Post by oksaradt on Jun 9, 2008 11:02:45 GMT -5
Today I get to do some bragging along with expressing some concepts. I'll try to keep the proud handler moments to a minimum.
While I'm on-call with the M.E. at least two weekends a month and limited to my five counties, I do train with a local SAR team on my off-weekends. As there are three SAR K-9 groups in the OKC metro area, we sometimes bump into each other. One team is highly political and keeps to themselves which is fine. They split off from the team I belong to over ten years ago and apparently hold old grudges. This seems to be common with SAR teams and I've always considered it stupidity in action. The other team is a split-off from the "political team" and once they decided we weren't "the devil incarnate" as the "political team" told them...well, we've started training together whenever we bump into each other. The "political team" is of the attitude that a dog team can only certify in "cadaver" AFTER they've certified in Wilderness. Generally, this tends to limit their dogs to recent remains and often leads to dog teams that can't work the spectrum of cadaver work. This is because the area search dog is most often trained to work a "scent cone", or as I call it works as a binary dog (on or off, scent or no-scent).
In my opinion, a dog that works human remains should be trained to work through varying degrees of diffusion as in no-scent, some scent, more scent, lots more scent, ahhhhhh the source.
I set up three problems with three levels of difficulty. I put out adipose tissue in a mason jar with a serated lid out in a 5-acre field in foot tall grass. This was for me to help assist in indications/alerts and to access where the dog was at.
The second problem should be easy for an area search dog as it was a suet cage with a cavity wipe/adipose wipe/fresh blood. I poured about 1 cc of blood into the wipe to make sure it was strong for the area search dogs. The suet cage was placed at 2 feet up in a dead cedar tree out in the open where the handler could see it if the dog got in the neighborhood.
The third problem appeared deceptively easy, but is a booger for air-scenting dogs versus nose-to-ground oriented dogs. I found a sparse cedar tree on the upwind boundry of a oblong earthen bowl bordered by vegetation. On the downwind ridge was a sumac tree/bush up to six feet above the ridge. The source was some fresh muscle tissue and some adipose tissue in soaked Q-tips. I placed this scent source unprotected at six feet up in the crook of a branch on the downwind side of the cedar trunk. We're currently enjoying typical Oklahoma winds of 15-35 mph, heavy humidity, overcast, temperature in the low 80s.
Why is this last problem a booger?
The scent is pushed into the cedar fronds where it is dispersed and rolled across the depression against the sumac. Scent does blow past the sumac and the air scent dogs had no problem getting us to within 20 feet of the source. In my world, 20 feet away might as well be 20 miles away. The area search dogs all thought the sumac was where the scent was as it was acting as a scent trap. Once the dogs entered the the bowl, they would lose the scent as they kept their noses up. The only way this problem was solved was if the handler conviced their dog to put its nose down and search the area. As cadaver scent is generally heavier than air what wasn't pushed away by the wind was dropping down the cedar trunk to the bottom of the bowl. The handlers were told up front this was a difficult problem and they were asked to tell me within 2 feet of where the source is. Once they made their best guess then we worked it through to teach the dog. When I asked the handlers what they would do if presented with this situation in real life, one answered, "My dog would get us to the general area then we'd call your dog in to show us where the remains are........." Having been on searches where the dog handlers have this attitude, I can tell you it sucks for me. Usually I spend the entire search racing all over the search areas with my dog to tell the other dog teams that "no, that's not human remains, but thanks for playing." If the dog team states they can do fresh remains, then they better train up to that level rather than waste another dog team as a resource that could be deployed in another area. My intent was not to demean the dog teams or set them up for failure. By the time each dog team left each problem, they could work it or least know what they need to be practicing on with their dog.
For these dog teams they had one additional thorn in their sides. I had someone set up a blind skeletal for Murphy because I wanted to see if I was doing any thing wrong with his training, if I was cueing him when I know where the sources are, or if I'm pulling him off of sources when I don't know where they are. I stayed 20 feet out of the area and Murphy did great, locating the two sources, doing his touch, then looking up to me and barking.
