Post by oksaradt on Feb 22, 2009 14:06:14 GMT -5
Several of my email students have asked about working blinds, setting up blinds, doing negatives as part of blinds. If they are all asking this at the same time, others can probably benefit from this.
**
Regarding negatives, since this would be the first time doing negatives, how long is a reasonable amount of time to work the dog on a negative area?
**
Well, this is a loaded question. The bulk of your searches for LE will end up being negative searches. If a source is in the area, often the search is over in 15 minutes. If it's a negative, you have to be sure that you've given your dog enough opportunities to find scent if it's there. My rule of thumb is three passes through the area from different directions. An example would be from upwind, from downwind, and from crosswind. Another example would be N-S, E-W, and SW to NE grids.
You have to set up your grid "alleys" by the information you are given about the sources you are looking for, i.e. clandestine grave one month ago would be buried decomp, clandestine grave 10 years ago is now a historic grid and can be very time consuming. Scattered skeletal for six months in the summer can again be a surface historic level search as what's left is likely going to be bleached and scattered by coyotes and vermin, under bushes, in dens, etc.
YOU CAN OVERWORK a negative to the point some handlers talk their dogs into alerts/indications. This is always your biggest fear. This is why you build endurance on your dog (Jonni Joyce's name for this is "nose time", i.e. how long the dog will actively work scent before it takes an unannounced break and just goes through the motions.)
When setting up blinds, you need to have two similar areas in your problem set with one having sources and one blind; Otherwise, the handler working the blinds soon starts to spot your pattern. In this I mean they figure out that when you announce a negative that you'll pick a smaller area or a larger area...whatever...you'll develop a pattern. People want to win, they notice everything. So, if I set up problem sets for someone, I walk around first and see "scenarios" in different areas. I talk to myself about what sort of story could have occurred in that area. When I see two similar stories appear, then I'll make one a negative and one with sources. Once the other handler is ready to work, we walk the areas (without dogs) and I tell them the scenarios I've seen in each area. I then let the handler choose the order they want to work the areas in. At a seminar, this tends to change in that I'll try to set up enough scenarios to enable each advance dog handler to work at the same times as the others. I used to hate seminars where everyone waits their turn to work. Sometimes you can't avoid this, but I try to set up enough areas where I can leave the advanced dog team alone to work and then I bounce from area to area to advise, critique, or simply observe "magic in action".....some dog teams just need problems to work and don't need help. Once every one has finished their specific problem, I rotate teams to areas they haven't worked. This means I work my ass off, but the dog teams get their money's worth...which is what I believe is what a seminar is all about. While I don't charge for my services, those handlers coughed up their hard earned bucks and time to travel to learn. Most of them won't get paid for their services to their community.
While many dog teams leave a seminar believing they are at the top of their game because they got stroked and their handling was better with a coach. My goal is to convey concepts and experience to handlers such that months/years down the road when they find themselves on a particular nasty search that our common experience suddenly hands them the skills they need to serve the victim. Their dog has been through this before and now feels comfortable as it knows what to do. The dog handler doesn't have to "guess" at what their dog is doing or how to work the area. I want my scenarios and problem sets to generate questions as well as give the dog team confidence that they can deal with booger problems.
This attitude is why I have little confidence in certifications at the end of a seminar as the dog team has had a week to get used to the "style" of problems that will be thrown at them. The dog team has had a week to become used to the terrain. The dog team has had a week to learn the instructor's sources; Thus, the dog has become imprinted on them and doesn't have to interpolate as to if that scent source is one they need to alert/indicate on. Sooo, in my mind, the dog team hasn't been evaluated for the task LE expects that certification implies. That expectation is that LE can bring you to an area you've never been before, give you a summary of what they are looking for and why, time since death or if the remains are moved from the primary crime scene, yada yada yada.... A real search is you race to a location that the search waiver/warrant is only good for that day. You've never been there before and it's very likely that your search strategy may have to change on the fly because conditions change, intelligence changes, an article is found (which may have absolutely no bearing on your search...but we don't know that) On a real search you commonly have someone or some people constantly walking along with you and asking you questions. You have to learn to multi-task in responding to their questions while your eyes never leave your dog and the environment it is in.
