Scent Discrimination: The Conclusion

So a few weeks ago we had our last day of scent discrimination and it got a lot harder.  As a surprise my friend Mumble and his mom came to see me finish my class and even took some pictures to share of me in action.

First, the trainer made us do a quick review - easy peasy.  My mom asked how he knew we weren't just trained to find the boxes and not the smell even though we were sniffing even the blank boxes (thanks mom for the vote of confidence) but the trainer assured my mom it would get hard (personally I wanted to relax a little). 

Next, he hid the boxes all over the Zoom Room - behind the agility equipment, behind a bucket - he was trying to fool us.  But we were too smart and we found those boxes (let's remember that my turkey hot dogs were in the boxes so I was highly motivated).

THis is me when I found the treat behind the big blue container!

After a few rounds of hide and seek he made it really hard for our last turn.  He took away the boxes and the treats and just left the scent.  (Personally I think we missed a step there because now there was no box and no treat - how about just get rid of the box first?) 

Anyway this was a little hard, especially since he had a table fool of treats and boxes and scents next to him - I tried to "find" that stash first but my mom made me keep going.  The idea was that I would find the scent and then my mom would put the treat down after I sat, letting her know I had found it.  But I was hungry and I got distracted by her having the hot dogs and paid no attention to the scent so my mom got rid of the treats and I had to find the scents and then get a "high five" for a reward.   I was able to find two of the scents pretty easily but the third was hidden under the "box" that we use in Agility and while I eventually got on the box my mom thinks maybe I didn't actually find that scent.  (I'll let you in on a secret - I knew where that scent was the whole time but I was trying to draw out my turn and make a very dramatic ending when I eventually found it.)



My dramatic ending!

After the class Mumble and I celebrated with a little trip.  I'll share more on that later.

All in all I had fun in this class and they are talking about doing a Scent Discrimination Class Two - sign me up.  In the mean time we are talking a break from training for now because my mom had to go out of town for work but we are thinking of doing an Obedience Two class next (maybe then I won't have to wear that stupid Gentle Leader anymore).

P.S.  My mom has video of the last class but we couldn't get it to upload - we'll try again in a few days!