Prior to this, I'd let him out of my Xterra to go poop and the other handlers wanted to visit with him. Contrary to many dog teams, my dogs are trained with the understanding that they are working as soon as they come out of the vehicle. I came by this attitude from experience and experiences of other handlers who often made finds on the way to their assigned areas rather than in the area itself. Many dog handlers have a ritual they like to go through (I'm never sure if it's for the dog or the handler) where they pump the dog up just before it's to search. My attitude is the search should be part of the reward for the dog. The right dog for the job should want to "hunt" so much that no ritual is needed.
Anyway, my training program focuses on skeletal/dental for the first year of the dog's training and then they get introduced to tissue-related remains. That doesn't mean they don't like the scent, they just don't get to train on it. Murphy was looking for a good spot to poop, looks at me with big eyes and starts running towards the indication station with the adipose tissue, some 120 feet away. I have an "oh nuts" moment and race to the Xterra and grab a reward. I run back up to the field and run towards Murphy. I'm 80 feet away when I see him do his touch and then look up to start barking. I launched the reward from there, a tug rope-frisbee. He raced after it all happy.
Soooo, of course, the other dog handlers for the rest of the day got to hear me doing an okie-drawl of "hmmmmm, dang, my 9-month old puppy, never imprinted on fresh.....well, he picked this up from 120 feet away and came to it to indicate....I'd think your dog could do the same with you 10 feet away........ We definitely have some issues to work through...."
Sucked to be them.....
Let's see, one dog team the handler rewards with food and baby's her GSD. I ask, "does the dog get scraps at home?"..."oh yea"............"So, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" Now, I'm not the "Dog Whisper/Expert/Whatever", but I asked her to give me the dog's reward. I turned to the dog who I'd seen hit on the scent multiple times. I handed the food toward it. It started to take it. I whipped the food away and said to the dog, "Let's find." The dog immediately went to the source, put it's nose on the jar, and sat (it's indication). We did this 10 times in a row without fail. I made the handler do it the last five times. I also told the handler that if she gets the inkling to give this dog scraps at home again that she should have problems outside to work for the dog to earn its reward. If I want to play toss with my dogs, we go outside and find remains for the ball.
Regards,
Jim
While I'm on-call with the M.E. at least two weekends a month and limited to my five counties, I do train with a local SAR team on my off-weekends. As there are three SAR K-9 groups in the OKC metro area, we sometimes bump into each other. One team is highly political and keeps to themselves which is fine. They split off from the team I belong to over ten years ago and apparently hold old grudges. This seems to be common with SAR teams and I've always considered it stupidity in action. The other team is a split-off from the "political team" and once they decided we weren't "the devil incarnate" as the "political team" told them...well, we've started training together whenever we bump into each other. The "political team" is of the attitude that a dog team can only certify in "cadaver" AFTER they've certified in Wilderness. Generally, this tends to limit their dogs to recent remains and often leads to dog teams that can't work the spectrum of cadaver work. This is because the area search dog is most often trained to work a "scent cone", or as I call it works as a binary dog (on or off, scent or no-scent).
In my opinion, a dog that works human remains should be trained to work through varying degrees of diffusion as in no-scent, some scent, more scent, lots more scent, ahhhhhh the source.
I set up three problems with three levels of difficulty. I put out adipose tissue in a mason jar with a serated lid out in a 5-acre field in foot tall grass. This was for me to help assist in indications/alerts and to access where the dog was at.
The second problem should be easy for an area search dog as it was a suet cage with a cavity wipe/adipose wipe/fresh blood. I poured about 1 cc of blood into the wipe to make sure it was strong for the area search dogs. The suet cage was placed at 2 feet up in a dead cedar tree out in the open where the handler could see it if the dog got in the neighborhood.
The third problem appeared deceptively easy, but is a booger for air-scenting dogs versus nose-to-ground oriented dogs. I found a sparse cedar tree on the upwind boundry of a oblong earthen bowl bordered by vegetation. On the downwind ridge was a sumac tree/bush up to six feet above the ridge. The source was some fresh muscle tissue and some adipose tissue in soaked Q-tips. I placed this scent source unprotected at six feet up in the crook of a branch on the downwind side of the cedar trunk. We're currently enjoying typical Oklahoma winds of 15-35 mph, heavy humidity, overcast, temperature in the low 80s.
