Post by oksaradt on Dec 28, 2008 13:33:31 GMT -5
I'm going to try to knock out two posts today. My students have been emailing me with great questions, so you get to benefit from their quest for knowledge.
First, you must realize that coming from a family of teachers that I had no choice but to pick up some of their tricks. I fought tooth-and-nail not to be a teacher, but over the years it's helped pay the bills in the lean times. If you have a class with an adjunct professor, take them lots of apples or whatever. Universities pay them dismally and most only do it because they love teaching more than eating.
So, with that in mind, I know when the best opportunities for learning are...true learning. It comes at that time when we are forced to make a choice. We think we know the right answer, but we're........well, just not sure. At this juncture, our minds are weighing all the pro's and con's and we are nearly totally focused on the question at hand. Whatever the outcome at this point, it will stick with us for a very long time, i.e. a definite impression is made.
Dogs are no different. In a previous post, proofing was discussed where as you make it easy for the dog by running it by blank containers, animal bones, food, the dog's toy, etc and telling the dog these are not good scents. Well, that's only part of the training. If you wait until a blind or a test to find out that by making it easy for the dog that you really didn't get the idea across, well...then that's too late. Blinds are good to show you that there's still work to be done and as such you should welcome the opportunity rather than dread them. Those people that deem themselves trainers of a team yet won't subject themselves and their dogs to blinds from others leave their dogs ready for failure in the field. It's simply a missed opportunity so their ego won't be tarnished in the name of not screwing up their dog and we all pay for it.
So, with that soapboxing out of the way.
The point is that when we set up our training problems with skeletal, we should put out non-human skeletal as well. Heck, the best method is to set up a negative area with only animal bones as I guarantee that this will be more real life than any of us can set up. I’ve been on many searches for scattered skeletal human remains where the dogs and I are routinely walking over and past all sorts of animal bones. If every non-human bone the dog walks past is something the handler sweats over then it means they haven’t done enough proofing with the dog. Of course, there will also be the situations where helpful law enforcement will bring bones to you (with their scent all over the bones) and ask your dog to tell us all if they are human or not. If the dog is a cross-trained that’s been rewarded to indicate on human scent….oh my, that could be a problem. For the HRD-only handler, studying osteology definitely helps, both human and non-human.
So, how to fix this. We have to be truly evil in our training. We must set the dog up to need to choose. Animal bones should be collected with care and not contaminated with human remains. These bones need to be hidden where the dog can find their scent, but not get to the bone/remains. The handler must wait for the dog to decide. If the dog moves away on its own volition, then life is good. If the dog lingers and looks to you, then you can make things worse or better.
At this point many dog handlers take the opportunity to jump all over the dog, making a traumatic experience. Others will use their stim-collars in hopes of creating an avoidance. (I’ve seen this used successfully to the point where you can tell the dog has found animal bones by the way it steers clear of them….could be a problem if human bones are mixed in amongst the non-human. The dog has to work amongst them and if you’ve created an avoidance to all non-human….well, the dog might just decide steering clear of the whole lot is the best way to having a good outing.)
So, my way is not to give the dog any help in it’s dilemma and wait until the dog has just about made up it’s mind. At that point I tell the dog to keep working and move on. By this point, the handler should be able to read their dog well enough to know when it’s about to indicate/alert. Seems simple, but timing is everything. By picking just before the dog considers indicating, the most opportune time for learning is achieved. By conveying let’s keep working and moving on, it’s communicated to the dog that this scent is not worth our time. If the dog commits and indicates, you can verbally correct it and tell it to move on. With multiple opportunities to find non-human remains, the dog should get the point and learning is achieved, but there’s no shame in remedial training, better in training than on a real search.
If the dog commits to the scent and indicates anyway, then this tells you that we have to step back and do more simple proofing perhaps with cinder blocks with 10 blocks, one human remains in one block, seven blanks, and two non-human remains, particularly the variation the dog thought to indicate on. The dog works the blocks and you can correct when the dog puts its nose in the non-human remains. I prefer simple verbal correction, but this would be up to the handler. The block with the human remains in it gives you the opportunity for the dog to compare scents and to get rewarded for the right behavior. If you set up problems with only no-win endings, the dog will come to dread such training and opportunities will be lost. Always give the dog an opportunity to win.
And, it should go without saying, once the handler feels confident the dog won’t alert/indicate on non-human remains that then the negative areas with only those types of non-human remains should be set up. Finally, the handler should actively request that blinds be set up with non-human remains in them as well. This insures that the dog hasn’t become dependent upon the handler to pass up those remains. It also insures that the handler learns to read their dog well enough that they don’t talk their dog into non-human remains.
