Post by oksaradt on Feb 14, 2010 12:39:08 GMT -5
Shopping is something almost all HRD handlers should end up dealing with at least once in their dog training lifetime. I recognize it in other dog teams because I had my turn. It tends to be more blatant when you work someone else's blind. It happens as a result of handler routine. Have I mentioned that dogs LOVE routines?
Shopping is a name I learned when my first HRD dog Dax got slapped with the label at a seminar. There's nothing like being given a label with 30 other handlers present whom over 60% nod knowingly and mumble, "yup, a shopper.......*sigh*" My saving grace was that I correctly read my dog at the time.
The humbling incident I always remember was in a large log cabin-style room at the Holly Springs Campgrounds pavilion. The instructor that had set up the problem had placed five sources about the room including leaving one open in their coat hanging on the back of a chair (not something I'd do and nor did I sit next to her at dinner that night when she was wearing same jacket).
I was brought in blind and told to clear the room with my dog, and oh by the way these other dog handlers want to watch....is that ok? "sure sure, whatever"
I turned to Dax and said matter of factly, "go to work, let's find."
Dax proceeded to move about the room in a purposeful manner and I noted head turns and dips at certain places, but she continued moving. At the end of her circle of the room, she turned to me and wagged her tail about to alert. (I should note that Dax was very predictable in how she'd alert and everyone could tell it was coming before it did. For law enforcement and demos this turned out to be a boon.) At this point the instructor asked me to pause my dog and made the comment about shopping. The instructor asked me, "how many sources do you think are in this room?" I commented that I'd seen five different unique scent behavior changes by my dog and pointed out the general area of each.
I was asked, "why didn't your dog tell you about each one as she found them?" I confessed that I didn't know. The instructor then said, "put your dog back to work." I did and Dax proceeded to tell me about each source in reverse order, pointing out each one precisely after a bark." I rewarded her at the end. After that I was then informed of what causes this phenomena.
Shopping in dogs tends to happen because the handler or problem setter has gotten into a subconsious routine when setting up problems. Usually the same number of sources are placed out. Usually a similar pattern of locations of sources results. The dog enjoys the game, but because the game has resulted in patterns then the dog begins enjoying (or self-rewards) defining the pattern first before including the handler in on the find for the paycheck. The dog gains power by dictating the timing of rewards. The handler is often oblivious to this or makes excuses for it as the handler still gets stroked with the dog making finds.
Narcotic dog trainers often use shopping as a major reason why convincing the dog that the reward comes from the source rather than the handler is a reason for the "poof reward system", i.e the dog shouldn't see where the reward comes from.
I personally want the dog knowing that the paycheck comes from me because that guarantees that my dog will include me in on the find.....if my paycheck is valuable enough.
So, what does a handler do once they realize or are shown that they've created a "shopper". The immediate reaction is to create a totally different number and pattern to train by. This often creates both a frustrated handler and dog. This is like someone that likes the same mystery author because the reader gets comfortable with the same forumula. Someone that enjoys a style of videogame once they learn all the rules/techniques/tricks. The author diverges, the gamemaker changes the rules, etc and the end-user suddenly experiences a high-degree of frustration. The dog handler watches their dog struggle and goes through yet another phase of insecurity that their dog is "broke".
With all things, baby steps rule. You've created a ritual, so use it to your advantage as you break it. If you always put out three, four, five, ......ad nauseum sources, then places sources in your normal pattern, but in place of one put a blank container. In place of another source, place a distraction. Work the dog with it. You'll quickly find out if the dog is proofed on containers and distractions AND you force the dog to think "wait a minute, the pattern has changed."
Next training session, alter the pattern slightly again with perhaps overlaps or distances between sources and one more blank.
Next training session, again a minor change.
If at any time during a training session, the dog becomes too frustrated to work, then back down one step of pattern change.
Using the first pattern, you can now increase your dog's gridding and search patterns by placing sources 1, 3, and 5 (for example) and 2&4 blank, then the dog's search area will expand out for it's desired reward. Do this a couple of times and the dog now searches out farther for scent sources with the same determination.
Next, go to using just sources 2 & 5, your search area has now doubled when the dog does this.
Last, just source 5 and you've doubled again as well as eliminating your pattern.
