Post by oksaradt on Nov 28, 2009 0:55:37 GMT -5
This is an exercise that I’ve done for years with my dogs. I think I tortured one class at a seminar with it one year, making it a blind first and then left it out for them to work on for days afterwards. The point of the exercise is to make fun for the dog (and sometimes the trainer/handler) with proofing and making sure your dog is properly imprinted.
The environment can be anywhere, indoors (large area), the driveway, out in the yard, in a field, etc. Nine boxes are needed of identical shape and size that didn’t store food products or other items that a dog would consider scent worthy. As my wife lives on Diet Dr. Pepper, I tend to just wait until nine empty 24-packs result. I’ve also used nine shipping boxes from my business that were 12 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches. On those I just folded the tops closed and poke a few holes in the sides for air flow. The point is the boxes should be identical visually to the dog.
Inside three of the boxes will be human remains of your choosing that you are confident the dog is familiar with, be it bones, teeth, decomp, whatever. This is not a test. This is a challenge or game for the dog.
Inside the second group of three boxes will be items you need the dog to not tell you about nor obsess over. This can be food, latex gloves, clean containers, treats, toys, animal remains, rawhides, whatever. If you think your dog might have to choose between telling you about human remains or self-reward on a tasty slice (or slices) of dried chicken breast, then that’s something to put in a distraction box. Realize that whatever you put into the box may be tempting such that the dog will try to get to it, possibly destroying the box in the process if you can’t call it off. If this happens, it could be a sign that you need to work more on proofing or your reward system.
Inside the last three boxes there is nothing at all, they are just filled with air. There’s an important reason for this as once the dog realizes the game, it might try to hurry things along by telling you any box has remains in it. This is the dog defining your rules and nothing more. It can also be a sign that you give confusing cues to the dog when you should not be cueing the dog at all.
I mark each box with the contents and prefer to use a different color marker for Human Remains, for Distraction, and for AIR/BLANK so that my timing isn’t slowed down trying to decide to reward or correct.
My dogs’ reward is to chase a ball away from the source, so I can use this time to switch the boxes around after every round. Once the dog “gets it” or understands the game, I expect the dog to correctly identify all three boxes for a thrown ball. Up till then, I’ll reward for each correct box and verbally correct for wrong targets.
The game should be geared for the dog’s personality and drive. The more the dog understands the game, the more pressure I put on the dog to “think fast”. If the dog is experienced in this game, then I’ll have more empty/blank boxes or DISTRACTION boxes nearby to substitute for the remains such that the dog may have only one correct box to locate with eight wrong boxes crowding it. Oh, my pressure is verbal, nothing more than nagging such as “c’mon c’mon c’mon, let’s go!”…there’s no additional commands.
I tend to space the boxes for the dog as well, starting a dog with 3-5 feet gaps between boxes. Over time as the dog understands the game you can actually butt the boxes up against each other forcing the dog to check each box with its nose in the folds and then target precisely.
This game can be a lot of fun for both handler and dog. If the dog gets tired of it, then stop. If not, play it as long as the dog enjoys the game or you run out of reward. If you reward with food, I suggest one of the distraction boxes contain the same food reward to eliminate self-rewarding.
If a dog obsesses on a distraction, it should be verbally corrected and called away with a command you would also use routinely on known wrong scents.
Above all go into this exercise as a Fun Day for both the dog and the handler. If it becomes a test or stressful then the dog needs more imprinting on the sources you expect you to locate for you. If the dog self-rewards, then you might reconsider your reward system is lacking as it’s decided what’s in Box Number Five is the better deal. If the dog keeps telling you about the blanks, then you either contaminated them or the dog has no concept of what you need it to do. I do this entirely off-lead. Handlers tend to signal the dog with their leads, so if the dog needs a lead for control then consider an always loose long-line unless you need to use it for a correction. We did this recently with a lab that loved my Chicken Breast Jerkey to the point the head was in the box, so I banged on the sides of the box with my hands and playfully growled at the dog to leave my treats alone. After that, any time the lab went near the jerky treats I buzzed it verbally. Fairly quickly the dog was racing past that particular box and veering away from it to avoid my condemnation. If the dog found the human remains, I whoo-hooed and the dog was quickly targeting that box.
With any training exercise, if you get upset or frustrated at your dog then walk away and do it another time.
An example of boxes:
Box 1: Decomp bone
Box 2: Mandible with teeth
Box 3: adipocere
Box 4: Latex Gloves never worn
Box 5: Freeze Dried Beef Liver /Chicken Breast Jerky/Hot dogs
Box 6: Dried Road Kill
Boxes 7-9: Empty
Hope this helps,
Jim