At our next training session, we worked on hiding the scent on people. John held the scent container in his hand and sat on a couch. Senator found it on him right away and pawed him as the alert. We were all just stunned. Margaret was able to come this time and I think that she was as amazed as I was. Next we hid the scent on her and he did come to it right away, but didn't paw her. He looked around the room some more and came back to her and even put the container in his mouth, but no pawing. We tried it with me and he did well. We practiced this a few times and then called it a day so as not to wear Senator out. We are doing this off leash and it is very interesting to watch him while he is "working". Its very obvious that he is searching by scent and not sight.
We also went to a nursing home to complete Senator's therapy dog testing. He passed and I have sent in his information to the agency. When I get that back, I will continue his socialization training with a vengeance. I'm afraid that he's getting behind on some of his skills.
The next weekend, I was away for 4 days for JDRF government day. It was lots of fun for me, but I hated missing that many days straight of training. When Gary and I did some training the next day, we could tell that Senator was rusty. We tried doing the training downstairs this time and he didn't seem to know what to do. We went back upstairs where we had done most of the training before, and he seemed to snap back. We did a few more trials and ended on a good note.
Since then, he has done fine. We are still using the little plastic containers that seem to work well. We have been putting all four of them in separate corners of the living room and I stand in the center of the room. I try extremely hard not to give Senator any body language cues, but fail sometimes. I want him to find it so much! But, the few times I was able to hold completely still, he did come to me and alert after finding the loaded container. It was very encouraging. This seems to be our best test now. We try to do this in other rooms as well, but the smaller rooms make it more difficult to determine if he is on the exact right container when he alerts.
I have had a few lows where I have tried to test him with. The first one, I was at about 68. I had Gary bring him into the room where I was sitting on the floor. He didn't seem to get it. He did give me a long look in the eyes, but no alert. I blew in his face and he didn't react. I then tried to say "find it", but he just began to look around the room. I went back and tested, and I had gone back up to 78 which maybe was too high for him to detect. I had been using lower BGs for testing. More between 55 and 70. So, maybe he just wasn't determining this as low?
The next time, I was at 65 and tried again. This time when Senator came in to me, he again looked at me and paused. I blew in his face and he gave me a tentative paw (alert). I said "yes" and gave him a good treat. I'm afraid to get too excited, but it does seem like a good start.
We also went to a nursing home to complete Senator's therapy dog testing. He passed and I have sent in his information to the agency. When I get that back, I will continue his socialization training with a vengeance. I'm afraid that he's getting behind on some of his skills.The next weekend, I was away for 4 days for JDRF government day. It was lots of fun for me, but I hated missing that many days straight of training. When Gary and I did some training the next day, we could tell that Senator was rusty. We tried doing the training downstairs this time and he didn't seem to know what to do. We went back upstairs where we had done most of the training before, and he seemed to snap back. We did a few more trials and ended on a good note.
Since then, he has done fine. We are still using the little plastic containers that seem to work well. We have been putting all four of them in separate corners of the living room and I stand in the center of the room. I try extremely hard not to give Senator any body language cues, but fail sometimes. I want him to find it so much! But, the few times I was able to hold completely still, he did come to me and alert after finding the loaded container. It was very encouraging. This seems to be our best test now. We try to do this in other rooms as well, but the smaller rooms make it more difficult to determine if he is on the exact right container when he alerts.I have had a few lows where I have tried to test him with. The first one, I was at about 68. I had Gary bring him into the room where I was sitting on the floor. He didn't seem to get it. He did give me a long look in the eyes, but no alert. I blew in his face and he didn't react. I then tried to say "find it", but he just began to look around the room. I went back and tested, and I had gone back up to 78 which maybe was too high for him to detect. I had been using lower BGs for testing. More between 55 and 70. So, maybe he just wasn't determining this as low?
The next time, I was at 65 and tried again. This time when Senator came in to me, he again looked at me and paused. I blew in his face and he gave me a tentative paw (alert). I said "yes" and gave him a good treat. I'm afraid to get too excited, but it does seem like a good start.