Regards,
Jim
First, you must realize that coming from a family of teachers that I had no choice but to pick up some of their tricks. I fought tooth-and-nail not to be a teacher, but over the years it's helped pay the bills in the lean times. If you have a class with an adjunct professor, take them lots of apples or whatever. Universities pay them dismally and most only do it because they love teaching more than eating.
So, with that in mind, I know when the best opportunities for learning are...true learning. It comes at that time when we are forced to make a choice. We think we know the right answer, but we're........well, just not sure. At this juncture, our minds are weighing all the pro's and con's and we are nearly totally focused on the question at hand. Whatever the outcome at this point, it will stick with us for a very long time, i.e. a definite impression is made.
Dogs are no different. In a previous post, proofing was discussed where as you make it easy for the dog by running it by blank containers, animal bones, food, the dog's toy, etc and telling the dog these are not good scents. Well, that's only part of the training. If you wait until a blind or a test to find out that by making it easy for the dog that you really didn't get the idea across, well...then that's too late. Blinds are good to show you that there's still work to be done and as such you should welcome the opportunity rather than dread them. Those people that deem themselves trainers of a team yet won't subject themselves and their dogs to blinds from others leave their dogs ready for failure in the field. It's simply a missed opportunity so their ego won't be tarnished in the name of not screwing up their dog and we all pay for it.
So, with that soapboxing out of the way.
The point is that when we set up our training problems with skeletal, we should put out non-human skeletal as well. Heck, the best method is to set up a negative area with only animal bones as I guarantee that this will be more real life than any of us can set up. I’ve been on many searches for scattered skeletal human remains where the dogs and I are routinely walking over and past all sorts of animal bones. If every non-human bone the dog walks past is something the handler sweats over then it means they haven’t done enough proofing with the dog. Of course, there will also be the situations where helpful law enforcement will bring bones to you (with their scent all over the bones) and ask your dog to tell us all if they are human or not. If the dog is a cross-trained that’s been rewarded to indicate on human scent….oh my, that could be a problem. For the HRD-only handler, studying osteology definitely helps, both human and non-human.
So, how to fix this. We have to be truly evil in our training. We must set the dog up to need to choose. Animal bones should be collected with care and not contaminated with human remains. These bones need to be hidden where the dog can find their scent, but not get to the bone/remains. The handler must wait for the dog to decide. If the dog moves away on its own volition, then life is good. If the dog lingers and looks to you, then you can make things worse or better.
At this point many dog handlers take the opportunity to jump all over the dog, making a traumatic experience. Others will use their stim-collars in hopes of creating an avoidance. (I’ve seen this used successfully to the point where you can tell the dog has found animal bones by the way it steers clear of them….could be a problem if human bones are mixed in amongst the non-human. The dog has to work amongst them and if you’ve created an avoidance to all non-human….well, the dog might just decide steering clear of the whole lot is the best way to having a good outing.)
So, my way is not to give the dog any help in it’s dilemma and wait until the dog has just about made up it’s mind. At that point I tell the dog to keep working and move on. By this point, the handler should be able to read their dog well enough to know when it’s about to indicate/alert. Seems simple, but timing is everything. By picking just before the dog considers indicating, the most opportune time for learning is achieved. By conveying let’s keep working and moving on, it’s communicated to the dog that this scent is not worth our time. If the dog commits and indicates, you can verbally correct it and tell it to move on. With multiple opportunities to find non-human remains, the dog should get the point and learning is achieved, but there’s no shame in remedial training, better in training than on a real search.
If the dog commits to the scent and indicates anyway, then this tells you that we have to step back and do more simple proofing perhaps with cinder blocks with 10 blocks, one human remains in one block, seven blanks, and two non-human remains, particularly the variation the dog thought to indicate on. The dog works the blocks and you can correct when the dog puts its nose in the non-human remains. I prefer simple verbal correction, but this would be up to the handler. The block with the human remains in it gives you the opportunity for the dog to compare scents and to get rewarded for the right behavior. If you set up problems with only no-win endings, the dog will come to dread such training and opportunities will be lost. Always give the dog an opportunity to win.
And, it should go without saying, once the handler feels confident the dog won’t alert/indicate on non-human remains that then the negative areas with only those types of non-human remains should be set up. Finally, the handler should actively request that blinds be set up with non-human remains in them as well. This insures that the dog hasn’t become dependent upon the handler to pass up those remains. It also insures that the handler learns to read their dog well enough that they don’t talk their dog into non-human remains.
Regards,
Jim