Seven months have passed since our last update, with Covid regulations easing and then being reintroduced as Omicron sweeps through the nation, and we are now hoping that the booster-jabs will be enough to hold the line.
One of the main reasons for the long break is that I was putting off writing in the expectation of being able to bring better news on the training front. Alas no. We are still in deadlock with the 3 person line-up.
It remains a confusing picture. Venn is solid on the stages leading up to this final assessment of scent discrimination, but still does not seem to understand the task of the line-up. She either gets over excited and indicates on everyone, or does not appear to be working. Having worked through the more obvious potential solutions, we have found ourselves caught in the middle of more polarised and diametrically opposed views about what should happen next. Consequently, we have found ourselves frequently “in-trouble” with one or more people for not following a piece of advice in favour of another conflicting one from someone else. It has been a disheartening few months from a training perspective, and more than once I have pondered the possibility that we will not make the grade.
However, there does seem to be a few chinks of light. Firstly, it seems that I was unconsciously influencing the outcome with changes in my body-language. So, when I knew which the target was, she got it right, but if we worked blind, then she was constantly looking at me for guidance, and either got it wrong or did not indicate at all. As most of our training is set up by me, this is a tricky one. I have tried to standardise my performance in the task so that we do not dwell longer on the target than the decoys, I don’t stare expectantly, nor start getting the rewards ready. We’ve also done more work off the lead where suitable, to minimise my influence. We’ve taken the opportunity to go backwards to drills where she is confident, and to work on improving other aspects, such as the quality of the indication.
One of the attempts to break the deadlock with line-ups saw us go on to the next stage (simple trails) to try to encourage her to go in and investigate the target. Thankfully, she performed really well, with a nice pick-up to identify the start of the trail, good solid working of the trail, and a really nice indication at the body. This doesn’t mean we get away with ducking the line-up stage, but it forms a little ray of encouragement that she can do the task, and should make good progress once we get the blasted line-ups sorted.
Comentarios