Post by oksaradt on Sept 21, 2008 11:55:47 GMT -5
The area I work my dogs in is renowned for lots of clay in the soil. Many dog teams find this tough to work in with buried problems because the clay can seal up scent at times. Like the Eskimos have multiple words for ice, I don’t have as much problem with clay. From experience, what my dogs and I have had problems with in the past have been mulch-heavy soils with high permeability and porosity. Why? Because the scent can go every where. Rather than avoiding what causes me to pull what little hair I have out, I embraced this situation to improve over time. The first time this really slapped me in the face was (fortunately) at a seminar in Michigan. My dog was nailing all the “difficult problems”, but I didn’t like what I was seeing from my dog when she was working in the bed of pine needles built up over the years.
Those running the seminar had the availability of sources and land area that they were able to leave the sources out over the entire seminar. So, I got up very early to go work some issues out. Nine sources had been placed in this area that was about 150 feet by 120 feet. My dog’s initial response had me placing nine flags all in one spot. Having watched the instructors over this area, I knew where the sources were within a foot each. My dog felt very strong about her alerts and one has to trust the dog by the training you’ve put into it. Obviously, my training (at the time) lacked something. Despite what some handlers think, dogs don’t lie. Dogs respond as we’ve trained them for the reward we’ve consistently paid them. Either I was cueing my dog or my dog felt there was sufficient scent to state a source was there. Looking at the flags, a pattern formed all about the sources with three right over the sources (within a foot at the time). These sources had an overlap where they were placed four feet apart from each other down in the mulch much like a cemetery. My dog’s training on cemeteries had come into play as it judged each scent concentration as applicable to a distinct source in …..clay, sandi-loam, rubble piles.
I also had to realize that my dog’s (at that time) foundation was originally area search or air scent. This experience was one reason the training on subsequent dogs started out with skeletal/dental for the first year as well as developing a plan to include all soil types I could find in training.
So, fast forward six years with a problem set up for young Murphy. The source placed was a body cavity wipe from a person who was discovered 4 days after death in 90+F temperatures. While many dog teams train on placenta and fresh blood, this type of source is much more realistic to what their dog should be expected to find. The chemical make-up is very different. Murphy got to see this source once last weekend and has been working skeletal problems three times in between. (My training program tends to stay heavy on skeletal/dental through out the dog’s career because that’s mostly what we’re asked to search for.)
The source was placed in a new sterile suet cage fresh out of the wrapper and placed 4 inches into soil with 3 inches of compost over it that was naturally occurring in this area. The burial spot was purposely placed in a bowl-like area with lots of trees, both deciduous and non-deciduous, tall grass, and a wash down the middle with mounds of dead leaves and pine needles in various locations. Why a bowl? The intent was to limit the area of scent travel for the dog to deal with and to learn from. The bowl runs 100 feet (or so) north-south with a bend running 100 feet (or so) east-west and is about 60 feet wide with a dead-fall of trees at the west end. The source was placed 80 feet up in the north-south run such that it could easily travel both runs. The source was buried 14 hours before working. At the time worked, the dew was gone, the sun was out, and there was absolutely no wind (as documented by a local weather station). There will be scent travel due to variations in thermal currents, but this should have been minimized. Air temperature was about 74’F. I didn’t measure soil temperature. For this source I didn’t think it would be a big deal as it is odiferous.
Murphy was started 200 feet to the north of the wooded gully with no direction. My intent was to let him struggle and I simply followed behind about 20-40 feet. Each dog is different such that the handler needs to learn what his/her dog does when it acquires scent. I am familiar with Murphy in skeletal/dental. I need to know how he reacts in tissue-related searches. Over the past recent experiences I am been floored (in a good way) to see that Murphy becomes very serious/intense/focused in tissue-related scent. Murphy is very happy-go-lucky normally. As he moved along the gully, his stride suddenly changed to a dog in high hunt mode, almost stalking. At times he was actually tip-toeing. Murphy moved along the gully and entered at the south end of the north-south run. How he went into scent was very important to me because I had carefully memorized the route I’d entered the area to see if Murphy might track me. I’d taken the easy route. Murphy waded through a large cedar and dead sumac to wind his way towards the source. Murphy slowed way down at the north end of the compost mound the source was in and I’m thinking that this would end way too quickly, but then he began to investigate the area.
