03-16-2009

Duece got to use his 'pigeon hole board' this past weekend. It was/is a learning experience for Duece and for us. We have to be able to move the container fairly quick and without Duece cheating (watching) as he would just run to the new location. We have to get our 'stuff' together to keep Duece learning to sit at the source so we have to watch our timing. It can be hard because the person doing all the work behind the board can't see over it. The first time we tried this he was more interested in running behind the board to visit with Helen who spoils him all the time. :-)


In the first picture Duece is either waiting for his treat or was just given his treat and is waiting for another. One problem with the multiple boards is the space between them where Duece watches what is going on behind the board. You can also see the plywood at the end of the board we had to put up so Duece wouldn't run behind it. The next video shows how well that worked.

Since Duece watches to see where the material is moved to, I had to go into a big praise and move him around so he couldn't watch. Then when the person behind the board gives the word, he is released to search the board. We also found out that if the material is too high, he will scratch at it instead of sit when he finds it. We need to work until he sits instinctively instead of look for his treat and sit sometimes. I think getting the treat right at the source is a big help too. We did bone and material so he had experience with both.

We had set it up on Saturday but we didn't have a chance to video as we were learning how things work. On Sunday, we left the board set up all day and ran him through the drills three separate times and he improved each time. We are going to put a few more decoys on the back as when things got difficult Duece would temporarily sit at a decoy, but move on. We also learned not to put the materiel too high for him as that is where the most false indications happened. (where he had to actually jump to get his nose near the hole) We can go higher as his training progresses.