dog.
Lesley and Dylan
BonnieScot:
Bonnie and I have done the Scentworks one- the lady in Mull did it in Edinburgh, so you might find one near you if you check the website. It was a great two days and amazing how every single dog 'got it'. Bonnie and I will do simple finds round the house, and when we're out walking too. She gets so excited she offers me a gratuitous down while I throw a treat over her head and then she switches on the hoover nose to find whatever landed in the long grass.
Her latest trick is putting her toys away in a box. Except her toys now include the grubby dog walking shoes....
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