Sooooo, with all those tangents....how to answer your time limit. The way I was brought up in this venue is that each time my dog and I were brought up to an area, given the scenario, told the boundaries....I was asked, "SOOOooooo, how long do you think it will take you to work this area for zero-to-three sources?" I had to name that time. As I've stated in a previous post, if I tried to give myself way too much time, they invariably laughed and gave me a time which was a fraction of my estimate (and this was from their experience). If I got cocky and stated too short, they'd let me hang and stop me when I ran out of time and demanded I make a call of "clear? Finds? What?" Then, just like most LE agencies, they would send me on my way without any response. I'd learn later how I did. I can tell you that the not knowing just eats at you. You walk away and begin second-guessing yourself over the entire problem. You play it over in slow motion in your head and realize your dog turned it's head near that bush, that depression, that tree....DANG IT!....I should have worked the dog there!" I was allowed to suffer and then brought back to work it again or later on, berated because we got it all perfect and why in the hell was I stressing over it?".....While this seems idiotic, it was great training for dealing with the stress that real searches hit you with because you know that each search dictates your reputation. You may have 20 successful searches behind you, but screw one up and they suddenly state those other searches were luck, pure BS, etc. You probably won't get called back by that LE agency. I can't blame them if I'm in their shoes. It is always better to be up front and honest than to blow smoke and make excuses. If you give excuses after the fact then why in hell were you working your dog in the first place. If you come up on limitations in the search, then you better be telling LE as they happen.
With that in mind, you also have to give a time estimate based on how YOUR dog works. I've worked with dog teams where the dog was very slow, BUT extremely accurate. The dog only needed one pass and dropped immediately into a down when it got into scent. While it appeared the dog team took forever, they often were faster than other dog teams as the handler only needed one pass. This type of dog is great for evidence recovery searches in a smaller area when you need to find that one tooth or small finger bones left after active carrion activity. This type of dog would not be best applied in an area search where you want to find that first scattered bone and then refine your grid after that to find the rest.
What I would do as you two are developing a relationship for mutual blinds is this:
When you set up blinds, agree that each of you will set up three to four areas with the attitude that each area SHOULD take no more than 15-20 minutes for the dog team to work. Many times it'll be faster.
You can split up working each other's areas to where she works one of your areas, then you work one of hers, etc. OR as commonly happens to me at the end of training, my dog works the blinds set up and then goes with me to do recovery work on all the problems I set up for others.
THE IMPORTANT POINT is that you must work with your dog the same areas that you set up for the other handler. REMEMBER THAT you will work your areas much faster than the blinds because you do know where the sources are. This doesn't mean you'll be cheating. It means you'll feel comfortable ignoring areas the dog doesn't cover and you'll pay more attention to the dog when it's working your sources. This is just human nature. WE SHOULD attempt to work our known problems as if we don't know where the sources are which means you should make sure your dog covers those other areas, but often time is a factor and we want to move on.
WORKING YOUR BLINDS is a safety valve such that if you create a booger problem by accident then the other dog team can learn from your suffering as you learned from theirs. Together you can use your dogs to figure out why this "innocent problem" became so difficult for the dogs.
If the two of you are working hard at setting up problems, working blinds, working your blinds, picking up, then it's not uncommon that this session will take four hours easily. I do think it's important for a dog to assist on the pick-up portion as this is a great opportunity for reinforcing the find and in teaching the dog to respect the sources. On my own problem sets that I set up for my dogs, I'll commonly set aside one day of the week as pick-up day where the dog has already found all the sources, but must re-find and "show me" precisely for recovery. This should be almost a "Fun day" activity. When picking up each other's blinds, we usually swap out where the handler observing (who had to suffer the blind as a blind) is gloved up and collecting. This way if they never got to see where the source was, they get to focus on the placement and learn more as to why their dog acted like it did to the unique scent travel. IT SHOULD BE COMMON that the dog handler calls a find their dog indicated/alerted on without ever seeing the scent source….. BEWARE the handler that only rewards their dog AFTER they see the scent source. This can happen on real searches as the handler is often shocked that they made a find, but in training it creates poor reward timing by the handler and demonstrates a lack of trust in the dog by the handler.
With all this in mind the blind TEACHES:
1) The handler to trust the dog
2) what weak points have been missed in the previous training such as scent sources, distractions, handling, cueing, environmental conditions, etc.
