Sniffydog — Train Your Dog’s Nose

I’ve been begging sniffy friends for pictures, which will hopefully yield some fruit.  If it does, there will be illustrations of dogs OTHER than German Shepherd beasties doing interesting things.

Meanwhile, you’ll have to be happy with images of my little family for a bit longer.

I was all primed to go to a match today and do show-dog things with Dustin and The Rugrat, but it had to be called due to rain.  If this is a Georgia drought, I can hardly wait to see monsoon season done properly.  The dogs would have been swum instead of gaited.  This is also not the very best weather for tracking, as water tends to carry scent.  Or rather, this is not the very best weather for trying to work a beginner.  Humidity is good.  Working in Nature’s Car Wash is not so good.

Instead we have been doing obedience work and grooming.  This is the season the shepherd earns its nickname, “The German Shedder.”  The old geezer McCoy loves to be brushed and makes an obliging hearthrug of himself while I do one side, then flips cheerfully to the other.  He’s the only one.  Pretty fluffy Tasha does not care to have the royal self better fluffed.  Dustin wiggles.  Puppy screeches fit to summon humane society folks out of the ether, and cheese will not plug up the lamentations.  Next time I might just smear peanut butter on his teeth to distract him.  If it won’t, at least it might stick his jaws shut.  Mind you, we’re doing exactly the same things to all four dogs — running a comb over them to remove undercoat, which is necessary for good health.  All that differs is the reaction.

Dustin is learning about delayed gratification.  Food is not permitted in the competitive obedience ring, but there’s nothing to keep you from leaving a treat with a friend as you go in so it can be handed to you as you come out.  Right now, we’re working on following a string of commands and doing several exercises, then getting a really good treat afterwards.  We have a new favorite food, which is a banana slice wrapped in chicken and dried.   Dustin can do a very nice impersonation of an alligator for one of those, but he’ll also keep working nicely for a while if he knows a chickenbanana might be the result.  I may also use them to transition from food at every single scent article to a jackpot at the end, as food is also not permitted along the way at the tracking trial.  With Sunny, I used a knuckle bone at the end a few times, and once she’d found it she could keep it.  For that, of course, the wind can’t blow from your finish toward your start.

Photo by Tres Elliott.

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