Ok, I know I'm easily impressed but he did something yesterday that (I thought) was so cool.

A few weeks ago a forum member was getting advice about testing for hunt drive (something I didn't even know existed :blushso I thought...why not? Let's see if True's got it.

I've been using the chuckit and releasing True after the ball stops rolling with a "Find it". He always does and, given we have very deep clover, it's not an easy task.

Yesterday the first throw whiffed through a tree and disappeared. Gone. So I tell him to "Find it" and I'm thinking "Dude, this is no game...I really need you to find it".

For 10 minutes he's searching frantically, tail going a mile a minute, often going back to the tree the ball whiffed through, sniffing the air. I shook the branches...no ball.

Just as I was about to give up (he was still looking)I gave him the chuckit to smell and he went back to the tree sniffing the air. As I walked over to him I saw the ball stuck way up in the tree...stuck just so that shaking the branches didn't get it down.

He knew the whole time! I just wasn't paying attention to what he was telling me.

I know, this is just a silly small thing but it's really awesome to take the information you read here, apply it, and see abilities you didn't even know your dog had emerge. I never would have known about hunt drive if I hadn't stumbled across that one post. I love this place

 Quote: Sarah Morris

Just as I was about to give up (he was still looking)I gave him the chuckit to smell and he went back to the tree sniffing the air. As I walked over to him I saw the ball stuck way up in the tree...stuck just so that shaking the branches didn't get it down.

He knew the whole time! I just wasn't paying attention to what he was telling me.

Don't 'cha just love it!! That IS cool Sarah!

Oscar did that very same thing once, but we weren't playing fetch, we were just chasing each other in a little park during the winter and Oscar kept circling around and focusing on this tree and sniffing like crazy, looking up, then sort of half standing up on his hind legs... I was utterly confused - until I realized there was a MITTEN up in the tree branches!! Must have gotten thrown up there... but he smelled it all the way up there, and in the frozen cold to boot! *Oscar went through a phase as a young guy where if he found a lost mitten or glove somewhere he'd just HAVE to steal it and play his own little game of toss with it (hence he was REALLY interested in seeking out that mitten - in a TREE! )

I'm constantly amazed whenever I read about dog's noses and their utterly incredible capacity to use them for seeking and detection - combine that with good drives and you've got a real force against missing or hidden items, whatever they may be!!

~Natalya

Good Job Sarah.

It is a great feeling to see what can really happen once you apply advice isn't it?

I am so totally psyched about all that I have learned here and also with seeing everyone else tell about their "success" stories.

Sounds like you have a "hunter" in the making.

It's a fantastic feeling.

Back when he was a pup I sometimes cursed his relentless high-drive energy, wondered if I was in over my head with a working line dog, and wondered if "Building Drive & Focus" was ever going to click.

Well, it all really does come together in a very satisfying way....for both of us.

I also think that the "type" of hunt drive might be breed specific.

I don't know what kind of dog True is, but Oscar is a Ridgeback (hound) and my Catahoulas are also hunting dogs.

It is interesting to watch my houlas scanning the trees for squirrels and coons. (None of my non-hound-type dogs ever did this). I had a purebred one time that actually caught a coon that was in a tree (I don't know if he jumped or climbed the tree or what). I'll bet if he was chasing a ball and it went in a tree he would find it also. (Catahoulas are used partly as treeing dogs).

On the other hand, my lab/aussie cross does not look in the trees for things unless one of my Catahoulas finds something and barks. Then she will look up to see what it is, but she doesn't usually bark. She has way more ball drive than squirrel drive. Though she has failed to find her ball when it got stuck in a low bush, she just sniffs around on the ground for it.

So, I'd say you got yourself a mighty fine huntin' dog!

 Quote: angela burrell

I also think that the "type" of hunt drive might be breed specific.

Yep...True's a Lab

 Quote: angela burrell

I also think that the "type" of hunt drive might be breed specific.

I agree. But I know that Tucker doesn't have anything hunter like in him (Border Collie & Husky) but one day i had done the same thing and the ball landed in a high bush. I gave up trying to find it, but he was adamant that it was in that bush....even to the point of me walking away and him doing the whole run to me run back to the bush thing. so i looked again, sure enough it was in the bush just high at the top.
Not sure if it was his nose he was using or his sight though.
Any other time though, his nose isn't the greatest...especially in snow...he'll walk over a ball continually thats buried in the snow and not even find it.
I guess its not something you can work on if the dog just doesn't have that particular aspect in his make up.
The hunter part I mean.

Wendy

My airedale found a racoon wintering inside a log.He had pulled it out when I reached him.I made him release the racoon and it climbed up a tree. He went back to the log and grabbed a second one. He did like to hunt.

That is interesting; I love how the dog was still looking after you gave up--I guess he's got more drive than you, eh?
My dogs love to hunt opposums (we're overrun) and Lady, THe shepherd no less, is actually better at finding them if they are in trees or not on the ground, I once found her just sitting and staring into a tree, she wouldnt move and it took me 5 or 10 mintues to find the animal she was waiting for

Great! If you haven't already, get that boy a job!