Post by oksaradt on Nov 19, 2007 14:03:58 GMT -5
I feel compelled to put something new in here each week until people stop reading, so I suppose you are going to experience Murphy's training.
Murphy has turned out to be true to his testing in that he likes the dead stuff. While some of my cohorts might consider my training methods as trade secrets others will consider it ludicrous, so I don't think it's a big deal if I post them.
My attitude on training a cadaver dog from early puppy is that it only works on bone, teeth, hair, and fingernails for the first year of its training in scent work. During this time the dog is flooded with as many varied environments I can take it to and obedience work is taken care of.
An essential part of the dog's training is establishing a solid reward system. I ultimately want to get Murphy ( as my other dogs) where I can throw a ball or toy to the dog at the find even though I might be 50 or more feet away. The dog brings the toy to me and I trade it for food. This way I avoid contaminating the scent source or crime scene with food particles. Live find dogs often get fed by the "victim" once they bring their handler to the "victim". Disaster dogs often get fed by the victim after they've barked their required 30 seconds in place. The downside to this occurs when handlers decide to cross-train their live-find dogs to find fresh remains and the dog is used to getting food at the scent source. There have been cases where the live-find dogs have been found to be self-rewarding at the remains....not a good image for the media.
So, my biggest challenge at this point is to convince young Murphy that I can present something better to him than the bone chew toy he's found. That he needs to include me in on the "kill" or "find" so he can get his reward that I've created an obsession on.
Thus far, I've determined that Murphy loves to chase balls and brings them back to me simply for praise. Murphy loves to play tug on a fleece tug, a cotton tug, and a stuffed Tiger that roars when bitten. All these items were nuisances once Murphy had made his find. For the past week I've been trying all sorts of items to be rewards. My sources are protected as they are currently either placed where he can't quite reach them or in suet cages. You have to be proud at his zeal to get to them, but.....
Two days ago I decided to try a toy that Tempe had loved when she was this age. I'd been given two Airedale Beenie Babies as thanks for documenting cemeteries in western Oklahoma with Dax. One is still in pristine condition, but Tempe found the first when she was a puppy and decided it was THE chew toy. So, two days ago I tossed this sun-dried, somewhat saliva smoothed airedale toy over the source as Murphy was getting to it. Murphy paused, looked at the bones, then pounced on the beenie baby and carted it off in a victory lap with his kill. He came over to me to show me what he'd found and I held out a wienie slice to him and he dropped the toy to enjoy the morsel. This has been repeated 8 times so far.
Tempe was finally woo'd away from this toy as she'd reached an age where i worried that it didn't have long to survive this world. She'd watched Dax chase after a ball with zeal and competition for the pack member's favorite toy finally won out over the beenie baby.
This hurdle is overcome, on to bigger and better challenges for young Murphy.
Regards,
jim
Murphy has turned out to be true to his testing in that he likes the dead stuff. While some of my cohorts might consider my training methods as trade secrets others will consider it ludicrous, so I don't think it's a big deal if I post them.
My attitude on training a cadaver dog from early puppy is that it only works on bone, teeth, hair, and fingernails for the first year of its training in scent work. During this time the dog is flooded with as many varied environments I can take it to and obedience work is taken care of.
An essential part of the dog's training is establishing a solid reward system. I ultimately want to get Murphy ( as my other dogs) where I can throw a ball or toy to the dog at the find even though I might be 50 or more feet away. The dog brings the toy to me and I trade it for food. This way I avoid contaminating the scent source or crime scene with food particles. Live find dogs often get fed by the "victim" once they bring their handler to the "victim". Disaster dogs often get fed by the victim after they've barked their required 30 seconds in place. The downside to this occurs when handlers decide to cross-train their live-find dogs to find fresh remains and the dog is used to getting food at the scent source. There have been cases where the live-find dogs have been found to be self-rewarding at the remains....not a good image for the media.
So, my biggest challenge at this point is to convince young Murphy that I can present something better to him than the bone chew toy he's found. That he needs to include me in on the "kill" or "find" so he can get his reward that I've created an obsession on.
Thus far, I've determined that Murphy loves to chase balls and brings them back to me simply for praise. Murphy loves to play tug on a fleece tug, a cotton tug, and a stuffed Tiger that roars when bitten. All these items were nuisances once Murphy had made his find. For the past week I've been trying all sorts of items to be rewards. My sources are protected as they are currently either placed where he can't quite reach them or in suet cages. You have to be proud at his zeal to get to them, but.....
Two days ago I decided to try a toy that Tempe had loved when she was this age. I'd been given two Airedale Beenie Babies as thanks for documenting cemeteries in western Oklahoma with Dax. One is still in pristine condition, but Tempe found the first when she was a puppy and decided it was THE chew toy. So, two days ago I tossed this sun-dried, somewhat saliva smoothed airedale toy over the source as Murphy was getting to it. Murphy paused, looked at the bones, then pounced on the beenie baby and carted it off in a victory lap with his kill. He came over to me to show me what he'd found and I held out a wienie slice to him and he dropped the toy to enjoy the morsel. This has been repeated 8 times so far.
Tempe was finally woo'd away from this toy as she'd reached an age where i worried that it didn't have long to survive this world. She'd watched Dax chase after a ball with zeal and competition for the pack member's favorite toy finally won out over the beenie baby.
This hurdle is overcome, on to bigger and better challenges for young Murphy.
Regards,
jim