Post by oksaradt on Aug 5, 2008 15:02:30 GMT -5
One of the things I like about Oklahoma is it is a land of diversity from cold getting down to zero farenheit to heat getting up in the 100+ farenheit. To the west are mesa. To the north is flat prairie. To the east are woodlands. To the south are what we pass for mountains, not much but rocky. People that come here from elsewhere either become twisted individuals called okies or hate it with a passion and move on as quickly as they can. My family has been here since before it was a state, so I guess the red clay is in my blood. I do look forward to the native americans buying the state away with ill-gotten casino booty. It just seems to have a poetic justice to it.
With that pre-amble, it's been in the upper-90s and 100's here for over 2 weeks. While part of the state got to enjoy rainfall from "Dolly", my area is bone dry. The grass is starting to crunch under foot and the trees are losing leaves. Does this mean that training has to stop? Nope, training goes on year round because ...well, kaka happens....people dissapear and sometimes die and the families want answers. So, when we get the call, do we jump up and say, "heck yea, I'll be right out with my dogs!" Ummm, the nice thing about HRD work is that it is rarely an emergency. But, even with searches for live, we need to be smart about how we apply our canine partners and their skills.
The night of July 31st, we got our only rain, 0.01 inches, and I'd promised myself that Murphy would get to work the 12-14 inche buried again after the next rain. Oh well, it's the best he's gonna get. When working graveyards, it's common to impliment a variable reward system with the dog such that every find is not cause for a huge celebration that breaks the dog from the task. I'd decided to do this with Murphy. The grave yard holes now have new grass growing in them and visibly there is no sign they are there. The soil is cracking in places, but that's due to the clay content here. Murphy got to work out where a gopher had tunneled through a "burial" as its tunnel had brought the scent up about a foot from the burial hole. Murphy indicated and I praised gently but said, "gotta get closer". He tried to be adament about his target, but I stood firm such that he moved around it in a small circle and found the buried location, then moved to target there. Murphy got praise and strokes for the first 7 finds and was starting to look like he wasn't happy with the set-up, so he got to chase a ball for the 8th find. On the 9th he again got praise and then a reward and lots of praise on the 10th and final find. When I started Dax on this type of work, my rule of thumb was reward the first find, then the 3rd, then the 7th, then the 15th, etc. going up by ((powers of two) +1)...it works for us geeky, engineering types. As sometimes a cemetery may have hundreds of graves to document, this type of reward system is necessary if you want to get done in a couple of hours rather than days.
Anyway, back to the heat, Murphy worked this just after dawn when the soil temperature was 82.8F and the air temperature was 74F, so air was expanding out of the soil carrying scent with it. I worked my dog at the best time of day with the current conditions I had to work with.
This weekend, I was in charge of local team training as my co-coordinator is out for a month due to surgery. When this happens, invariably my dog(s) end up working last. My hope was to start at 0700 and be done by 1000. Having to walk miles to set up trails for several trailing teams that wanted something challenging and then having to deal with the HRD folks, poor Murphy again got to work last. I asked someone to set us up a blind to see if we had any gotchas I was missing in his training. I'd set up the problems for others to work in the shade and knowing it would be shaded there most of the day. Murphy's blind.....of course, in full sun....oh well, "sucks to be us Murph, let's see what we can do". Air Temp from the local weather station showed it was 94F when we started. The area was a 1/4 acre of 24 inch grass and cedars. Turns out we had five sources to find, all skeletal and dental. Murphy's bark turned to yips, but he was right on including the problem setter's "bone box" that apparently still had some bones in it.
About 20 minutes later I took Murphy with me to pick up the problems I'd set up for others. It was now 97F. The area was in shade and he was panting. I always make sure my dogs are hydrated, so that was not a big deal. The shade area had no wind in it as it is entering dense woods. I simply wanted to see what Murphy would do in such a situation in case we ever get stuck in similar circumstances. One of the major roles of dog handler is to "know your dog". Murphy moved slow through the area and walked over a bone, paused, looked back and me, then touched the bone. I acted as if I didn't see it, so he downed next to it and laid his paw on it again. When stressed, Murphy (as most dogs will) went back to his natural indication. The bark is his trained indication, but he still does a touch on every find. I took it and gave him an ice cube as reward. He helped me pick up the other three items in the same way. His ultimate reward was getting to sack out in my air conditioned office for the rest of the day as I felt he'd earned that.
So, the message of this post is:
- Know the environment you have to work and take every advantage you can for the dog to do its job as best it can.
- Know your dogs' limits and how it's going to act in any stressful situation you are going to be. We all like to have the entire "song and dance with cane and top hat" when we demo our dogs, but sometimes the difference between recovering human remains or finding someone is being able to read the dog's natural indication or the way it prefers to communicate with you.
