.I ordered this beautiful title plaque from RapidPins.com (Rapid Rainbow Designs) and it came in the mail today. They include a magnet with the dog's name and have title "pins" (they can be made as pins or magnets) for most of the different venues and dog activities. She's working on UKC rally pins at the moment. I think the plaque is very reasonably priced at at $3.50 each for the title magnets, can't hardly beat it! So far, I got him a 2009 (so I can keep track of the year he earned titles, I'll get a year magnet each January), a CGC and an RN.
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Because these are all magnets (along with his name plate) I can arrange them however I like. The photo just slips in the frame, so that can get changed anytime. It can be either vertical or horizontal. I'm VERY pleased with this item! I first saw them at the Hamilton Dog Training club when I was showing there. They have two walls full of them from their members. I think what I heard was that the owner buys the plaque and the club pays for all the dog's pins for titles they have earned.
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So this is what his "corner" looks like so far:
Today I worked on some scent training with him. I'm using gun powder because I have it available and who knows when it might be helpful to have him be able to find a hidden gun! LOL
I started with just a nose target to a scented piece of paper towel in my hand.
Then I held an unscented piece in one hand and the scented one in the other hand. I only clicked when he nosed the scented one. I switched them from hand to hand and held them in several different positions.
Then I put the towels into the containers and held out the scented one with an empty one. I switched those around in my hand as well.
Then I attached the containers to a home made "scent wheel" so I could vary the location of the target scent just by spinning the "wheel" around. I checked the colors of tape I used to be sure they were the same "tone" by scanning them and then turning the picture into a "grey scale" and found they all looked alike. I used a few different colors so just in case the colors were recognizable by the dog as different, he wouldn't be able to pick out the ONE that is green which indicates the scented container. With Dazzle and my other dogs, it's clear they aren't using the colors to select the tubes.
Once the scent was on the wheel, I could vary it's location just by turning the board.
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Near the end of the session, it "clicked" in his brain what I wanted and then it was clear he was being very deliberate with his checking and selection. I have chosen a "nose bump" as his indication signal. When I was teaching this to my beagle, I found it helpful for him to clearly indicate where something was hidden rather than just doing a sit because some of the areas where things were hidden had a lot of potential hiding places. Having him put his nose on the target and leave it there really helped!
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Now I have to get going to rally class!
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