Lengthening Search Time

[terrierlvr]

Jim,
Posting here so others may benefit. If you have covered this topic before and remember the thread name, simply boot me there.
I need to really expand my search times. Some of that is laziness on my part, and some is lack of a good and regular training partner.
Could you put out a simple strategy for us to increase our search times? I think the longest we've searched/trained is 45 minutes. I'd like to get it up to a couple of hours. Also, please include how you incorporate breaks, etc. For practice purposes, I assume we would always end it with a "find". Thanks. Bonnie

[oksaradt]

My end goal is always to train my dog to a four-hour shift regardless of conditions. Obviously, with an easy area the dog might be able to go further. The key though is training the dog into it’s internal timer for a four-hour shift. The shift is my choice. It’s arbitrary. I like it because it fits comfortably into most search areas that I’m asked to work.
There are times when working a case where the law enforcement agency might need to “clear tips”. This means they may have a lot of negatives for you and your dog to work, most might take a short amount of work time with driving time in between. In those cases the dog gets breaks and you don’t, but the dog doesn’t end each search with a win. I’ve worked my dogs all day, up to 12 hours for me with two dogs to work with no finds. When we get home, there’s some bones to find to give them their win there. Because of Ms. Anderson, I never carry any HRs with me on a real search; Thus, there’s no concern for anyone that a search might get “seeded”. A lot of HR handlers do take something with them to give their dog a find during the day. I think a mature, properly trained dog understands that some hunts come up empty. Also, some times L.E. can perceive the need for a training find off to the side to keep the dog interested as either a lack of confidence in the dog’s training or lack of experience on the handler’s part. I just don’t go there.

The first answer to your query is I increase times of negative area searched gradually and several ways.
1) I increase area size with a single source placed in a location that I can reach from several directions. This allows me to push the dog until it begins to show signs of fatigue or is losing interest and just before the dog stops searching then I’ll direct our search into scent. This goes along the “slot machine” philosophy of training. Gamblers don’t mind losing if they always know that a “pay day” is coming. The longer the dog has searched before a find, the more likely it will continue searching in a negative area as it just knows it will find scent soon.
2) Set up multiple negative areas where there just is no find. As with all “baby step” methods, these will build gradually in either size, complexity, and later both. I’ve even set up negative areas along a country road where I can load my dog up after a negative area to go to another and then another with a scented area down the road if the dog is starting to lose interest. This way the dog gets used to “clearing tips”. You have to work each area like you “just know the scent is there” because the dog can smell if you are just going through the motions. If you go through the motions then it will to and with such attitudes finds can be missed. If it helps you, load each negative area with a different distraction to keep you on edge to see what the dog does with it and gives you an opportunity to improve its commitment to only human remains.
3) To build search endurance with my dogs, I will take them on long walks such as 3, 5, 7, ….with previous dogs I’ve gotten up to a 21-mile walk one day. You have to go equipped with water and food for both you and the dog.
4) Once the dogs are used to the walks in (3) then I will either ask them to work a problem on return OR I plant a source in the next walk such that I know they can’t miss the scent. Once the dog gets scent and exhibits scent behavior then I go into search mode and the rest of the walk is a search after rewarding for that one find and then I’ll have another find at the end OR NOT. It’s not uncommon to search an area where your assigned sector is on the edge of scattered remains and you find 1 or 2 bones. You and the dog are both pumped, but then you have to finish your sector regardless as to whether it has more remains.
For example, on the streets of Denver where the person asking walks her dog, plant something along one of the routes that no one else will ever find, smell, or notice. It’s not hard to do. If you struggle as to how to hide some remains that no one else can find, I can privately make some suggestions. I’ve done it to students for years to get them to trust their dogs instead of their eyes.
So, with the walks in the streets of Denver, start with a single unobtrusive source near the end of the walk and force the dog to convince you that it has a find. Don’t talk the dog out of it or pull it off of it, but act incredulous where the dog has to SELL YOU on the idea that a source is there. If the dog doesn’t pick up on the source then you have more work to do. The idea here is to create the dog that works when scent presents itself and is always available for scent to do that RATHER than train a dog that only finds when you want it to work regardless of the presences of scent. The latter is the norm for most dog teams, but the dream for serious dog handlers is to have a dog that literally drags you to a source that you just can’t believe is there, be it a bomb, narcotics, human remains, whatever. To create this, the training must have in it scent opportunities in every aspect of the dogs environments. They can not be routine, but must be random enough such that the dog is always ready to accept the possibility.
Once you have that mentality with your dog, every place you go with your dog becomes a training opportunity regardless if there is source or not. This means you drive around with rewards always handy in your vehicle or on your person.


As for breaks, my dogs have always told me when they needed one. The dog handlers job is area management and focus on their dog. If your dog is slowing down, take a break. If your dog appears dry, give it water. If the dog needs to be held/stroked/etc, give it five minutes. We want dogs that are driven to hunt for this, but everyone employee needs to be stroked at times. The key is not to linger on the breaks. Murphy and I did a four-hour search recently in nasty terrain. My flankers needed breaks more often then he did. He worked hard, so he got lots of high carbohydrate biscuits periodically. Of the 4 Litres of water I carried, he got 3 Litres and I got one. I always hydrate up before a search, but in this case I paid later with muscle cramps. A small price to pay to keep my dog working.
If your dog is spending more time seeking shade than it is working scent then you have to ask yourself if you’d worked beyond a decent window where the dog can work effectively. This is why in the summer I prefer to work at night or around dawn. Each handler knows their dog best. It must be up to each of them to do what is best for their dog and to find scent.

Hope this helps,

Jim

[terrierlvr]

Very very helpful. I always learn something new. Thanks. Bonnie