Sniffer Par Excellence

One last effort to get our points towards our Expert Title. We did the SHELL GAME.

But we had to wait for those pots to come back from France with Barnaby because Mum refused to buy three terracotta pots to further clutter our home. So we waited to borrow the pots.

We had a good run with learning tricks. I learnt to do Cross My Paws and then we needed to do Distance Commands. Mum got into a groove I think – and now this is called the Shell Game. It is scent training – no problem!

My sniffer is something I can always rely on! I was asked to sniff out treats. How much easier can that be? But Mum asked me to paw the pot before I was given the treat.

OK. That was easy. And once I knew the drill, Mum added the other pots without the treats. And she moved those pots around – to confuse me. I was trying to follow her hand but quickly lost track. But my sniffer got to work – and so did my paw.

Sniffer worked! Tap-tap! Sausages – woohoo!!! What a fab trick to finish off our challenge series!

May’s comment: One final point for our Expert Title. It turned out to be a super easy trick for Darcy and it went incredibly fast. Her sniffer is par excellence! That I know. But how do I get her to tell me which of these pots have the treat?

As for that treat, I went to a get the meatiest sausage from the local Italian deli. I also stocked up with salami thinking I needed a lot but was I wrong. This was by far the easiest thing for her to learn – it took one session.

It was important not to confuse her. I made sure I used ONE pot dedicated to the scent of sausages and Julie had marked the same pot that she had used.

She uses her paw quite willingly, so getting her to tap was easy. And I love how she taps it so gently, so lady-like!

We moved from one pot to three pots within the short session.

And we had to film it – to show Julie that where we had put the treat – and not cheating! LOL!

If you want to teach your pooches a few tricks, check out Barnaby’s Trick Team on Facebook. It’s a fab challenge and you can them at at your own pace.