First Day Of Training

O'Malley is our training kitty. He sits quietly in the carrier so Tara doesn't get any tips.
Precious has not helped train yet, she gets her chance next time we train. She will actually walk and be put into the carrier. Hopefully she will be quiet too!


Here is Tara! She will be saving animals some day. With her nose down all the time she is perfect for the job, plus she has more energy than most big dogs!


TODAY'S TRAINING:


Time: 10:00am
Weather: 70 degrees, slight breeze

We started by rubbing the cat with a paper towel and sticking it in a plastic bag. Then we placed the cat in the carrier.

We then headed outside.

1. We put the cat 10 feet away, with hot dog on top. Let Tara sniff the bag and 'find it'. She ran toward the cat, then got distracted by a bird. So I let her run a little to see what she would do. She came back to me and sat down and looked at me. I gave her the bag to sniff, she put her nose fully in the bag, 'find it', and she ran straight for the cat, finding it and getting her treat.

2. Now the cat goes 15 feet away, hot dog on top. Let Tara sniff and 'find it'. This time she goes straight for the cat. Good girl :).

3. Now the cat goes 30 feet away, hot dog on top. Sniff and 'find it', Tara runs right to the cat getting her treats. We now feel it is time to hide the cat from view and not let her see where he is.

4. Tara and I go by our back door and Joe hides the cat. Tara sniff's the bag and 'find it', she uses her nose up to the last spot the cat was. She looks at me (confused?), she sits again, I give her the bag and she puts her nose all the way in. 'find it' and she gets her nose working again on the ground, finding the cat :).

5. We do the same thing, but put the cat in a different location, where she cannot see it. Sniff and 'find it' she goes off running to the back fence. She is sniffing but not finding, she goes along the fence (the cat was not out this far) and back toward the house. She goes back through all the places the cat was, but then attempts to go out the back gate (cat was never there), I got her to come back. I moved her to the middle of the yard and let her sniff again 'find it'. She goes to all the places the cat had been, this time staying on track and finding the cat behind our shed in the middle of the yard. Good girl.

We decided this was enough, she did not seem that interested in our game anymore.