In Which I Shamelessly Brag About My Baby

Hooray, we finally have videos of Caleb doing nosework! I was so proud of him this week, he completely surpassed my expectations. We have been practicing a lot at home, slowly working up from one hide a day to three or four. By Monday I was confident Caleb finally had a grasp of the game, but I had no idea if it was all going to fall apart once we got to class. Class is held outside, next to an animal hospital and a horse stable, a much more exciting environment smell-wise than inside the house, in the kitchen.

We did our first hide with the leash on, as we have been doing from the beginning. I was not sure Caleb could be off leash (even though the training area is enclosed), just because he likes to mark. After the first hide it was pretty clear that Caleb DID get the gist of the game, and the instructors told me to take him off leash. So I did, and here is what happened.

It took him 9 seconds to find his treat hidden in the small cooler! Off leash! So proud! My instructor stopped filming as soon as Caleb found it, so you don't see me grinning like an idiot, but trust me, I was.

But lest you think we spent the rest of the evening thinking we were all that and a bag of puppy biscuits, the next hide took us 3 and a half minutes. It was a tough hide for Caleb and he gave up once, plopped his fluffy but down in the middle of the ring and looked at me, announcing quite clearly that he was done with this silliness. We were able to get him reengaged in the game, and once the instructor added a bit more scent to the hide (more Bambi In A Can), he was able to catch the scent and find it. The link to that hide is here, apparently I can only pull one video at a time from her channel and embed it. If you're so inclined you can watch some of the other dogs do their hides as well, it is quite fun to watch!