During our 3rd class last night, the level of difficulty of the searches was increased. More distractions were added to the search area and the concept of height was added. The boxes with the treats were placed on chairs or on larger boxes. This forces the dogs to look up off of the ground. Zora didn’t mind this, but she didn’t like having to get the box off of a height. We also learned that Zora didn’t like sticking her head in a box while wearing her collar because her tags got in the way, so she will ware her harness when working from now on.

While working at home today, I spent some time trying to build her confidence. I let her watch me put the little treat box on top of progressively bigger boxes. Then encouraged her to pull the little box down. She was frustrated at first, because I wouldn’t get it for her, but she quickly figured out that she could reach it and pull it down. Tomorrow I will try covering her face again, so she has to search for it first.