Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Scent Wheel: Day 3

Very heartening trial this morning. The tea bag has now been sitting out in the air for 48 hours and is putting out a LOT less scent than it was yesterday. It took Syn a moment to figure out how to deal with the lessened scent, but she got it in one rep and didn't make any mistakes.

DOG:
Syn
DATE:
08.01/2012
SCENT TYPE:  (clothing/saliva/swab/other)
Earl Gray tea bag
ORIGIN:
Cupboard
DATE OF CAPTURE:

AGE WHEN USED:
48 hours (3rd day)
SAMPLE CONDITION: (frozen/refrigerated/room temp/other)
Room temp
SAMPLE STATE: (gauze/dental cotton/cloth/hydrated/other)
Dry tea bag
INTENSITY:  (# of holes)
Open
CONTAINER TYPE:
Pill bottle
# of CONTAINERS:
6
# of SCENT OPTIONS:
1 tea bag, 5 shredded paper
MODE of PRESENTATION: (hand/surface/wheel/other)
Scent wheel
SESSIONS:
1
2


Description




Reps:
10
10


% Success Rate:
100
90


Time:
3:20
3:10




ORIGIN of SAMPLE:

COMMENTS:   (session 1) This scent was much tougher. I could still smell the tea when I picked up the wheel to turn it, but could no longer smell it when I walked in the room. I’m sure she’s trying to indicate air scent now.

It took her 12 seconds to find the scent the first time, she had to circle the wheel 4 times. While she was circling, she kept starting to lie down in between bottles – NOT at a bottle, so I’m not calling that a false positive. She’d sniff a bottle, start to move to the next one, bend one front leg and duck her shoulders to start lying down, then arrive at the next bottle and stand up to sniff again, so I’m thinking she was getting the scent in the air, but was definite about it NOT being in the bottle she was smelling. When she finally got a good whiff of the right bottle, she seemed to lie down with a triumphant flourish – GOTCHA, SUCKER.

The remaining 9 reps were normal. Not quite as fast as yesterday’s, because she wasn’t able to ride the scent from the air to the bottle, though she did aim for the correct side of the wheel most of the time. By the 7th rep she was always aiming for the correct side, so she quickly got used to dealing with the lessened scent.

(session 2 later in the day) This session, from the dog’s point of view, was fast and efficient. The one error she made was another air scent, which she corrected almost before I realized she had indicated.

From my point of view, disastrous. The dog is getting more definite in her opinions and more eager to find the scent. She’s brushing past the wrong bottles and knocking them off the wheel. The Velcro isn’t doing the job. I’ve superglued them all, but that’s not going to work either. I’m now thinking of drilling holes in the wheel so the big bottles will sit down inside the wood so their tops are almost flush with the top of the wheel. Then she won’t be able to knock them. I’m sure I could teach her to be more careful, but I’ve mentioned that she’s a very soft dog and I’m loving the joy she feels at finding the scent. In other words, can’t be bothered. By hook or crook, we’ll fix this with management.

Syn is finding the scent in an average of 2 seconds from her approach to the wheel. The rest of the time is spent tossing a treat away so she’s gone while I turn the wheel, and keeping her away from it while I put everything back that she knocked down.


4 comments:

  1. Sue, how are you storing your containers, etc? I knew that when I was going to be working with live scent that I would double bag, etc so that's what I did from the beginning......before Steve and Jen talked to me about variables. So I'm betwixt and between.

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  2. I'm just leaving them on the wheel or on the table near the wheel in a room they're never allowed into unless we're actively training.

    I thought she'd have trouble with the 3-day aging of the tea bag, but she had no trouble at all. Also the scent can certainly drift over the whole setup, but apparently she understands that she has to find the hottest scent.

    Once today she hit the right one but she had been reaching across the wheel so when she lay down, she was on the complete opposite side of the wheel. When she's done that before, I've asked again Which One? and she's touched it again and lay down closer to it (it was obvious which one she was talking about the first time, but pursuant to our discussions of the down being a rather vague signal compared to the duration touch, I wanted her to be more precise), but this time she went down, then immediate got up, touched the hot one again, then lay down beside it.

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  3. Do you think she is ready to work with lids w/holes in them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, but I can't find a pharmacy that is willing to part with any, which is why I'm letting the tea bag I'm using get older and older.

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