Ok, I should also mention favorite locations. Dog handlers love trees to place sources at because they are easy to remember and to visualize on. Observe your dog going to all the trees in their search and ignoring the area between.....you have a tree shopper. Bushes?....ayup.....
A training partner that I grew up with in the HRD world (who has passed on) created some great problems by accident. She'd placed a source at "this huge dandelion weed" the night before. We'd come out to work and *cough* there was now a field of huge dandelion weeds. She like to train on a golf course and in this case the ground crew came through and told us they'd mowed at 0500 this morning and all these weeds had popped up since. They were just going to have to spray...... I think I got hit at least three times by her as I was laughing the whole time we worked the area with our dogs to find her teeth that the mower had sprayed over the area. It could have been worse, they could have collected the clippings and dumped them in their huge compost heap.
The hardest problems I can set up for students is to find a flat featureless field with 2-4 inch tall grass freshly mowed. Rarely does such a field have a totally flat surface and depressions can invisibly hold bones, teeth, etc. "Dang, gotta use your dog to find the scent sources. Have fun."
After this, your challenge is to maintain your logs and use them to your advantage to stay out of routines. Don't work the dog at the same time every day. Don't work the dog in the same area, find as many new locals/environments/distractions as you can.
One of the most important training lessons I learned was "The HRD dog's routine should be that there is no routine except working to find scent and to target it."
If you expect to go on real searches in swamps in your area, then go visit swamps to train in at least once a quarter. The same with desert, moutains, woods, urban, construction area, ditches, .....ummmm any place that you can imagine some miscreant will use for a body dump is a location you should find to train in. Could your dog work HRs behind the local food court with their garbage bins full of great smells, rats, cats, crows, raccoons, and *grin* homeless people. I'm grinning because the look on your HRD dogs face when it finds a box with a live homeless person in it is definitely a Kodak moment. I can think of three hobo jungles in my district that I've had to work and I know there are lots more that I don't know about.
My point with this is that shopping is a result of the problem setter falling into a routine and the solution is to gradually eliminate the routine out of the dog's training schedule completely. The constant is the scent and the reward. The journey between should be seen by both dog and handler as the adventure. If we make a find within 30 feet of getting out of the vehicle then I'm happy. If we take hours to clear an area and the dog worked hard the whole time then I'm happy. It's just as valuable to my customer, law enforcement and the families, to be able to say there's nothing there (with earned confidence) as there is to make a find.
Hope this helps,
Jim
Shopping is a name I learned when my first HRD dog Dax got slapped with the label at a seminar. There's nothing like being given a label with 30 other handlers present whom over 60% nod knowingly and mumble, "yup, a shopper.......*sigh*" My saving grace was that I correctly read my dog at the time.
The humbling incident I always remember was in a large log cabin-style room at the Holly Springs Campgrounds pavilion. The instructor that had set up the problem had placed five sources about the room including leaving one open in their coat hanging on the back of a chair (not something I'd do and nor did I sit next to her at dinner that night when she was wearing same jacket).
I was brought in blind and told to clear the room with my dog, and oh by the way these other dog handlers want to watch....is that ok? "sure sure, whatever"
I turned to Dax and said matter of factly, "go to work, let's find."
Dax proceeded to move about the room in a purposeful manner and I noted head turns and dips at certain places, but she continued moving. At the end of her circle of the room, she turned to me and wagged her tail about to alert. (I should note that Dax was very predictable in how she'd alert and everyone could tell it was coming before it did. For law enforcement and demos this turned out to be a boon.) At this point the instructor asked me to pause my dog and made the comment about shopping. The instructor asked me, "how many sources do you think are in this room?" I commented that I'd seen five different unique scent behavior changes by my dog and pointed out the general area of each.
I was asked, "why didn't your dog tell you about each one as she found them?" I confessed that I didn't know. The instructor then said, "put your dog back to work." I did and Dax proceeded to tell me about each source in reverse order, pointing out each one precisely after a bark." I rewarded her at the end. After that I was then informed of what causes this phenomena.
Shopping in dogs tends to happen because the handler or problem setter has gotten into a subconsious routine when setting up problems. Usually the same number of sources are placed out. Usually a similar pattern of locations of sources results. The dog enjoys the game, but because the game has resulted in patterns then the dog begins enjoying (or self-rewards) defining the pattern first before including the handler in on the find for the paycheck. The dog gains power by dictating the timing of rewards. The handler is often oblivious to this or makes excuses for it as the handler still gets stroked with the dog making finds.