3) how other dogs work the same scent problem even if the handler knows where the source is
4) What scent travel occurs in the unique presentation the blind exhibited.
The handler that sets up the blinds should follow these rules:
1) Don't let the handler reward their dog on distractions, but allow the handler to work it to indication.......this is a hard line to follow, but it must be done religiously. This can occur if the dog isn't proofed adequately OR if the handler cues OR if the dog doesn't have endurance and wants to end the game. Doing this will save your ass many times over down the line. This means the Blind can not be a ego-booster for the setter or the blind worker. Make no mistake, the blind is work for all.
You must develop a system where you communicate to the handler that is alert is wrong with quick timing such that the handler can correct their dog within that 0-7 seconds window for canine association. A quiet "no" won't cut it. I prefer the blind setter to physically tap me, whack me on the back of the head, warn me quietly as they see what's happening, etc. BECAUSE if the dog hasn't alerted/indicated YET, it might not. It might examine the distraction, interpolate, decide "NOPE THIS AIN"T IT" and move on. IF so, we all breath sighs of relief and move on and there is no dramatic event to the dog. IF the handler doesn’t give the dog a chance to decide, the dog doesn’t learn. With known distractions, the handler has to wait until the dog just about indicates (you work your dog enough then you know when an indication is coming) and choose that time to correct it. With blinds, we correct with passive negation telling the dog to move on and/or “leave it” if the dog has committed to the distraction. If your dog commits to the distraction, ask to have it to proof the dog to the point that it hates smelling that distraction when it’s working. I’ve actually caused avoidances in a dog before by using a distraction type again and again that it committed to, so much so that when my dog exhibited avoidance behavior on a search that I could say with confidence, “got dead deer over there.” Of course the down side to training to that level is what happens if there is a dead hunter right next to the dead deer?
2) Set up problems that you believe the dog team can work through. It's ok if they have to suffer a bit figuring it out, but ....for example, don't set up an elevated problem in high winds when the dog has only worked sources on the surface. It's ok to ask the handler what their dog can't do. They need to be honest with you or suffer the consequences.
3) Don't let any dog team give you the suggestion "SURPRISE ME!" The only time I follow this instruction is when I have someone that is already mission-ready and their ego has gone beyond belief (they wouldn't throw down the guantlet otherwise). This very challenge has gotten me a very bad reputation with some area search dog teams because I know the end results when someone didn't get found until they died. I know where to hide to make booger problems, but I always advise who ever is going along with the dog handler what I'm doing because I don't want to screw up the dog. If the handler starts pulling their hair out.....well, I'm bald and they'll have a long way to go to get to my condition.
Pin down the handler on what they need to work on with their dog, what they feel they are weak on with their dog, etc. The point of Blinds is to improve, not to generate bragging rights.
4) Ask the dog's overlap limitations. This means what is the distance between identical sources that the dog can distinguish two or more different sources. You'll know you've put two sources too close to each other when the dog decides to alert/indicate in between them as it can't figure it out.
5) Do not go into setting up a blind with a hidden agenda of "I'll screw with their head with this one." This is one reason you should be expected to work your own blinds. Blinds should be teaching tools, not a competition. This is one reason some handlers/trainers won't work blinds set up by others....they don't want to be shown to fail. I'd much rather "fail" in a blind than on a real search. I do not live vicariously through my dog's expertise on scent. I do live for the find and I can only succeed at that if I learn from my failures. So, I can only learn if I fail occasionally in CONTROLLED BLINDS. There is no shame for anyone if they miss something in a BLIND. There should be shame if they never trust anyone to set up blinds for them as they'll stagnate.
Sooo, to finally answer your original question. GO WORK KNOWN NEGATIVES with your dog as part of your regular training. Set aside a negative area in your own problem set and randomly put it in your work. Work it first if you want the dog to settle down, if you want to correct it on distractions without fear of HRs scent being there. Work it in the middle if the dog starts to learn that you always do a negative first so it can coast. Don't work it last as you want the dog to end on a win. So, if you accidentally end up in your negative area last, then go back to a previous find and let the dog find it again. The dog, like us, will enjoy an easy win from time to time.
