I took Juno to Linthicum, MD on Monday to train with a woman from my team and several others.  There were only 3 of us, so we got several problems.  There had been a certification evaluation there on Saturday and Sunday and there were many people and dog scents, so I was concerned about Juno's ability to focus.  She did have a problem at the bark barrel.  That is not uncommon.  She headed for the victim and opted to check out the concrete tube next to the victim.  A restart took care of the problem.

I took her up on the large rubble pile to see how she would do and she seemed to have no problems.  Moving on the rubble is a strongpoint for her.  Or, it was until MOnday...  I set up a problem where the victim was at the top of the pile and would move into the wind on 2 successive problems.  She saw the victim leave and started after her, but she slipped on some concrete and seemed to be lost after she recovered.  I restarted her.  She headed in an entirely different direction, but found the victim and barked.  On the next problem, she found the victim and wandered around. On the third problem she really had problems.  At one point, I could tell that she felt there was a barrier between where she was and where the victim was.  I helped her get into the right location and she alerted.

The next series was even worse.  She went down under the rubble and was moving down there.  I finally pulled her and put her back into the car.  We next worked Rose's dog on the pallet pile - a HUGE (high and wide) pile of wooden pallets.  After her dog finished, I brought Juno out again.  She worked two different problems and did a MUCH better job.  She had a minor agility issue on the second problem, but we suspected that might happen when the victim hid.  But overall, it was much better set of problems.

In reviewing what happened, I think she had the problem that many dogs suffer from - they can't pat their head and rub their belly at the same time.  In dogspeak, that means that when dogs are searching, they are using about 90-99% scent/nose and almost no vision.  However,  when they are on rubble, they have to use their eyes.  When they start a problem using their noses and crash and burn on the pile, then they start using their eyes to travel the pile, but don't use their noses, so the only time they find a victim is if they bump into him.  Or, they just freeze.  Freezing is easy to identify, but when they are still moving over the rubble, it is not easy to know that they are having problems learning to stay alive by watching where they are going and finding the victim by using their noses.  Several  things make it obvious to me that this is what happened.  First, there was, in her brain, an obvious barrier that she couldn't get over.  Looking at it, I could "see" her barrier, but, in fact, the terrain was no more difficult to negotiate there than anywhere else.  And, second, she kept trying to go low in the rubble to walk on the ground under the concrete.  She normally stays high, as do most trained dogs.  They only search low when they have scent and are trying to pinpoint the source.    Also, her ability to search improved and her focus returned when she was on the pallet pile, which wasn't as scary to her.  Of course, it is obvious to me now.  At the time, I thought she had lost her focus - again - or was crittering - again.  So, her previous bad behaviors influenced my interpretation of what I saw.  If I'd recognized what was going on, we could have done some motivational problems to get her through this phase and let her learn to use both senses at once.