The Power of Cheese!!

Ok, updates . . .

Nosework 1 ended last night. Lok was really enjoying the sniffing and had kind of gotten out of "searching" mode and into "random sniffing" mode for a couple weeks, but he brought it back last night with some really nice, organized searches! I credit the cheese he was searching for. Sharp Cheddar! Not many updates on the training process. More of the same. Getting more creative with hiding the food, new locations, putting the food out without a box, etc. Nosework 2 starts next week and it sounds like we'll be introducing scent in a few weeks!

Jun might get to go to nosework class too! The instructor was ok with me switching out dogs from week to week, since I'm working all of them at home. Not sure if I want to bring her, cause it's kind of Lok's special thing, but Jun is brilliant at searching, so I'd like to have her do it too. Jun has been working on tricks. She's learning to balance a treat on her nose (VERY impressive that she can sit so still for even a second or two) and learning a bow. We're working on distance with the bow. Last night she held the treat on her nose for 3 seconds and bowed all the way across the room from me! I credit the cheese!

Elo . . . dog who doesn't know any words . . . suddenly was able to discriminate between sit, down, stand, come, bummer, and flat (lie down on side) all in one training session last night!! I had planned to work on his response to "flat" and we ended up doing all sorts of verbal discrimination work! He wasn't right every time, but he was right a surprising amount, and he was really listening and trying, not just guessing! I credit the cheese!

Cheese is apparently a very powerful thing, which can turn on areas of a dog's brain that were previously set to "off"!! I will have to remember this.