Last Nosework Class

Tonight was our last Intro to Nosework class.  As I drove down the hill in the direction of the dog training school, I said to Pongo, "Wanna go to class?"  He tilted his head, then started whining. 

There has been a lot of research on dogs and their vocabulary knowledge.  Most of it shows that the smartest dogs (often border collies) have a receptive vocabulary of 180-200 words, which equals that of a normally developing two-year-old (human).  As a speech language pathologist, this fascinates me.  Pongo understands a lot of words and phrases such as: hike, walk, swimming (which he hates), bath (which he also hates), go, eat, drink, go to bed, and home, to name a few. Of course, he also knows all the obedience vocabulary and a few tricks, like: give me five, another five, roll over, and patty-cake.  But "class" is a new one.  I keep meaning to make a list some day, but I don't think we are quite at 180.

We were the first to arrive and only one other dog showed up today, probably because of the holiday.  The first trial was a blind trial set up like an Odor Recognition Test (ORT) and is done on-leash.  If you want your dog to compete in nosework competition trials with the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW), they first have to pass an ORT (which I'll discuss in a later post). There are two rows of closed identical cardboard boxes.  The dog has to sniff the boxes and then signal his owner that he has found it.  It is a "blind" trial because the owner doesn't know where the odor is hidden and has to be able to read the dog's signals.  The owner says "alert" to tell the judge when the dog has found it.

When I told Pongo to "search," he immediately started on the first box in the row on the right, sniffed all the boxes, then started down the left row of boxes.  He started pawing the third to the last box in the row. "Alert," I replied to our instructor.  He had found it in less than fifteen seconds!  He amazes me!  I should note, that in this first class, the dogs aren't introduced to the official odors necessary to pass an ORT.  In the Intro to Nosework class, the dogs are taught to sniff out their own treats, which the handler provides to the instructor. 

Nosework classes are different from obedience or agility and other types of dog classes.  The dogs don't stay with their owners in the classroom, but are kept in the car and brought in one at a time to "work."  After the dog goes through several trials, you take them outside, let them potty, give them water, and then they wait in the car until their next turn.  Pongo didn't like this at first.  During the first few classes, I could hear his bark from inside the building while he waited for is turn.  He has always had separation anxiety, though it has improved tremendously over the years.  The last couple classes, though, I haven't heard him barking.  Maybe he has finally gotten used to the pattern and knows I'll be back out for him and he'll get to do more sniffing.

After a couple sets of trials with the boxes, we moved to the other side of the building to practice an area search.  Today, the area search was in the director's office and was done off-leash. Pongo easily found the treats that were hidden at his nose height or lower, but he had difficulty finding the ones that were hidden on the counter.  Pongo has been taught in all of his obedience training that he is not supposed to climb up on furniture or take food off of a surface unless it is offered him.  I can have a party at my house and put food on the coffee table and Pongo won't touch it.  Now I have to untrain him for nosework!!

At the end of class, we said our goodbyes.  Now we have a decision to make.  The next class, Intro to Odor starts in two weeks and runs until late July.  Do we continue or sit out a session?  The classes are expensive, and we always travel around 4th of July, so we would miss a class.  But I hate to take a break from it, when Pongo loves it so much.  I am starting to think that I would like to see if Pongo could pass an ORT and do some official nosework trials.  $$$$ but then how can you put a price on your dog's happiness?

When we came home, Pongo pulled out his stuffed hedgehog from his toy box and started throwing it around.  He rarely plays with toys anymore.  He was one happy dog. 

Hiking Little Si

Pongo and I have enjoyed hiking from the very beginning.  When we lived in Washington, DC, we went for frequent trail runs in Rock Creek Park, hiked Great Falls in Virginia, and explored the Shenandoahs.  Since moving to Washington state in 2006, we mostly hike in the I-5 corridor. 

Last summer, we discovered Little Si and fell in love with it.  Located in the Cascade Mountain Range, it is a shorter, easier version of Mt. Si, with beautiful moss-covered boulders and varied terrain.  Unlike Mt. Si, which is continual switch backs climbing in elevation steeply, Little Si's trail meanders up and down, left and right. 

It's funny how dogs sense an adventure.  Before I even got out the pack, Pongo began following me back and forth from the kitchen to the bedroom.  I can't mention the word "hike" or "walk" or "jogging" until we are about to go out the door, or he will start whining and jumping around in a circle.  For the first time, my husband, Del, accompanied us. I made breakfast at six a.m. and we left around seven, our bellies satisfied with fried potatoes, toast and egg.

In the car, Pongo stood up, panting in the backseat.  Del kept telling him to lay down, but Pongo paced, turning circles.  "He won't lay down," I said, "he's too excited." At least he wasn't standing over the gear shift, like he sometimes does.  In the past, I have tried different models of doggie seatbelts, without success.  Pongo always finds a way to get out of them, earning the nickname of "Houdini-Po." Because I am always driving, I don't know how he gets out of them, but he does.

By eight-thirty, we were on the trail.  It was raining, and I was already wishing I'd brought my hiking boots, but I had decided to wear my running shoes instead.  Pongo led the way, running ahead, stopping to look back frequently, to make sure we were coming.  We are both amazed at his energy.  He hopped over rocks, bounding up even the steep parts of the trail.  You would never know that he was twelve years old. 

It wasn't until we neared the top, that we saw his back legs waver, and a slight stumble.  It worries me.  It is hard to see him aging.  But watching him on a trail, he is at his happiest.  I can't deny him that, just because he's getting older.  Dogs belong in nature. 

