I signed Cai up for an Odor Recognition Test, in all three scents so that we could get it over with in one day. He found the first two (birch, anise) super fast. He didn't do a fancy trained alert, but was clearly extra interested in the correct boxes. For clove, he didn't hit the correct box on his first pass, and then he second-guessed what we were doing and climbed on top of a box and sat on it. He had sometimes done that during training, when he was confused about not being able to directly access the odor. I said "alert" but I knew that it was wrong as it came out of my mouth. As soon as I moved him away, he alerted on the correct box. Darn it.
We joined a weekly class with Jennie Kiefer. She's great about presenting new challenges every time, so his understanding of the search is continually growing. Cai is mostly ready to do level 1 containers, interiors, and exteriors, as long as the hide isn't too far off the ground, but we haven't done vehicles at all yet.
