Paulo & Liwa, the professional searching dogs...

Today was a relaxed day with just one private lesson in the afternoon. Therefore, Bryndis and I decided to work with our own dogs: Jack, Paulo & Liwa. We felt like doing something fun. First, we had them run in a circle (like the horses) as my objective is to get them really fit in this before I leave. This is a very good way to increase cooperation with your dog from a distance and strenghten your relationship. As Paulo doesn't really enjoy cooperating very much, he wouldn't stop yearning but this aside, cooperated quite well and sat down on just one command. Liwa did a really good job even though her concentration could be improved as she couldn't stop looking at the wolves that were observing all our movements...Then, the fun part started as we prepared everything to have them search our personal objects that carry our personal smell. We would place different huts on the field and hide one personal object e.g. a sock or a mobile phone etc. under one of them. While we hide the object, the dog has to sit in a certain distance and observe the whole procedure: we hide something under one hut, but then pretend to hide sth else under another hut and then go forth and back etc. until we go back to our dog and give him the command to search. It's lovely to observe the dogs that look at every single movement you do while you are in action. And then, with a lot of passion they start searching and as they indicate that they found the object, they immediately have to sit down and we start a whole procedure again of taking the thing out and giving the dog a goody in exchange. Liwa gets absolutely excited when we play this game and can barely sit quietly while I go through the procedure. Then, she starts searching like crazy and finds it quite fast. Paulo however, didn't know at all what he was supposed to do and started scratching himself non-stop...as he seemed absolutely lost, I tried to help him and in the end I just pretended that he found it when he was smelling nearby and rewarded him to make sure he wouldn't get frustrated...