Little Si's peak is at 1,575 feet.  When we reached it, the rain was coming down steadily.  Nevertheless, we sat down on a rock to eat a peanut butter sandwich.  There was one for each of us, even Pongo.  Hiking is the only time he is allowed peanut butter sandwiches, and I now make him one of his own instead of having to share mine with him.  Okay, I still share.  That's love.

On the way home, Pongo lay down in the backseat of the car and slept the whole way.  Once we arrived, I took him straight to the bathtub where he got a warm bath.  What a muddy dog he was!  After all of us had showered, it was time for a long nap. 

                                             A clean, tired puppy at home.  Happy trails!

Our Story, Our Anniversary

Our story began eleven years ago in May 2002 in Washington D.C.  I had decided that I wanted to get a dog, and started looking at rescue sites online.  I had read an article about the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL) in the Washington Post and had been encouraged to look there by my former roommate, Monica.  She had just moved out and I was now alone in a two bedroom apartment in northwest Washington.  I was having nightmares again, a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, which I had been diagnosed with many years before. I didn't feel safe in the apartment alone.

I first saw Pongo on WARL's website.  The picture must have been taken when he first arrived.  He was skinny, with a big head and all this fluffy fur around his face. 

The description with his picture read:  "Pongo is a 5-month old Collie/Lab mix.  Happy-go-lucky and playful, Pongo will light up your life with his affection and playful antics.  Pongo loves doggie friends and kids, so please come and visit Pongo today."

I have always loved big dogs and love Labs.  I was looking for a dog that could go running with me, and thought a Lab would be a good match for me.  But when I went to visit Pongo, and took him outside to the play area, he ran around sniffing and ignored me.  He didn't seem happy-go-lucky at all, and when I tried to throw a ball for him, he ignored that too.  After a while, I took him back inside and looked at other dogs.

At that time, WARL housed their dogs in cages.  There were typically two or three dogs in a cage,  and then there was a pass-through between two cages so the dogs could visit each other.  I learned that Pongo had been there nearly six months, and spent much of his time flipping himself off the walls of the cage. 

I left that day without making a decision.  I took choosing a dog seriously, and I didn't want to be impulsive.  Of course, you already know what decision I made or this blog wouldn't be titled, "Rescuing Pongo." I went back to visit him a second time and talked to WARL staff about him.  I spent more time outside with him and found he had a bond with one of the workers.  When I asked why no one had adopted him, why he had been at WARL so long, the woman at the desk said, "no one wants crazy Pongo, he has too much energy."  Maybe that's what sealed it for me.  He was the one no one wanted.  Here was this beautiful dog who couldn't show how wonderful he was because being inside of a cage was making him crazy. People looked at him flipping around inside the cage and passed him by.

I also learned that Pongo had been found on the streets of Baltimore as a puppy and escaped being euthanized by being transferred to WARL with 12 other dogs.  WARL, being a no-kill shelter, would keep dogs as long as it would take to find them a home. 

I finally decided to fill out adoption papers, and on May 19, 2002, I took Pongo home.  I now believe he was at WARL so long because he was waiting for me.

Happy Anniversary, Pongo!  You are, indeed, the light of my life.

Nosework Class

Last night was Pongo's fifth nosework class.  We signed up for it because he loves to work, is getting less exercise these days, yet still needs to have something to occupy his mind.  However, he has already gone through both beginning and advanced obedience, and passed the Canine Good Citizen Test.  He loves training, and gets so excited whenever we pull into the parking lot of the building where he has had his classes.  He can't do competition obedience because he has a repaired ACL, which causes him to sit with that leg off to the side.  I considered agility, but since he is now twelve years old, he has arthritis.  Jumping and sprinting would only aggravate it.  And so I settled on nosework - what dog doesn't like to sniff??

From day one, Pongo loved the game.  Get rewarded for sniffing?  Doggie Heaven!  In the first couple classes, treats were hidden in a food dedicated box that was moved to different locations.  When Pongo found the box with a treat in it, he was given two or three more treats to reward him.  These initial sessions were done off-leash within a sectioned-off area.  For home practice, I gathered a variety of boxes that now are housed in the corner of our living room (to my husband's dismay).  When I first set them up to practice with Pongo, our two male cats, Dewey and Zoumie were thrilled and came to investigate. I had Pongo run through a couple hides just to see what he would do, knowing that it was too early to be introducing a distraction - especially a cat!  Interestingly enough, Pongo ignored the box the cat was in and did not sniff it.  Yeah, the cats rule our house, not the other way around!  It was time to put the cats out so Pongo could work.

 

After hides in cardboard boxes, during subsequent classes, the instructor added a separate area search in a gated area. Next, we began to work on-leash, as trained search dogs do, and the treats were hidden in closed boxes arranged in rows or in a circle. Pongo gets so excited when he's told to "search" that sometimes he's panting too hard to sniff. But when he slows down and uses his God-given nose, he's amazing! I am in awe.

Yesterday, the instructor introduced searching outside on cement (too early in our training for grass). Pongo was unfazed by people or noise or moving scent . . . he found it quickly every time. I find I am disappointed that next week is our last class.

 

In a Nutshell

Pongo came into my life in May, 2002.  Our life together began in Washington, DC where we lived in an apartment.  I would learn many lessons from Pongo overtime, but the first one he taught me was about commitment to owning a dog.  In the process, I learned that dogs need a lot more exercise than most think, and that some of that exercise needs to be off-leash, moving at their own pace, running and playing with other dogs.   By trying to do what it would take to keep Pongo healthy and happy, and by trying to understand and heal his anxiety, I ultimately healed my own.   

I am currently writing a book titled Rescuing Pongo.  This is his story – the story of one dog who escapes being euthanized in America’s overrun city shelters - a dog no one wanted because he had “too much energy.”  Please follow the blog as we embark on our journey of finding a publisher and garnering interest in our story.