The very first time....

Chiropractor appointment in the morning, then work until 2 pm.

I had booked the training hall fra 2 pm - 4 pm, but I left at 3.30 to meet with Bodil and Mille to do some outdoor Nose Work searches. 

Nose Work is a dog sport created to mimic professional detection dog tasks. The dogs must find a hidden target odor and alert the handler. 

In Denmark Lavender is the first odor, that you teach the dog to find. At first you place the lavender scent and then you put a treat with it. You ask the dog to find the treat and reward for finding the treat and the odor together. 

After a while the dog will realise that everytime there is a treat, there is also lavender scent and the dog will make the connection between the lavender and the food. Then the dog will start showing interest in the lavender as it will lead to food. 

Next step is to place some lavender hides with treats and one without. If the dog shows interest in the lavender without food, you give it a huge reward close to the lavender source. 

After a while the dog will have made a strong connection between the odor and the food and it will start searching for the lavender to find the food and then you can start working on making the hides harder to find ect. 

Once the dog has learned to find the source without needing food with the source, that's when Nose Work becomes really interesting and fun to train. 

So today's picture is very special as it was the very first time Mille found the source without food placed on it. 

For the next period of time, Bodil will need to put treats on half the hides and no treats on the other half, so Mille never knows if the food is on the source or on come from Bodil. Eventually all rewards can come from Bodil.

BUT! I did send this picture to Bodil with a red circle around the hide and a blue circle around the reward (see extra) to show her how far from the source she is rewarding. She needs to give the food with the dog's nose as close to the source as possible to teach the dog that 'close to the source' is not close enough - it needs to find the exact spot where the source is hidden. 

We had a good day today!
Happy weekend
Emmy and the Hazyland Boys