# articles....again.....



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

More on the continuing saga of the Tito Monster and the utility articles.
As you all probably know, I introduced him to the articles shortly before Christmas. We used the tie down method, and I introduced just metal at first, slowly increasing the number of metal articles until he could work with all of them.
That went really well. He can do the metals off the tie down mat now, and is pretty reliable.
The problem is the leather articles. He just seems to be having what I, in my very limited experience (i.e., none) think is an inordinately hard time "getting it" with the leathers.
I told someone the other day that my dog is nasally challenged,:doh: and she immediately asked how old my articles are. Of course, brand new. She suggested that the problem is that the leather smell in brand new articles is so overwhelming that he's having a hard time. I think she may be at least partially correct (any comments on if she is or isn't??) because when I open my article bag, it does smell like a saddle shop.
So after all that, the question is....how do I get some of the leather smell to dissipate from the new leather articles? Honestly, I can smell the leather smell myself from a couple feet away (for ex, right now they are sitting on my washing machine and if I walk past I can smell leather pretty strongly) so it might be a big part of the problem.
Thanks!


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

I don't think new articles have anything to do with it. If you want to prove this theory, borrow someone's really old articles and see if there's a difference in his success rate (or buy an inexpensive set of used articles to try). Even old or poor quality leather articles smell different than metal, and metal different than wood. I think metal articles are somewhat of a blank canvas scent wise. They don't hold scent as long and they do have a unique smell even unscented. He needs to differentiate your scent from another like looking article. Have you gone back to just two articles - both leather - one scented and one unscented? When you have 100% success rate with two add a third, etc. I found leather articles to be slower working than metal - but a lot of it was consistancy on my part and not moving forward until we had 100% success at the step we were working on...

Erica


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Yes, I've gone back to just 3 leather articles, 2 tied down and 1 not. That does seem to help him a lot. If I just use 2 (1 tied, 1 not) he seems to see it as a retrieving exercise rather than a discrimination exercise. 
I guess this is just taking longer than I thought it would. I'm probably just not patient enough.
We did a utility fun match tonight, and he NQ'd the articles. Of course.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

I was told that the best thing to do for new leather articles is put them outside for a while and let them air out. The newness could be the problem he is having. Never thought of it before.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

well after his humiliating performance Wed. night I've decided he just plain needs a nasal cell transplant....




my4goldens said:


> I was told that the best thing to do for new leather articles is put them outside for a while and let them air out. The newness could be the problem he is having. Never thought of it before.


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