Blindfold
Here are our last searches from the Turner Trials. These were back to back searches that seem fairly simple at first glance. However the catch was, we did not have a walkthough nor did we know the time limit. So it was a bit surprising when we heard “30 second warning” called after only 15 seconds of searching. Honestly, I would not have run this search any differently if I had known the time limit. However, it would have been nice to know just how many grains were left in my hour glass. When Iona caught odor, I knew it was a crack hide and I knew that she just needed time to source it, while she found the hide right after “time” was called, I am still very proud of her for this search.
The search area was a big circle. Ramona recommended running our dogs through the middle of the search area. However, I feel that this strategy would only work well for this particular set up (where the hide was in the middle). I prefer to run Iona around the perimeter in a clockwise fashion as I feel it is the most efficient way to cover a search area like this. If you go down the center than you will be slicing the search area like cutting a pizza, but if you go around the edge, she can pick up any odor that is in the center and work it from there.
Watch Iona work the scent cone from this crack hide, it is almost a perfect wedge!
The second search was another speed search where we did not know the exact time allotted (however by this time, I had an idea that it would be short).
While Iona was phenomenal on this second search (watch her catch odor at 1:15 and alert at 1:23!), It took a bit of handling skill speed this search up so that we did not time out. After the first hide, she immediately moves down wind and out of bounds in the second hide’s scent cone. This is classic Iona. She likes to explore the edges of the scent cone and we just did not have time for it here so I changed her direction at 1:31. Luckily, she stayed in odor (even though she is running) and finds the second hide. Watch her do the same thing AGAIN for the third hide! In a training situation, I would let her chase that odor and take as long as she needed to figure out the puzzle, however here, I knew that we did not have time for that. I am lucky that she was able to stay in the scent cone when I turned her around both times.