January 19, 2009

Weaverville. Main Street. Clear and cold. Started walking Dot at about 12 noon. Roads are paved with heavy foot and vehicle traffic.



I parked down at the far end of town near the propane store. I walked Dot up the frontage road, behind the Round Table and continued up the street. We tried to stay on the concrete sidewalks that line the buildings going up. These are small mom/pop shops with a lot of foot and vehicle traffic. We crossed the next side street and walked over the grassy area and made a right alongside the car wash. We crossed in front of the car wash and continued up the sidewalk of the small stores. Once we got to the Ace hardware, we made a right turn and went diagonally through the paved parking lot out to the Main Street. We continued up Main Street, across a creek and past several more small shops. There was some vegetation, dirt along the way. Once we got to the next cross walk across Main Street, we made the right turn and then made another right and headed back down Main Street on the other side. We continued down the street, basically staying on the concrete sidewalk. Some of the stores were recessed back from the Main Street, and we tried to go closer to the building when possible, trying to act like a dog that might be wandering down the street.



When we got to the front of where the strip shopping mall starts, we jumping down a four foot tall wall and crossed the vacant dirt lot into the parking lot. We made a left turn alongside the edge of the lot and walked toward the back of the building where all the back doors are along with all the trash and dumpsters were. There was another dog coming toward us off leash, so I had to walk Dot off to the right a bit, but otherwise I was trying to go straight down without going close to the dumpsters along the sides of the buildings.


We got out to the side street, crossed the sidewalk and then crossed the street and then made a right down the street back toward Main Street. This road had no sidewalk on the left side. We walked down into the dirt parking lot of an abandoned building and then crossed Main Street to where Dino was sitting in my truck. Before leaving, I rubbed a towel all over Dot and rubbed a paper towel over her.

I went back around 4 PM and parked the truck alongside the abandoned building just across the street from where I first parked the truck. I took out the towel and placed it around the corner and in front of the abandoned building. This way Dino would not see the truck as he came down the street at the end and found the towel.

I took Dino out and put on his harness and got his treat bag and rawhide bone. I tried a different type of treat/reward for "no scent." I wanted to see if it made a difference. I fried some hotdogs the day before. I walked Dino across the street and up about 20 feet to where Dot's track starts. I moved off to the side a bit so we weren't directly on the track and showed him the scent pad and said "take scent" and "search." He put his head down and started searching.

He followed the scent up the street and was generally pretty good about following the scent and maintaining interest. However, I did find him to become distracted by the hotdogs. He seemed to be more interested in trying to get the hotdogs than sometimes following the track. I believe I found him veering off the track and intentionally going for a "no scent" area just to get the hotdogs. He was not doing that previously when he was getting just kibble as a treat. In response to this, I tried to do something different. When I saw him veering off to either the left or the right and not using his nose but using his eyes instead I told him "check" to tell him to keep his nose on the ground. I found him lifting his head regularly to try to find the track. When I saw him doing this I told him "check." This continued up the street. He would track for a short distance with his nose to the ground, and then he would lift his head looking for the track. I would say "check" until he put his nose on the ground. I would verbally praise him when he put his nose to the ground. When he lifted his head, I would tell him "check" and then verbally praise him when he put his nose on the ground. I think this practice gave him a better idea of how to find the scent because by the time we were going back down the street, he was much more focused on the scent on the ground and was veering off the track less and less.

We got back all the way to the parking lot of the supermarket and got to the back of the building with all the dumpsters. He was much more focused and following the track. We got out to the street and he found the scent down the street. He was getting excited as we got closer to the towel, and starting to lift his head. I continued to say "check" to keep his nose on the ground. When we got to the towel, he jumped straight up. He got his bag of treats and I threw the rawhide for him for several minutes. It was dark and cold by the time we were done.