"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity."
Maggie sniffing the wet ground
Yesterday the wet ground from the rain peaked Maggie's curiosity. Any water on the ground sets her nose off. As a mother, I couldn't resist Maggie's pleasure in sniffing. I relaxed the leash and let her go ahead. Her head automatically went down. She sniffed and sniffed and sniffed with Sherlockian tenacity. I credit this sniffing to her gift of curiosity, but with an added enhancement. This enhanced gift was reinforced through her early "human scent tracking" training as a puppy. The first element used in Maggie's training was water. Simply put; a water trail was laid down with sprayed water in different line configurations. As the water trail was placed the person who laid the trail walked on the water line to leave their human scent. Maggie then "tracked" the trail with her nose to the ground with a long leash line behind her and me on the end. Eventually, I gave up her tracking training to concentrate on her dog obedience skills. Perhaps the fairy godmother's endowment of the gift of curiosity continues onward? Any water on the ground gets Maggie excited, and the game's afoot.
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