Who is it?

Over the last 2 weeks we have been training Tara to distinguish between smells.

We did several runs:

1. We took the cat and poodle outside walked to the left of the back door. Put the Cat under a towel hidden behind the pool. The poodle was put in the shed, hidden behind a toy kitchen. Tara was brought out given the cat's smell. "Find it" She ran straight for the cat (approx 50 feet).

2. Second run, same day. Gave Tara the poodle's scent. "Find it", Tara ran straight for the Poodle.

3. Third run, same day. Moved the cat and dog to the front of the house. Gave the poodle's smell. Tara ran through the back door, ran through the gate and straight for Precious (poodle) who was hiding behind our garbage cans on the left side of the house.

4. Fourth run, same day. Gave Tara the Cat's scent. She ran through the back door, ran through the gate and straight for Precious, again. Reset Tara at back door, gave scent and she did the same thing. Tara is not interested in finding them again. We stop for the day, give plenty of praise.

DAY TWO:

1. We are still working on finding and differentiating between scents of cats or dogs. We set up O' Malley in the shed this time and Precious under a bush. This time we will have Tara going out the back door, straight to our back fence and then deciding on left or right depending on the animal. Precious is further out than the cat to the right, the cat is on the left in the shed.

FIRST RUN:
Tara is given the scent of Precious (toy poodle), "find it". She run's straight for Precious. Given her treat and praised.

SECOND RUN:
Tara is given the scent of O'Malley (cat), "find it". She runs straight in the middle of the back yard and makes a sharp left turn toward the shed. She runs past the shed and makes a quick u-turn finding the cat. Finding him and getting her treat and rewarded.

THIRD RUN:

Moved the animals to front yard, cat on left side front and dog on right side sidewalk hiding behind fence. Tara is given the dog's scent. "Find it" she runs for the back fence, follows the outlining area and chases birds. She is clearly bored and not cooperating. She gets a short play time and is taken in the house.


DAY 3

1. Cat hiden behind gate on left side in back yard. Precious hiden under a bush and towel. Tara is Given Precious' scent. She runs through the back door, straight for the back fence and makes a quick turn to the right, looks under the bush and find Precious. Given a treat and praise.

2. Tara is given O'Malley's scent. "Find it", she runs straight for the cat, getting her treat and praise.

3. Leaving the animals where they are I give Tara the cat's scent again. She runs straight for the cat. Given treat and praise.

4. Tara is given Precious' scent. "find it" she runs straight for the cat....game over it is play time and time to end.

I believe she is getting bored and not challenged enough. We are going to have to move to the Park.