This will provide you with a feel of how long it will take you to work a known negative. An unknown negative........well, that will take a very long time.....*grin*....you'll see.
Jim
**
Regarding negatives, since this would be the first time doing negatives, how long is a reasonable amount of time to work the dog on a negative area?
**
Well, this is a loaded question. The bulk of your searches for LE will end up being negative searches. If a source is in the area, often the search is over in 15 minutes. If it's a negative, you have to be sure that you've given your dog enough opportunities to find scent if it's there. My rule of thumb is three passes through the area from different directions. An example would be from upwind, from downwind, and from crosswind. Another example would be N-S, E-W, and SW to NE grids.
You have to set up your grid "alleys" by the information you are given about the sources you are looking for, i.e. clandestine grave one month ago would be buried decomp, clandestine grave 10 years ago is now a historic grid and can be very time consuming. Scattered skeletal for six months in the summer can again be a surface historic level search as what's left is likely going to be bleached and scattered by coyotes and vermin, under bushes, in dens, etc.
YOU CAN OVERWORK a negative to the point some handlers talk their dogs into alerts/indications. This is always your biggest fear. This is why you build endurance on your dog (Jonni Joyce's name for this is "nose time", i.e. how long the dog will actively work scent before it takes an unannounced break and just goes through the motions.)
When setting up blinds, you need to have two similar areas in your problem set with one having sources and one blind; Otherwise, the handler working the blinds soon starts to spot your pattern. In this I mean they figure out that when you announce a negative that you'll pick a smaller area or a larger area...whatever...you'll develop a pattern. People want to win, they notice everything. So, if I set up problem sets for someone, I walk around first and see "scenarios" in different areas. I talk to myself about what sort of story could have occurred in that area. When I see two similar stories appear, then I'll make one a negative and one with sources. Once the other handler is ready to work, we walk the areas (without dogs) and I tell them the scenarios I've seen in each area. I then let the handler choose the order they want to work the areas in. At a seminar, this tends to change in that I'll try to set up enough scenarios to enable each advance dog handler to work at the same times as the others. I used to hate seminars where everyone waits their turn to work. Sometimes you can't avoid this, but I try to set up enough areas where I can leave the advanced dog team alone to work and then I bounce from area to area to advise, critique, or simply observe "magic in action".....some dog teams just need problems to work and don't need help. Once every one has finished their specific problem, I rotate teams to areas they haven't worked. This means I work my ass off, but the dog teams get their money's worth...which is what I believe is what a seminar is all about. While I don't charge for my services, those handlers coughed up their hard earned bucks and time to travel to learn. Most of them won't get paid for their services to their community.
While many dog teams leave a seminar believing they are at the top of their game because they got stroked and their handling was better with a coach. My goal is to convey concepts and experience to handlers such that months/years down the road when they find themselves on a particular nasty search that our common experience suddenly hands them the skills they need to serve the victim. Their dog has been through this before and now feels comfortable as it knows what to do. The dog handler doesn't have to "guess" at what their dog is doing or how to work the area. I want my scenarios and problem sets to generate questions as well as give the dog team confidence that they can deal with booger problems.
This attitude is why I have little confidence in certifications at the end of a seminar as the dog team has had a week to get used to the "style" of problems that will be thrown at them. The dog team has had a week to become used to the terrain. The dog team has had a week to learn the instructor's sources; Thus, the dog has become imprinted on them and doesn't have to interpolate as to if that scent source is one they need to alert/indicate on. Sooo, in my mind, the dog team hasn't been evaluated for the task LE expects that certification implies. That expectation is that LE can bring you to an area you've never been before, give you a summary of what they are looking for and why, time since death or if the remains are moved from the primary crime scene, yada yada yada.... A real search is you race to a location that the search waiver/warrant is only good for that day. You've never been there before and it's very likely that your search strategy may have to change on the fly because conditions change, intelligence changes, an article is found (which may have absolutely no bearing on your search...but we don't know that) On a real search you commonly have someone or some people constantly walking along with you and asking you questions. You have to learn to multi-task in responding to their questions while your eyes never leave your dog and the environment it is in.
