Post by oksaradt on Feb 9, 2008 15:58:57 GMT -5
Going through a new puppy every five years makes me so glad I keep notes. I'll most likely move up the cycle (when Murphy becomes field ready) to start another puppy as I got spoiled with two working dogs at once. Murphy is working out to be as easy to train as Tempe was (starting with a puppy with all the right stuff makes training so easy) such that the limiting factor on when I'll feel comfortable putting him out in the field will be his maturity rather than his skill level. Tempe certified with the handlers I work with at 18 months, but I held her back till she was nearly 3 years old before I felt the adult had mostly replaced the puppy.
That said, I feel I should expand on the other uses of indication stations and why they should be part of the training regimen for some time.
The primary use of the indication station is to solidify the trained indication or alert on the dog when it finds the source without the dog self-rewarding on the source itself. As with any container you place your sources in eventually the dog should find the need to decide if you want it to indicate on the bricks themselves. If the dog never does this, I'd be concerned. I like thinking dogs, so I want the dog to get to that point where it's guessing (or rather it’s identifying the rules of the game). Rather than do the dog's thinking for it, I give it the opportunity to fail. I don't want the dog ever to have to guess on a real search. Murphy has been through (at least) ten rounds of variations of the stations when he got lazy, ran up to the blank and indicated without checking it. At that point, I gave him the "jeopardy buzzer" and suggested he check again. He gave me a look, but did put his nose to the bricks and then replied with a nose clear and ran on to find a "good station." Part of my task as a trainer is to move all these stations around every time so that there is no pattern for him to work off of. Scent must be his only guide..
Murphy's trained indication has solidified to a bark with his natural indication of a touch still intact as part of his problem solving technique.
I will continue to use these stations through out Murphy's training for about another 3-4 months and then it will become a weekly "fun day" exercise for probably another year. Murphy will also have to work other problems in addition to the stations. Today he has three skeletal remains behind fencing that he has to free search for as well as the indication stations. The point of this is to work him on the stations first where the bark is solid and then migrate him into an environment where he has a choice to fall back on trying to self-reward or follow the current pattern. With consistency, he’ll eventually no longer try to self-reward and always expect his paycheck to come from me.
I've now sacrificed one of the two blanks to use now as a "Proofing station". The idea is the dog is now cued into knowing each pile of bricks might have scent that produces him the ball and food. Currently one of the blank stations now has deer tissue and hair supplied from one of my hunting buddies. As I come across road kills from time to time of other species, they will go into this station as well. It's just as important to start teaching Murphy what decaying tissue and bone scents will not supply him a positive experience as well as those that do. HRD dogs are often asked to act as field bone discriminators. Hunters will come across bones in the woods and sometimes its more expedient to check them with the dog before getting all excited about clandestine graves. Bear, coyote, dogs,....bones can sometimes be confused for human bones in the right circumstances. With a little imagination, many other species of mammalian remains can appear to resemble human remains. I’ve even had to run my dogs over (what turned out to be) wild turkey bones once to help a county sheriff out.
Once I’m confident that Murphy will not try to attain the source, he’ll then start his buried scent training.
Oh, one other note, don't get stuck into one brick structure. Use the bricks as needed to contain whatever source you want.
Finally, once you feel cofident your dog won't destroy the container then the possibilities of the stations is limitless. One of my favorite "training games" is to collect "clean" cardboard boxes of the same shape and size. I then play the "pea in the cup" game with the dog, moving around the boxes and asking the dog "which box is the source in?" The right choice produces bells, whistles, balls, treats. The wrong box gets a "jepordy buzzer" and "try again" I like to get up to nine boxes with 3 blank, 3 with HRs sources, and 3 with non-HRs sources.
Enjoy,
Jim
That said, I feel I should expand on the other uses of indication stations and why they should be part of the training regimen for some time.
The primary use of the indication station is to solidify the trained indication or alert on the dog when it finds the source without the dog self-rewarding on the source itself. As with any container you place your sources in eventually the dog should find the need to decide if you want it to indicate on the bricks themselves. If the dog never does this, I'd be concerned. I like thinking dogs, so I want the dog to get to that point where it's guessing (or rather it’s identifying the rules of the game). Rather than do the dog's thinking for it, I give it the opportunity to fail. I don't want the dog ever to have to guess on a real search. Murphy has been through (at least) ten rounds of variations of the stations when he got lazy, ran up to the blank and indicated without checking it. At that point, I gave him the "jeopardy buzzer" and suggested he check again. He gave me a look, but did put his nose to the bricks and then replied with a nose clear and ran on to find a "good station." Part of my task as a trainer is to move all these stations around every time so that there is no pattern for him to work off of. Scent must be his only guide..
Murphy's trained indication has solidified to a bark with his natural indication of a touch still intact as part of his problem solving technique.
I will continue to use these stations through out Murphy's training for about another 3-4 months and then it will become a weekly "fun day" exercise for probably another year. Murphy will also have to work other problems in addition to the stations. Today he has three skeletal remains behind fencing that he has to free search for as well as the indication stations. The point of this is to work him on the stations first where the bark is solid and then migrate him into an environment where he has a choice to fall back on trying to self-reward or follow the current pattern. With consistency, he’ll eventually no longer try to self-reward and always expect his paycheck to come from me.
I've now sacrificed one of the two blanks to use now as a "Proofing station". The idea is the dog is now cued into knowing each pile of bricks might have scent that produces him the ball and food. Currently one of the blank stations now has deer tissue and hair supplied from one of my hunting buddies. As I come across road kills from time to time of other species, they will go into this station as well. It's just as important to start teaching Murphy what decaying tissue and bone scents will not supply him a positive experience as well as those that do. HRD dogs are often asked to act as field bone discriminators. Hunters will come across bones in the woods and sometimes its more expedient to check them with the dog before getting all excited about clandestine graves. Bear, coyote, dogs,....bones can sometimes be confused for human bones in the right circumstances. With a little imagination, many other species of mammalian remains can appear to resemble human remains. I’ve even had to run my dogs over (what turned out to be) wild turkey bones once to help a county sheriff out.
Once I’m confident that Murphy will not try to attain the source, he’ll then start his buried scent training.
Oh, one other note, don't get stuck into one brick structure. Use the bricks as needed to contain whatever source you want.
Finally, once you feel cofident your dog won't destroy the container then the possibilities of the stations is limitless. One of my favorite "training games" is to collect "clean" cardboard boxes of the same shape and size. I then play the "pea in the cup" game with the dog, moving around the boxes and asking the dog "which box is the source in?" The right choice produces bells, whistles, balls, treats. The wrong box gets a "jepordy buzzer" and "try again" I like to get up to nine boxes with 3 blank, 3 with HRs sources, and 3 with non-HRs sources.
Enjoy,
Jim