Sniffing Around Scent Work

A few days ago I ran some practice exteriors with Astra. We need to practice because I am putting her back into competition this summer, and we have changed her alert behavior.   Astra has generally had a very reliable sit indication, but she is now 14, and sitting has become difficult for her. She is still very clear on hides, but is offering other behaviors—sometimes she does a play box, sometimes she whines, sometimes she just looks at me. I have been trying to mark and reward the whining, because that is probably the easiest for me to read.

In this session, I had the benefit of having a friend along who can do hides for me so I can run an unknown number of hides scenario. We are working an area outside of a hardware store, with lots of excellent opportunities for hides. Astra starts out with her usual enthusiasm, and very quickly picks something up by some stacked up plastic lawn chairs. She spends a little time sourcing—apparently it is not under the seat of the chair, which she would normally work very quickly—but it is very clear that she is close to source. She finally makes a decision at the base of one of the legs, and turns and looks at me very deliberately. I wait a second or two to see if she will offer anything else—I really want her to whine at me—and then I ask her to “show me.” She gives me the Lagotto side-eye for the merest fraction of a second, and then hops away to work on the next hide. I let her source that one, which is a bit easier, and she gives me the “look back,” which I reward. I then try to get her to go back and show me that first one.

“C’mon, Astra, back over here” I chirp. Again, she gives me a look of sheer disdain and ignores me to work another part of the area. I eventually give up, and end up leading her back to the chair and just rewarding her there.

As I drive home, I think about the session, as I often do. I need to make some decisions, going forward, about what to do with her alert. Do I hold out and reward only whining? If so, I will probably need to put the whining on command….which means extra training. Or I could just go with the “look back”?

Then I realize that I am thinking like a trainer, not a partner. The last time I ran Astra in Master Interiors, she did an amazing alert on a threshold floor hide, by, turning to me and doing a partial play bow. I was taken off-guard and said to her “are you sure?” and then she whined at me very emphatically, while pointing her nose to the ground. She couldn’t have been clearer. I called alert and got the yes from the judge.

Astra has been in competition for seven years which is half her life. She has a ton of experience and the titles to prove it, and has been a reliable demo dog at hundreds of events. She knows what she is doing. And I know that she knows what she is doing. And she knows that I know.

So what I need to do is stop being condescending, and just work on accepting her communication. It doesn’t matter what she does to communicate the hide. If I am paying attention, I will see her working source (she is super obvious in her body language) and I will see her do something to communicate the location to me. And if I am being dense because of trial stress, she will do her best to  be more emphatic. She has proven herself through thousands of searches. She also knows the difference between trial and practice, and she knows that trials are important to me (how? You ask, well, for one thing, she can smell the stress on me).

Lagottos (and many other breeds) who are bred specifically to use their noses, are aware that they are good at their jobs, and probably also aware that humans are  “nose blind.” And like people who are competent, they have strong opinions about how to do their job, and they don’t like to be micromanaged, or brook interference well.

I learned long ago to let Astra work an area her way. She broke me of the bad habit of asking her to check an object multiple times. If she had already cleared an object (say, a chair) and I asked her to check it again, she would very politely give it a sniff. But if I got very stupid and asked her to check it after that, I would get a swift false alert. (You could just about hear her thinking: “Really? The first two times I told you weren’t good enough? You think it’s there? Fine! It’s there!!”)

She is a good teacher: I learned to pay close attention to the areas she was checking, and my students have her to thank for being able to teach them how to mark hides so they can remember them.

While I was reflecting, I gave some thought to what I like to see in a work partner. I want someone who understands that I am competent, but doesn’t expect me to be infallible. I want someone who can be flexible. Not too demanding. Someone who can work at my pace. I want someone who can be happy in their work, and be happy with me.

I am pretty sure that Astra wants similar things, plus, lots of reward cookies, and the occasional toss of a ball in her direction. I am going to try and live up to her standards.

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