Looking back, I'm not sure Josie ever had a good foundation in searching containers. We made it through NW1 and NW2 without too many problems, but our first trials in NW3 showed some real issues in containers. Josie started to "skateboard" with the boxes, and give false alerts. Was she having a great time playing with them, or was that avoidance?
Lesson #1: LISTEN to your dog! She was trying to tell me that she didn't know how to do that search! High arousal, false alerts, and avoiding the work are HUGE clues from Josie.
Gunnison containers summer 2024: https://youtu.be/Oxv0sGjYcuQ (I should note that Josie earned first place in the interior searches at this trial, and scored MINUS 16.67 in containers).
I worked through some of the standard advice given for container training. I put the boxes up on chairs so she couldn't put her feet on them. I gave her "time outs" if she touched boxes with her feet. I tried to mark just before she got to a hot box, but that didn't keep her from skateboarding all the other boxes.
I had already trained her to nose-freeze on source, but it was getting TO source that was the problem. I spent a whole lot of time thinking about how Josie behaves in general when she's unsure of what's expected. When Josie isn't sure, her arousal level goes way, way up. Her ability to think rationally goes way, way down. Eventually, I put two and two together and figured out that Josie needed to be trained on containers from the foundations up through upper level challenges. I had to go back and start at square one.
Lesson #2 : Consider "outside the box"solutions.
About that time, I found a webinar offered through Ford K9 on "Speed Demons - Advanced Container Work." https://www.fordk9.com/product/speed-demons-advanced-container-work/ (I'm not an affiliate, nor am I compensated for this link). I bought the webinar and worked through the concepts presented. It was not at all what I had been doing with Josie. The webinar suggested keeping the dog on a very short leash, having the dog work systematically through a container search. I started to use the leash to prevent her from touching the boxes with her feet, along with other exercises suggested in the webinar. At that point, I had nothing to lose!
Here's one of our early practice sessions: https://youtu.be/dHHqnn1B2l8
We had a trial in November of 2024, and we earned a perfect score in containers! Josie was still working on pretty high arousal levels, but the search was much, much better.
Over the winter of 2024-2025, we worked short leash container skills frequently. Josie went very quickly from being over-aroused and frantic to working calmly and confidently.
In the spring and summer of 2025, Josie earned the final legs she needed to finish her NW3 Elite title. Here are her last two NW3 container searches (earning first place):
We recently had fun at a workshop hosted by the fabulous Jill K. Josie had an opportunity to run a container search off-leash. I wish I could say that she's learned her lesson and doesn't skateboard any more, but...... just take a look:
