Dottie's Article "Problem"

There is a reason "problem" is in quotes.  K determined it is not a problem at all.  She set up 3 piles of her articles and had me do one metal and one leather at each.  Dottie was correct 6 times in a row.  Once K even staked down the correct one and Dottie pulled it up and brought it back.  K's hypothesis, and she was correct as proved by her experiment, was Dottie's nose is so good, that to her all the articles smell like me, and she can't figure out why sometimes she is rewarded and other times she is not, when in her mind she is always bringing back an article that smells like me.

K suggested I steam my articles before our trial, to make sure all of the "me" scent is gone.  Off I went to Target and bought a steamer. 

Steaming away!

Sadly, the steaming did not go very well!

These all used to be leather articles.  See that little patch of brown under the metal bar on the left?  That is all that is left of the leather that used to be covering the metal bar.  Where did the rest of the leather go?  Did it evaporate?  Is that possible?  Why does the leather on the middle one look burnt?  Who knew this could happen to leather with steaming?


Luckily, I was able to borrow K's articles for our trial on the upcoming weekend.  I still have one set of full leather that I can use for my next trial, if I decide to not buy a new set.