... Train Holly to find my rockets when they land in crops? I guess that teaching her to home in on the smell of the rocket should be possible. The 'seek' will be done on a lead as I don't want her to touch the rocket in case it's still warm.
Re: How do I ..... Well if you find out let me know. My husband is a keen aero modeller. I have been known to drive round, in my little convertible with the hood down, in ever increasing circles till we found his latest escapee. We found it nose down in a field of rape. He went to reclaim it, didn't notice it and disappeared into a drainage ditch. I nearly fell off the five bar gate I was sat on laughing. Labradors are not the only thing that fails to recall
Re: How do I ..... Ooh, my husband used to do rockets too! (Not so much these days sadly, due to work/time issues). Burnt out rocket engines have quite a distinctive smell, don't they, so I would think you'd have a good chance. If you have a collection of old rocket engines, you could clicker train finding them I reckon. I think I'd start by training bark on command, as you don't want her to touch it. Then start by asking for and C&T barking at an engine in your hand, then floor, then round the corner in the house so she has to find it etc etc. Basically you're training an explosives dog!! There might be more info on police/customs etc dog sites Modified to add: also, try looking up training for Working Trials (not the gundog sort, the kind of civilian police dog sort- people at my obedience club are really into it and it involves quite a bit of tracking at higher levels)
Re: How do I ..... Gosh, Merla, what a great idea. I'd not made the connection with explosive dog training. As soon as you mentioned it the penny dropped! We generate used rocket motors by the bucketload at our club so there's no shortage of training material. We're off to a national meeting in a few weeks so she can have another session with larger rockets. The noise doesn't seem to worry her. I expect that she will get the idea of seeking quite quickly if I can keep her away from the bacon butty stand!
Re: How do I ..... What a great idea! I'm sure Holly will really enjoy it - as long as you really train her not to touch the hot rockets.
