October 25, 2008

I took Mercury and Dino out to Helena. It was about 4 PM during the week. I parked down near the buildings, near the post office boxes. I left Dino in the car and I took Mercury in his locked and tied crate down the road to the river. The mosquitoes and bugs were horrendous! I found a nice covered spot under some trees to the right of the bottom of the road.

I brought Dino out and put his harness on and got his bag of treats and rawhide toy. We headed in the opposite direction away from the road down to the river. I told Dino "Find Felix."

First we checked the old barn where we have seen cats before. The first thing Dino did on the trail up to the barn was poop. He was hesitant to go into the barn door, but that is not usual. We had to get over the thorny berry business. We got in, and I noticed that there had been some change to the building. A door was now open that not, and part of the back of the building was now open. Dino sniffed everywhere. I would be telling his "check" in various spots along the way along with clicking and treating. Then we went down to the next building where I put out the cat food, so I know cats come up and down this path. Dino went up the path right where the empty food containers were. We checked around the back of the buildings.

Then we went down the road a bit and into a field where we have seen cats. He went right into the field and headed along a worn foot path, checking spots along the way. We went to the old buildings in the back, checking various spots. Dino was receiving clicks and treats for each of his checks. Every once in a while I will verbally praise, but because he is still learning, he is getting clicks and treats 95% of the time an verbal praise the rest.

We walked along another path heading back toward the road down to the river, checking various spots along the way. The bugs were too much. It was very distracting. Dino followed along this path, and as we got closer to the road leading down to the river, he was very focused and went directly down the road and seemed directly on the scent of Mercury. However, when we got to the both of the road, and the wide river bed which leads to the river, Dino kept going straight instead of finding Mercury to the right. I didn't say anything, and let him explore what was out ahead of him. Who knows. The local cats could have come down here recently. I had no way of knowing. I am sure that all types of animals come down here. I can see a lot of different types of feces all over the river bed. I could see that Dino was very interested in everything around him. He had never been down here before.

Once we got closer to the river, I stopped him and said "Find Felix." He went around and around and was not going any where near Mercury. So, I went back up the road we came from, where he got very positive responses. I tried again and said "Find Felix." He was definitely still looking. This time, when he got to the bottom of the road where the river bed starts, he headed off to the right where Mercury was, but he was still over 15 feet away to Mercury side. Dino walked right past Mercury. I was very confused because in the past Dino has zeroed in on Mercury really well. I was trying to figure out why he was not. Dino was very interested in other smells around him. The river was also loud, which may have been distracting him. I repeated "Find Felix." He appeared to be trying to find something. I thought that there was no breeze. It was still and warm. I thought maybe he really couldn't smell Mercury if all these other smells on the river bed were covering up Mercury. But Mercury was only about 15 feet to Dino's left under a tree. I could hear Mercury meowing from where I was holding the long line.

We went back up the road again and went back down to the river bed with me telling him "Find Felix". Again Dino went to the right and was closer to Mercury this time. After about 30 seconds he went to Mercury's crate and ran back to me, jumping on me, which is his indication that there is a cat. However, he missed pawing at the crate. I didn't say anything except "Find Felix." He ran back to the crate, pawed at it, ran back to me and jumping on me. I clicked and treated. I practiced a couple more times with "Find Felix" and the second time, he actually jumping onto of the crate with all four feet and stood on it for a couple of seconds, almost like he was saying "Is this good enough?!" He ran back to me and jumped on me. I gave him his bag of treats and his rawhide bone.

I will practice in this location again. I definitely want a much faster response to finding the cat. I was concerned that he walked right past the crate within a few feet of it. He even didn't respond to Mercury's meowing. That is so unusual. I thought there had to be some pretty big distractions there like other smells. However, he needs to be able to ignore those distractions and find the cat.