(When testing and asked "What's your dog's indication/alert?" I will tell the evaluators both the trained indications and the natural indication. I also state that I will take both. I've found that if you tell them this up front then they have no problem with it in the test. When I test someone, I just hand them flags and have them come get me when they are done. I rarely put sources where they can be seen by anyone looking for them and this is "real life". You (and your dog) are only as good as where you mark the find.)
Jim
With that pre-amble, it's been in the upper-90s and 100's here for over 2 weeks. While part of the state got to enjoy rainfall from "Dolly", my area is bone dry. The grass is starting to crunch under foot and the trees are losing leaves. Does this mean that training has to stop? Nope, training goes on year round because ...well, kaka happens....people dissapear and sometimes die and the families want answers. So, when we get the call, do we jump up and say, "heck yea, I'll be right out with my dogs!" Ummm, the nice thing about HRD work is that it is rarely an emergency. But, even with searches for live, we need to be smart about how we apply our canine partners and their skills.
The night of July 31st, we got our only rain, 0.01 inches, and I'd promised myself that Murphy would get to work the 12-14 inche buried again after the next rain. Oh well, it's the best he's gonna get. When working graveyards, it's common to impliment a variable reward system with the dog such that every find is not cause for a huge celebration that breaks the dog from the task. I'd decided to do this with Murphy. The grave yard holes now have new grass growing in them and visibly there is no sign they are there. The soil is cracking in places, but that's due to the clay content here. Murphy got to work out where a gopher had tunneled through a "burial" as its tunnel had brought the scent up about a foot from the burial hole. Murphy indicated and I praised gently but said, "gotta get closer". He tried to be adament about his target, but I stood firm such that he moved around it in a small circle and found the buried location, then moved to target there. Murphy got praise and strokes for the first 7 finds and was starting to look like he wasn't happy with the set-up, so he got to chase a ball for the 8th find. On the 9th he again got praise and then a reward and lots of praise on the 10th and final find. When I started Dax on this type of work, my rule of thumb was reward the first find, then the 3rd, then the 7th, then the 15th, etc. going up by ((powers of two) +1)...it works for us geeky, engineering types. As sometimes a cemetery may have hundreds of graves to document, this type of reward system is necessary if you want to get done in a couple of hours rather than days.
Anyway, back to the heat, Murphy worked this just after dawn when the soil temperature was 82.8F and the air temperature was 74F, so air was expanding out of the soil carrying scent with it. I worked my dog at the best time of day with the current conditions I had to work with.
This weekend, I was in charge of local team training as my co-coordinator is out for a month due to surgery. When this happens, invariably my dog(s) end up working last. My hope was to start at 0700 and be done by 1000. Having to walk miles to set up trails for several trailing teams that wanted something challenging and then having to deal with the HRD folks, poor Murphy again got to work last. I asked someone to set us up a blind to see if we had any gotchas I was missing in his training. I'd set up the problems for others to work in the shade and knowing it would be shaded there most of the day. Murphy's blind.....of course, in full sun....oh well, "sucks to be us Murph, let's see what we can do". Air Temp from the local weather station showed it was 94F when we started. The area was a 1/4 acre of 24 inch grass and cedars. Turns out we had five sources to find, all skeletal and dental. Murphy's bark turned to yips, but he was right on including the problem setter's "bone box" that apparently still had some bones in it.
About 20 minutes later I took Murphy with me to pick up the problems I'd set up for others. It was now 97F. The area was in shade and he was panting. I always make sure my dogs are hydrated, so that was not a big deal. The shade area had no wind in it as it is entering dense woods. I simply wanted to see what Murphy would do in such a situation in case we ever get stuck in similar circumstances. One of the major roles of dog handler is to "know your dog". Murphy moved slow through the area and walked over a bone, paused, looked back and me, then touched the bone. I acted as if I didn't see it, so he downed next to it and laid his paw on it again. When stressed, Murphy (as most dogs will) went back to his natural indication. The bark is his trained indication, but he still does a touch on every find. I took it and gave him an ice cube as reward. He helped me pick up the other three items in the same way. His ultimate reward was getting to sack out in my air conditioned office for the rest of the day as I felt he'd earned that.
So, the message of this post is:
- Know the environment you have to work and take every advantage you can for the dog to do its job as best it can.
- Know your dogs' limits and how it's going to act in any stressful situation you are going to be. We all like to have the entire "song and dance with cane and top hat" when we demo our dogs, but sometimes the difference between recovering human remains or finding someone is being able to read the dog's natural indication or the way it prefers to communicate with you.
(When testing and asked "What's your dog's indication/alert?" I will tell the evaluators both the trained indications and the natural indication. I also state that I will take both. I've found that if you tell them this up front then they have no problem with it in the test. When I test someone, I just hand them flags and have them come get me when they are done. I rarely put sources where they can be seen by anyone looking for them and this is "real life". You (and your dog) are only as good as where you mark the find.)
Jim