Sooooo, with all those tangents....how to answer your time limit. The way I was brought up in this venue is that each time my dog and I were brought up to an area, given the scenario, told the boundaries....I was asked, "SOOOooooo, how long do you think it will take you to work this area for zero-to-three sources?" I had to name that time. As I've stated in a previous post, if I tried to give myself way too much time, they invariably laughed and gave me a time which was a fraction of my estimate (and this was from their experience). If I got cocky and stated too short, they'd let me hang and stop me when I ran out of time and demanded I make a call of "clear? Finds? What?" Then, just like most LE agencies, they would send me on my way without any response. I'd learn later how I did. I can tell you that the not knowing just eats at you. You walk away and begin second-guessing yourself over the entire problem. You play it over in slow motion in your head and realize your dog turned it's head near that bush, that depression, that tree....DANG IT!....I should have worked the dog there!" I was allowed to suffer and then brought back to work it again or later on, berated because we got it all perfect and why in the hell was I stressing over it?".....While this seems idiotic, it was great training for dealing with the stress that real searches hit you with because you know that each search dictates your reputation. You may have 20 successful searches behind you, but screw one up and they suddenly state those other searches were luck, pure BS, etc. You probably won't get called back by that LE agency. I can't blame them if I'm in their shoes. It is always better to be up front and honest than to blow smoke and make excuses. If you give excuses after the fact then why in hell were you working your dog in the first place. If you come up on limitations in the search, then you better be telling LE as they happen.
With that in mind, you also have to give a time estimate based on how YOUR dog works. I've worked with dog teams where the dog was very slow, BUT extremely accurate. The dog only needed one pass and dropped immediately into a down when it got into scent. While it appeared the dog team took forever, they often were faster than other dog teams as the handler only needed one pass. This type of dog is great for evidence recovery searches in a smaller area when you need to find that one tooth or small finger bones left after active carrion activity. This type of dog would not be best applied in an area search where you want to find that first scattered bone and then refine your grid after that to find the rest.
What I would do as you two are developing a relationship for mutual blinds is this:
When you set up blinds, agree that each of you will set up three to four areas with the attitude that each area SHOULD take no more than 15-20 minutes for the dog team to work. Many times it'll be faster.
You can split up working each other's areas to where she works one of your areas, then you work one of hers, etc. OR as commonly happens to me at the end of training, my dog works the blinds set up and then goes with me to do recovery work on all the problems I set up for others.
THE IMPORTANT POINT is that you must work with your dog the same areas that you set up for the other handler. REMEMBER THAT you will work your areas much faster than the blinds because you do know where the sources are. This doesn't mean you'll be cheating. It means you'll feel comfortable ignoring areas the dog doesn't cover and you'll pay more attention to the dog when it's working your sources. This is just human nature. WE SHOULD attempt to work our known problems as if we don't know where the sources are which means you should make sure your dog covers those other areas, but often time is a factor and we want to move on.
WORKING YOUR BLINDS is a safety valve such that if you create a booger problem by accident then the other dog team can learn from your suffering as you learned from theirs. Together you can use your dogs to figure out why this "innocent problem" became so difficult for the dogs.
If the two of you are working hard at setting up problems, working blinds, working your blinds, picking up, then it's not uncommon that this session will take four hours easily. I do think it's important for a dog to assist on the pick-up portion as this is a great opportunity for reinforcing the find and in teaching the dog to respect the sources. On my own problem sets that I set up for my dogs, I'll commonly set aside one day of the week as pick-up day where the dog has already found all the sources, but must re-find and "show me" precisely for recovery. This should be almost a "Fun day" activity. When picking up each other's blinds, we usually swap out where the handler observing (who had to suffer the blind as a blind) is gloved up and collecting. This way if they never got to see where the source was, they get to focus on the placement and learn more as to why their dog acted like it did to the unique scent travel. IT SHOULD BE COMMON that the dog handler calls a find their dog indicated/alerted on without ever seeing the scent source….. BEWARE the handler that only rewards their dog AFTER they see the scent source. This can happen on real searches as the handler is often shocked that they made a find, but in training it creates poor reward timing by the handler and demonstrates a lack of trust in the dog by the handler.
With all this in mind the blind TEACHES:
1) The handler to trust the dog
2) what weak points have been missed in the previous training such as scent sources, distractions, handling, cueing, environmental conditions, etc.