Why is this last problem a booger?
The scent is pushed into the cedar fronds where it is dispersed and rolled across the depression against the sumac. Scent does blow past the sumac and the air scent dogs had no problem getting us to within 20 feet of the source. In my world, 20 feet away might as well be 20 miles away. The area search dogs all thought the sumac was where the scent was as it was acting as a scent trap. Once the dogs entered the the bowl, they would lose the scent as they kept their noses up. The only way this problem was solved was if the handler conviced their dog to put its nose down and search the area. As cadaver scent is generally heavier than air what wasn't pushed away by the wind was dropping down the cedar trunk to the bottom of the bowl. The handlers were told up front this was a difficult problem and they were asked to tell me within 2 feet of where the source is. Once they made their best guess then we worked it through to teach the dog. When I asked the handlers what they would do if presented with this situation in real life, one answered, "My dog would get us to the general area then we'd call your dog in to show us where the remains are........." Having been on searches where the dog handlers have this attitude, I can tell you it sucks for me. Usually I spend the entire search racing all over the search areas with my dog to tell the other dog teams that "no, that's not human remains, but thanks for playing." If the dog team states they can do fresh remains, then they better train up to that level rather than waste another dog team as a resource that could be deployed in another area. My intent was not to demean the dog teams or set them up for failure. By the time each dog team left each problem, they could work it or least know what they need to be practicing on with their dog.
For these dog teams they had one additional thorn in their sides. I had someone set up a blind skeletal for Murphy because I wanted to see if I was doing any thing wrong with his training, if I was cueing him when I know where the sources are, or if I'm pulling him off of sources when I don't know where they are. I stayed 20 feet out of the area and Murphy did great, locating the two sources, doing his touch, then looking up to me and barking.
Prior to this, I'd let him out of my Xterra to go poop and the other handlers wanted to visit with him. Contrary to many dog teams, my dogs are trained with the understanding that they are working as soon as they come out of the vehicle. I came by this attitude from experience and experiences of other handlers who often made finds on the way to their assigned areas rather than in the area itself. Many dog handlers have a ritual they like to go through (I'm never sure if it's for the dog or the handler) where they pump the dog up just before it's to search. My attitude is the search should be part of the reward for the dog. The right dog for the job should want to "hunt" so much that no ritual is needed.
Anyway, my training program focuses on skeletal/dental for the first year of the dog's training and then they get introduced to tissue-related remains. That doesn't mean they don't like the scent, they just don't get to train on it. Murphy was looking for a good spot to poop, looks at me with big eyes and starts running towards the indication station with the adipose tissue, some 120 feet away. I have an "oh nuts" moment and race to the Xterra and grab a reward. I run back up to the field and run towards Murphy. I'm 80 feet away when I see him do his touch and then look up to start barking. I launched the reward from there, a tug rope-frisbee. He raced after it all happy.
Soooo, of course, the other dog handlers for the rest of the day got to hear me doing an okie-drawl of "hmmmmm, dang, my 9-month old puppy, never imprinted on fresh.....well, he picked this up from 120 feet away and came to it to indicate....I'd think your dog could do the same with you 10 feet away........ We definitely have some issues to work through...."
Sucked to be them.....
Let's see, one dog team the handler rewards with food and baby's her GSD. I ask, "does the dog get scraps at home?"..."oh yea"............"So, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" Now, I'm not the "Dog Whisper/Expert/Whatever", but I asked her to give me the dog's reward. I turned to the dog who I'd seen hit on the scent multiple times. I handed the food toward it. It started to take it. I whipped the food away and said to the dog, "Let's find." The dog immediately went to the source, put it's nose on the jar, and sat (it's indication). We did this 10 times in a row without fail. I made the handler do it the last five times. I also told the handler that if she gets the inkling to give this dog scraps at home again that she should have problems outside to work for the dog to earn its reward. If I want to play toss with my dogs, we go outside and find remains for the ball.
Regards,
Jim