Looking back over the entries in this blog there is a clear theme to most posts, with phrases such as “roller-coaster ride” and “one step-forward…” frequently coming in to play. In order not to disappoint, today’s entry is brought to you by the game “whack-a-mole.”
As is traditional at this time of year, taking stock of the things gained and the things lost is always popular in the media, but to keep things simple I’ll confine myself to Venn and the last three weeks.
Starting with the gains, we have seen the first real attempts at swimming for fun rather than falling in (Yay!) and an unhealthy interest in chasing birds (Boo!). Walking to heel has improved (Yay!) but still with scope and need for improvement (Boo!).
On the losses front, top of the list comes the spontaneous “Indication” trumpeted in the last entry (Boo!). Venn was still clearly finding the right scent-marked plate, but got bored with letting me in on the secret. Fortunately, with a bit of focus we have managed to get it back again (Yay).
Our scent games have been modified a little over the passing weeks to address various different issues. Rather than mark plates directly with a scent, we moved on to using cotton wool swabs stored in a bag with the smelly substance. As well as putting us in good stead for more sophisticated games further down the line, this offered a swifter set-up and less consumption of single-use plastics, and also got us away from any issues related to Venn licking the plates when she found them. The shift in strategy was not without its challenges though. Instead of licking the plates, she took to eating the swabs instead. I’m no expert, but even I can see that this is not ideal. We quickly abandoned sitting swabs on the plates, and with a quick scavenge around the shed and the help of some old drain-pipe fittings, we have a variety of “scent boxes” which allow air to blow through, but prevent ingestion.
We have entered into one of the weirder phases of the game by introducing human scent into the mix. Of course, both Jacky and my own scent is all over the place so we need “fresh meat” for the exercise. What this means in practical terms is that everyone around the Christmas table ended up wearing swabs which were duly bagged for future use at the end of proceedings.
On the acceptance-testing to get Venn onto the SARDA training books, we still have some work to do, particularly on the walking to heel front and her behaviour around sheep. However, she is getting good reports and it feels achievable.
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