Narcotic dog trainers often use shopping as a major reason why convincing the dog that the reward comes from the source rather than the handler is a reason for the "poof reward system", i.e the dog shouldn't see where the reward comes from.
I personally want the dog knowing that the paycheck comes from me because that guarantees that my dog will include me in on the find.....if my paycheck is valuable enough.
So, what does a handler do once they realize or are shown that they've created a "shopper". The immediate reaction is to create a totally different number and pattern to train by. This often creates both a frustrated handler and dog. This is like someone that likes the same mystery author because the reader gets comfortable with the same forumula. Someone that enjoys a style of videogame once they learn all the rules/techniques/tricks. The author diverges, the gamemaker changes the rules, etc and the end-user suddenly experiences a high-degree of frustration. The dog handler watches their dog struggle and goes through yet another phase of insecurity that their dog is "broke".
With all things, baby steps rule. You've created a ritual, so use it to your advantage as you break it. If you always put out three, four, five, ......ad nauseum sources, then places sources in your normal pattern, but in place of one put a blank container. In place of another source, place a distraction. Work the dog with it. You'll quickly find out if the dog is proofed on containers and distractions AND you force the dog to think "wait a minute, the pattern has changed."
Next training session, alter the pattern slightly again with perhaps overlaps or distances between sources and one more blank.
Next training session, again a minor change.
If at any time during a training session, the dog becomes too frustrated to work, then back down one step of pattern change.
Using the first pattern, you can now increase your dog's gridding and search patterns by placing sources 1, 3, and 5 (for example) and 2&4 blank, then the dog's search area will expand out for it's desired reward. Do this a couple of times and the dog now searches out farther for scent sources with the same determination.
Next, go to using just sources 2 & 5, your search area has now doubled when the dog does this.
Last, just source 5 and you've doubled again as well as eliminating your pattern.
Ok, I should also mention favorite locations. Dog handlers love trees to place sources at because they are easy to remember and to visualize on. Observe your dog going to all the trees in their search and ignoring the area between.....you have a tree shopper. Bushes?....ayup.....
A training partner that I grew up with in the HRD world (who has passed on) created some great problems by accident. She'd placed a source at "this huge dandelion weed" the night before. We'd come out to work and *cough* there was now a field of huge dandelion weeds. She like to train on a golf course and in this case the ground crew came through and told us they'd mowed at 0500 this morning and all these weeds had popped up since. They were just going to have to spray...... I think I got hit at least three times by her as I was laughing the whole time we worked the area with our dogs to find her teeth that the mower had sprayed over the area. It could have been worse, they could have collected the clippings and dumped them in their huge compost heap.
The hardest problems I can set up for students is to find a flat featureless field with 2-4 inch tall grass freshly mowed. Rarely does such a field have a totally flat surface and depressions can invisibly hold bones, teeth, etc. "Dang, gotta use your dog to find the scent sources. Have fun."
After this, your challenge is to maintain your logs and use them to your advantage to stay out of routines. Don't work the dog at the same time every day. Don't work the dog in the same area, find as many new locals/environments/distractions as you can.
One of the most important training lessons I learned was "The HRD dog's routine should be that there is no routine except working to find scent and to target it."
If you expect to go on real searches in swamps in your area, then go visit swamps to train in at least once a quarter. The same with desert, moutains, woods, urban, construction area, ditches, .....ummmm any place that you can imagine some miscreant will use for a body dump is a location you should find to train in. Could your dog work HRs behind the local food court with their garbage bins full of great smells, rats, cats, crows, raccoons, and *grin* homeless people. I'm grinning because the look on your HRD dogs face when it finds a box with a live homeless person in it is definitely a Kodak moment. I can think of three hobo jungles in my district that I've had to work and I know there are lots more that I don't know about.
My point with this is that shopping is a result of the problem setter falling into a routine and the solution is to gradually eliminate the routine out of the dog's training schedule completely. The constant is the scent and the reward. The journey between should be seen by both dog and handler as the adventure. If we make a find within 30 feet of getting out of the vehicle then I'm happy. If we take hours to clear an area and the dog worked hard the whole time then I'm happy. It's just as valuable to my customer, law enforcement and the families, to be able to say there's nothing there (with earned confidence) as there is to make a find.
Hope this helps,
Jim