Many handlers would react to this and call their dog back, but remember I set this up for scent to be every where. I had to see how Murphy would react and if he would indicate on scent with no source. My job was not to cue my dog, to wander around aimlessly as if I was searching for something, to enjoy the pretty day, la..la..la….you get the point….all the while watching young Murphy do his thing to see if he’d leave the area. If you haven’t done this before, it can be excruciating. Murphy did go out of the gully….about 3 feet….blew his nose clear…then moved in and out of the vegetation along the gully, his nose sweeping up and down the vegetation while making a Hoover-like sucking noise. I love this noise when it comes to scent dog work. Murphy checked up some cedars and moved on. Murphy looked at me several times and I raised my hands in ignorance, but said absolutely nothing. Murphy moved along a break in the vegetation on the east side of the gully then did a hard-left turn back down into the gully. Murphy came back to that north end of the compost run then moved along it towards the south. Murphy paused over the source, looked at me, …there was a very nice cloud floating by overhead…looked a bit like a marshmallow , put his nose back to the source and then did a touch. Did I mention I’d placed some clean new bricks over the suet cage under the compost? Oh well, I did……14 hours out in the night …I was worried about vermin finding my source and enjoying a truly gross midnight snack. I waited and Murphy ran his nose along the crack between the bricks then turned to me and did his *sigh* wheezy bark followed up by another touch. I exploded with party, tossing a rope Frisbee that he chased and we played tug-of-war with. I let him win the tug-of-war then traded him a piece of chicken jerky for the toy. I then asked him, “show me.” We were now about 120 feet to the east of the gully. Murphy took me right back to the source and did another touch. Oh, yes, before I asked for this, I did three “bark” commands with resounding bellowing barks rewarded with more jerky. On arrival to the source, Murphy again did a wheezy bark. I have to say he’s consistent in source despite my wishes to have a Rin-tin-tin style bark at the source, so I rewarded him rather than push it.
I’ve posted this training in all it’s good and bad to try to convey to handlers the traps they can get into. If I’d stopped my dog when it turned away from (what I just knew) was the location of the scent, then I’d have traveled one step closer on the path of creating a dog that leaned upon me to work and might (appear to) LIE. Never forget that dogs don’t speak our language (no matter how hard we try to humanize them) AND that as they enjoy rewards and making us happy (to get more rewards presumably) they try to rationalize exactly what it was that triggered the cued alert. This can result in reams of bad guesses on the dog’s part depending on exactly what the trigger is when we cue. This is why timing at imprinting is so crucial and why in training, it’s best to create an obvious dog that the handler can reward when it is in scent and making the find. Placing those bricks meant I didn’t have to worry about my dog destroying the source, possessing the source, and that I knew exactly where he was getting scent from. Placing the source in the compost pile gave my dog the opportunity to deal with the massive diffusion such an environment presents and another notch in his tool belt on how to work out such a problem when it happens on a real search.
Also, realize that not once did I tell the dog to come back into scent. It’s hunt drive and obsession with the HRs scent is what kept it in the area. This came about due to lots of behavior training rewarding the dog when ever it gets into scent BUT also because we tested the dog up front to know it really really likes the stuff.
Total time worked to alert/indication was 13 minutes 52 seconds. It felt like about an hour at times. Total area size worked was about 1 acre, maybe a bit more.
Hope this helps,
Jim
Those running the seminar had the availability of sources and land area that they were able to leave the sources out over the entire seminar. So, I got up very early to go work some issues out. Nine sources had been placed in this area that was about 150 feet by 120 feet. My dog’s initial response had me placing nine flags all in one spot. Having watched the instructors over this area, I knew where the sources were within a foot each. My dog felt very strong about her alerts and one has to trust the dog by the training you’ve put into it. Obviously, my training (at the time) lacked something. Despite what some handlers think, dogs don’t lie. Dogs respond as we’ve trained them for the reward we’ve consistently paid them. Either I was cueing my dog or my dog felt there was sufficient scent to state a source was there. Looking at the flags, a pattern formed all about the sources with three right over the sources (within a foot at the time). These sources had an overlap where they were placed four feet apart from each other down in the mulch much like a cemetery. My dog’s training on cemeteries had come into play as it judged each scent concentration as applicable to a distinct source in …..clay, sandi-loam, rubble piles.
I also had to realize that my dog’s (at that time) foundation was originally area search or air scent. This experience was one reason the training on subsequent dogs started out with skeletal/dental for the first year as well as developing a plan to include all soil types I could find in training.
So, fast forward six years with a problem set up for young Murphy. The source placed was a body cavity wipe from a person who was discovered 4 days after death in 90+F temperatures. While many dog teams train on placenta and fresh blood, this type of source is much more realistic to what their dog should be expected to find. The chemical make-up is very different. Murphy got to see this source once last weekend and has been working skeletal problems three times in between. (My training program tends to stay heavy on skeletal/dental through out the dog’s career because that’s mostly what we’re asked to search for.)
