strychix Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 So Ambrosia is a bit young, but I was hoping to discuss an idea I have and how others would go about training their dog to accomplish such a task. Here in my hometown they lay out handmade glass floats on the beach for about half the year. I myself am not overly interested in finding them, if I'm looking for anything at the beach it's agates or cool driftwood. However, I was thinking it would be super if I went to the beach with my great grandma (who is 93) and my dog and my dog could find her one, since she doesn't have the stamina to just go searching herself. I have plenty of these of different sizes and colors I could use for training, I'm just not sure how to go about teaching a dog to find what is more or less an odorless, hidden (in nooks and crannie, not like buried or anything) and randomly placed object. All ideas would be helpful. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassidy Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 I am not a pro in the subject, but I would recommend going to a nose work class if you are interested in something like this. I'm sure the people there could help you tremendously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 I had to google what they are... are these what you are talking about? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_float If so, why does your town put them out on the beach for people to find and take home? Just curious as I have never heard of the objects before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 I am not sure what glass floats are either (but I did check out the wikipedia link above). Even though you think they may be odorless, they may have a unique scent detectable by a dog. I do know that dogs can be trained to find cell phones - i.e. an inorganic object as opposed to an organic scent such as a human, another animal, drugs, etc. I would check out resources on the internet - or talk to someone locally who is on the canine SAR team. Jovi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strychix Posted June 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2013 http://www.oregoncoast.org/finders-keepers/I live in a small tourist town, so it's mostly for tourism's sake. The most, as far as I can tell, that my town has is obedience classes which after you attend those and do well enough the teacher will invite you and your dog to attend agility classes (seemingly in most cases, it takes a couple times around the obedience class to be invited to the agility classes, it was all a big deal that my last dog was invited to join after his first 10-week session), which are in the checklist for Ambrosia, but I don't think we have anything specialized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassidy Posted June 4, 2013 Report Share Posted June 4, 2013 I think I may have an idea. You could try holding out one of the floats in front of you and say something like "find it". Most dogs will sniff something that it held out in front of them, and when/if she (its a she right?) touches it with her nose click (if you are using a clicker, otherwise just treat) and treat. Keep practicing that, and eventually set it on the ground and tell her find it. If she goes and touches it with her nose click and treat. Keep practicing that and eventually start moving it farther away, and as she gets better start to kind of hide it, eventually to places where she can't see it anymore, and she doesnt see you hiding it. Gradually keep increasing the difficulty. Once she is doing it consistently, start making her lay down before giving her the treat, so as to signal you that she found it. Eventually she should come to lay down as soon as she finds it. Then move to the beach. Start out easy, since its a different environment, and slowly get harder. Make sure you are using all different floats during training so that she knows that she's not supposed to just find that one float. Hopefully if you have it at a point where she can find it when it's hundreds of feet away (which will take a while), then you should be able to tell her find it, and she will look for one up and down the beach, and hopefully find one that you didnt place! Not sure how well this would work, I've never had to teach a dog to find anything with such little scent (although I'm sure it has some scent to the dog), but I suppose it's worth a try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strychix Posted June 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2013 Thanks. I will try that. The glass float thing is over until I think January but ill start trying to teach it to her sometime soon. If it can't be done, it's no real loss or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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