3) how other dogs work the same scent problem even if the handler knows where the source is
4) What scent travel occurs in the unique presentation the blind exhibited.
The handler that sets up the blinds should follow these rules:
1) Don't let the handler reward their dog on distractions, but allow the handler to work it to indication.......this is a hard line to follow, but it must be done religiously. This can occur if the dog isn't proofed adequately OR if the handler cues OR if the dog doesn't have endurance and wants to end the game. Doing this will save your ass many times over down the line. This means the Blind can not be a ego-booster for the setter or the blind worker. Make no mistake, the blind is work for all.
You must develop a system where you communicate to the handler that is alert is wrong with quick timing such that the handler can correct their dog within that 0-7 seconds window for canine association. A quiet "no" won't cut it. I prefer the blind setter to physically tap me, whack me on the back of the head, warn me quietly as they see what's happening, etc. BECAUSE if the dog hasn't alerted/indicated YET, it might not. It might examine the distraction, interpolate, decide "NOPE THIS AIN"T IT" and move on. IF so, we all breath sighs of relief and move on and there is no dramatic event to the dog. IF the handler doesn’t give the dog a chance to decide, the dog doesn’t learn. With known distractions, the handler has to wait until the dog just about indicates (you work your dog enough then you know when an indication is coming) and choose that time to correct it. With blinds, we correct with passive negation telling the dog to move on and/or “leave it” if the dog has committed to the distraction. If your dog commits to the distraction, ask to have it to proof the dog to the point that it hates smelling that distraction when it’s working. I’ve actually caused avoidances in a dog before by using a distraction type again and again that it committed to, so much so that when my dog exhibited avoidance behavior on a search that I could say with confidence, “got dead deer over there.” Of course the down side to training to that level is what happens if there is a dead hunter right next to the dead deer?
2) Set up problems that you believe the dog team can work through. It's ok if they have to suffer a bit figuring it out, but ....for example, don't set up an elevated problem in high winds when the dog has only worked sources on the surface. It's ok to ask the handler what their dog can't do. They need to be honest with you or suffer the consequences.
3) Don't let any dog team give you the suggestion "SURPRISE ME!" The only time I follow this instruction is when I have someone that is already mission-ready and their ego has gone beyond belief (they wouldn't throw down the guantlet otherwise). This very challenge has gotten me a very bad reputation with some area search dog teams because I know the end results when someone didn't get found until they died. I know where to hide to make booger problems, but I always advise who ever is going along with the dog handler what I'm doing because I don't want to screw up the dog. If the handler starts pulling their hair out.....well, I'm bald and they'll have a long way to go to get to my condition.
Pin down the handler on what they need to work on with their dog, what they feel they are weak on with their dog, etc. The point of Blinds is to improve, not to generate bragging rights.
4) Ask the dog's overlap limitations. This means what is the distance between identical sources that the dog can distinguish two or more different sources. You'll know you've put two sources too close to each other when the dog decides to alert/indicate in between them as it can't figure it out.
5) Do not go into setting up a blind with a hidden agenda of "I'll screw with their head with this one." This is one reason you should be expected to work your own blinds. Blinds should be teaching tools, not a competition. This is one reason some handlers/trainers won't work blinds set up by others....they don't want to be shown to fail. I'd much rather "fail" in a blind than on a real search. I do not live vicariously through my dog's expertise on scent. I do live for the find and I can only succeed at that if I learn from my failures. So, I can only learn if I fail occasionally in CONTROLLED BLINDS. There is no shame for anyone if they miss something in a BLIND. There should be shame if they never trust anyone to set up blinds for them as they'll stagnate.
Sooo, to finally answer your original question. GO WORK KNOWN NEGATIVES with your dog as part of your regular training. Set aside a negative area in your own problem set and randomly put it in your work. Work it first if you want the dog to settle down, if you want to correct it on distractions without fear of HRs scent being there. Work it in the middle if the dog starts to learn that you always do a negative first so it can coast. Don't work it last as you want the dog to end on a win. So, if you accidentally end up in your negative area last, then go back to a previous find and let the dog find it again. The dog, like us, will enjoy an easy win from time to time.
This will provide you with a feel of how long it will take you to work a known negative. An unknown negative........well, that will take a very long time.....*grin*....you'll see.
Jim