January was Train Your Dog Month.
What a stupid name for a month. The Mama didn't train me on a single woofing thing. Not one thing. The least she could have done, in the spirit of the occasion, would have been to teach me even a single little trick. I mean really, Kristine at Rescued Insanity decided to tackle the impossible and make Shiva and the Cat into a performance duo. That's impressive. Honey and Pamela at Something Wagging are trying to embrace the Doggyride Cart. Solid goal. Parker & Skye learned abut off leash skills. Elka learned to treat the snowy steps with some decorum and the Mama did nothing. She should be ashamed.
A better name would be Train Your Mama Month.
That's what we did at Casa de Kolchak. When I realized that the Mama had nothing planned, I took matters into my own paws. You guys are going to be so woofing proud of me. For real. You'll never believe what I taught the Mama this month.
I taught her how to play K9 Nose Work games.
An example of K9 Nose work.
I tend to scent with the same vibrant enthusiasm as Moshi the Boston Terrier.
(You can hold you applause, please.) She keeps telling people that she was teaching me K9 Nose work, but that is absolutely ridiculous. You see, I already knew how to play scent games. I already knew how to smell. When I smelled something I wanted, I found it. It was simple really. I have a Class A sniffer.
The problem was training the Mama to hide tasty morsels for me to find.
I'm not going to lie. It was tough work. The first day, the Mama was just terrible. She used these big boxes and she just lined them up in a straight line. BOL, oh Mama, just where is the challenge in that?! I taught her that she needed to get a little more creative. How did I teach her this? By running into the boxes at full tilt and smashing them to smithereens in my attempts to free the snacks within. My bad. She shouldn't have used liver. That stuff smells really strong. No wonder it only took me 12 seconds to identify which box contained the treats and mangle it.
We're working on it.
We've switched to slightly less smellerific treats. Every week, the Mama gets a little better at hiding. We've abandoned the big boxes and we're using smaller ones. They no longer get lined up. They are scattered around - on top of chairs, under tables, hidden behind things. They are spread out more. They are harder to find. She is getting better. Much much better. Sometimes, just to screw with me, the scent isn't even in a box. Crafty Mama. CRAFTY.
It's not just about a month of learning.
Turns out, the Mama has a real knack for hiding things. She is a still learning, but with time and effort, I think she'll make a fine nose work handler. She's pushing my limits too. We're going to work on marking a find with a sit or a down, instead of loosing my woof and snarfing the snack faster than the Mama can even get there. We're working on harder hiding spots and more difficult scents. We might try one of the traditional nosework scents, like birch, anise or clove. We're going to keep working at it too. We love our new game. It's important to give a Mama an outlet like this for their excess energy, otherwise, you can find that they act out a bit. Remember - a tired Mama is a happy Mama.
Big time woofs and thanks to Honey and Pam.
Not just for hosting the Something Wagging Train Your Dog Month Challenge and for offering up a cash reward to one lucky challenge participant. (In the form of a donation to a worthy cause. Should I be lucky enough to actually win, we'd love to support our friends at The Lucky Dog Rescue.) No, we're grateful for something much more personal and important. Thank you for inspiring us to rekindle our working relationship. Training had fallen by the wayside a bit in recent months and this challenge was just what we needed to remember that when we work together, our bond is stronger than ever. This has been a great experience for the Mama and I. We love it. We love nose work and we can't wait to keep on playing.
Want to learn more about K9 Nose work and maybe try it for yourself? Pam and Honey have an excellent tutorial page. Go check it out.
Big time woofs and thanks to Honey and Pam.
Not just for hosting the Something Wagging Train Your Dog Month Challenge and for offering up a cash reward to one lucky challenge participant. (In the form of a donation to a worthy cause. Should I be lucky enough to actually win, we'd love to support our friends at The Lucky Dog Rescue.) No, we're grateful for something much more personal and important. Thank you for inspiring us to rekindle our working relationship. Training had fallen by the wayside a bit in recent months and this challenge was just what we needed to remember that when we work together, our bond is stronger than ever. This has been a great experience for the Mama and I. We love it. We love nose work and we can't wait to keep on playing.
Want to learn more about K9 Nose work and maybe try it for yourself? Pam and Honey have an excellent tutorial page. Go check it out.