The source was placed in a new sterile suet cage fresh out of the wrapper and placed 4 inches into soil with 3 inches of compost over it that was naturally occurring in this area. The burial spot was purposely placed in a bowl-like area with lots of trees, both deciduous and non-deciduous, tall grass, and a wash down the middle with mounds of dead leaves and pine needles in various locations. Why a bowl? The intent was to limit the area of scent travel for the dog to deal with and to learn from. The bowl runs 100 feet (or so) north-south with a bend running 100 feet (or so) east-west and is about 60 feet wide with a dead-fall of trees at the west end. The source was placed 80 feet up in the north-south run such that it could easily travel both runs. The source was buried 14 hours before working. At the time worked, the dew was gone, the sun was out, and there was absolutely no wind (as documented by a local weather station). There will be scent travel due to variations in thermal currents, but this should have been minimized. Air temperature was about 74’F. I didn’t measure soil temperature. For this source I didn’t think it would be a big deal as it is odiferous.
Murphy was started 200 feet to the north of the wooded gully with no direction. My intent was to let him struggle and I simply followed behind about 20-40 feet. Each dog is different such that the handler needs to learn what his/her dog does when it acquires scent. I am familiar with Murphy in skeletal/dental. I need to know how he reacts in tissue-related searches. Over the past recent experiences I am been floored (in a good way) to see that Murphy becomes very serious/intense/focused in tissue-related scent. Murphy is very happy-go-lucky normally. As he moved along the gully, his stride suddenly changed to a dog in high hunt mode, almost stalking. At times he was actually tip-toeing. Murphy moved along the gully and entered at the south end of the north-south run. How he went into scent was very important to me because I had carefully memorized the route I’d entered the area to see if Murphy might track me. I’d taken the easy route. Murphy waded through a large cedar and dead sumac to wind his way towards the source. Murphy slowed way down at the north end of the compost mound the source was in and I’m thinking that this would end way too quickly, but then he began to investigate the area.
Many handlers would react to this and call their dog back, but remember I set this up for scent to be every where. I had to see how Murphy would react and if he would indicate on scent with no source. My job was not to cue my dog, to wander around aimlessly as if I was searching for something, to enjoy the pretty day, la..la..la….you get the point….all the while watching young Murphy do his thing to see if he’d leave the area. If you haven’t done this before, it can be excruciating. Murphy did go out of the gully….about 3 feet….blew his nose clear…then moved in and out of the vegetation along the gully, his nose sweeping up and down the vegetation while making a Hoover-like sucking noise. I love this noise when it comes to scent dog work. Murphy checked up some cedars and moved on. Murphy looked at me several times and I raised my hands in ignorance, but said absolutely nothing. Murphy moved along a break in the vegetation on the east side of the gully then did a hard-left turn back down into the gully. Murphy came back to that north end of the compost run then moved along it towards the south. Murphy paused over the source, looked at me, …there was a very nice cloud floating by overhead…looked a bit like a marshmallow , put his nose back to the source and then did a touch. Did I mention I’d placed some clean new bricks over the suet cage under the compost? Oh well, I did……14 hours out in the night …I was worried about vermin finding my source and enjoying a truly gross midnight snack. I waited and Murphy ran his nose along the crack between the bricks then turned to me and did his *sigh* wheezy bark followed up by another touch. I exploded with party, tossing a rope Frisbee that he chased and we played tug-of-war with. I let him win the tug-of-war then traded him a piece of chicken jerky for the toy. I then asked him, “show me.” We were now about 120 feet to the east of the gully. Murphy took me right back to the source and did another touch. Oh, yes, before I asked for this, I did three “bark” commands with resounding bellowing barks rewarded with more jerky. On arrival to the source, Murphy again did a wheezy bark. I have to say he’s consistent in source despite my wishes to have a Rin-tin-tin style bark at the source, so I rewarded him rather than push it.
I’ve posted this training in all it’s good and bad to try to convey to handlers the traps they can get into. If I’d stopped my dog when it turned away from (what I just knew) was the location of the scent, then I’d have traveled one step closer on the path of creating a dog that leaned upon me to work and might (appear to) LIE. Never forget that dogs don’t speak our language (no matter how hard we try to humanize them) AND that as they enjoy rewards and making us happy (to get more rewards presumably) they try to rationalize exactly what it was that triggered the cued alert. This can result in reams of bad guesses on the dog’s part depending on exactly what the trigger is when we cue. This is why timing at imprinting is so crucial and why in training, it’s best to create an obvious dog that the handler can reward when it is in scent and making the find. Placing those bricks meant I didn’t have to worry about my dog destroying the source, possessing the source, and that I knew exactly where he was getting scent from. Placing the source in the compost pile gave my dog the opportunity to deal with the massive diffusion such an environment presents and another notch in his tool belt on how to work out such a problem when it happens on a real search.
Also, realize that not once did I tell the dog to come back into scent. It’s hunt drive and obsession with the HRs scent is what kept it in the area. This came about due to lots of behavior training rewarding the dog when ever it gets into scent BUT also because we tested the dog up front to know it really really likes the stuff.
Total time worked to alert/indication was 13 minutes 52 seconds. It felt like about an hour at times. Total area size worked was about 1 acre, maybe a bit more.
Hope this helps,
Jim