I'd said that I was fine with just having a cuddly dog who didn't do anything, but it turns out I lied. I want to do something with my dog. Our nose work practice had sputtered out earlier this year, but now I'm back to it with private lessons with Jennie Kiefer.
Terra is doing much better now. We are pairing the tin with food (though usually Terra is too timid to reach for the food on her own), and the tin is always out in the open. A few times she's had trouble because the odor was at her chest height and she was blocking it with her own huge body. However we're seeing steady progress in her desire to find the odor as well as her ability to follow it to source.
I don't need to compete in nose work with her, but I need some sort of structured activity that we can do together, that gives me goals to work towards. I'm feeling hopeful now that we're back on track.
