As a birthday present to Decibel and me, we signed up to a 'Nose Games' class, something completely new for us. Our ulterior motive was to check out another dog school - since, let's face it Decibel is not quite 'finished'. Sure, she knows her basics, but she rarely gets out of her comfort zone, and that's when it really counts. And being a Briard - well, she needs a solid foundation to fall back on, when stressed, even in a good way.
What are Nose Games?
The rules are really hard for the handler; basically you have to let the dog do whatever she wants to do. No correction, no direction, no hints, no praise. The dog is brought into a room with boxes on the floor, one of which contains real yummy goodies. After a while the dog figures out to check the boxes for the one with the goodies. The eventual goal is to develop search dogs that can search rooms, cars, containers and even outside for the scent they are trained to detect, like bomb dogs, or drug dogs or so forth. But that's only for perfectionists.
All dogs like this game, because a.) they have a nose, and b.) there are goodies in the boxes, you just have to go sniff it out.
The first step was to bring a hungry dog. Now I cannot simply "forget to feed" Decibel, while three others crunch and munch down their evening meal - so she got half rations, and I fed really early. Then we had to get out of the door with one and only one dog. I say we, because Harold had to come.
The game is done with only one dog in the room at a time, and I cannot put my 'little girl' in a crate or - GASP - car by herself for any amount of time. Also, I figured, if the class is not what we expected, we can make a meet-people-in-town trip out of it, that's always good.
We got there early, and walked Decibel around, and as soon as she met a few admirers, she settled down, and collected accolades with grace and humility. She was good about being petted, no jumping, no shyness, and then she waited with her 'Dad' for a long time, while I learned what not to do. There were 9 dogs enrolled, so it took quite a while between run-throughs, but watching how the other dogs (some with experience, some novices) reacted was very informative.
All dogs caught on to the game quickly.
Decibel walked in a bit hesitantly - NEW PLACE - but she did check her boxes and to my surprise she did that rather than find her Daddy, who was watching her run, and usually there is little that will distract her from finding her guy. By the second time she WANTED to go in, and she did find the box, but she couldn't understand the concept of sticking her head into a partially closed box. Decibel is too polite to do such a thing as tear things open or be pushy.
She has a human to do that sort of thing for her.
And of course she has been trained NOT to open feed buckets and other containers full of goodies (cat food, pig feed, cattle chow) around the place - and she displayed those good manners.
Naturally she was very tired when we got home, but this morning she ran back to the house, barked at the door until Harold let her in, and demanded breakfast!
She was still
hungry, and the few goodies in the boxes hadn't made up for the partial supper the night before.
(This was an absolute first. Decibel ALWAYS comes with me to do chores in the morning).
I think we will play the Nose Games on rainy days, but for further training I signed her up for an adolescent obedience class, so she can perfect her manners. That royal wave could use a little refinement...
