Post by oksaradt on Apr 9, 2008 12:38:56 GMT -5
I’m heading out-of-county for a couple of weeks. (No, I’m not going to Texas.)
I was mulling over what cough hack wheeze sage words of advice I could leave to fill the void. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the honor, joy, pain, etc. of getting to work with various experience-levels of cadaver dog handlers. Regardless of the experience level, the biggest obstacle I saw with any of the dog teams was either being oblivious to or ignoring an essential rule. Even the most experienced dog handlers can get trapped into a mindset with issues they are experiencing with their dogs. That’s what keeps us humble. No matter how many searches we’ve been on with positive outcomes, there come times when we must consult with someone else. The less experienced will start out with, “my dog is broken and I don’t know why.” The more experienced will start out with, “I’m sure I’m doing something wrong with my dog.”……if WE KNOW the dog has all the right drives, the right temperament, and is healthy then WE KNOW the handler is to blame. It doesn’t matter if someone else is screwing with your dog when you aren’t looking. YOU ARE TO BLAME. (For those people that just decide to give their cuddly-wuddly a hobby, this might not apply.)
So, what’s the rule so many choose to ignore?
“Train as you search and SEARCH AS YOU TRAIN.” It’s a pretty simple statement and philosophy, yet few actually stick with it.
The implications of the statement are this:
1) The dog should come to no longer note the difference between training and a real search…because the handler acts the same during training and searching.
2) The set up for the dog to go train should be the same for searching as for training….So, if you don’t pump your dog up for an hour before going out to train, don’t do it before you go out to search. No excited talk through out the long drive. ….A lot of this is the “handler thrill”….THEY ACTUALLY GOT A CALL OUT! Get called out enough and your attitude changes to things like, “wonder if this is going to trash the vehicle and cost me $20 to clean? Wonder if the L.E. has things scoped out? Wonder what dangers I will be subjecting my dog to? I wonder if the scent conditions are decent. Hell, I wonder what I’m getting myself into?” My point? Searching should be ROUTINE whether it’s problems you’ve set up, a blind, a mock search, a cemetery, scattered skeletal remains because a foo-foo came back with a skull, or hoping to find clandestine graves to put some slimy pedophilic serial killer away for life.
Many dog teams migrate into cadaver work from area search. When I started in area search, it was popular to pump your dog up before you literally “launched” it out into the field to make the find. As the dog matured, it learned to pace itself, but I continued to observe the handler going through this ritual from puppy to field ready. If my dogs launched out on a search, there’s a very good chance they’ll miss something. My ritual? When I open the door of the vehicle, I tell the dog, “Let’s go to work.” The dog should be working as soon as I let it out. Yes, it’ll poop and pee along the way. Hunting dogs often do this to “lighten the load”. I take this as a sign that now we’re focused. Even if we’re going to walk 2 miles to our area in the boonies, I want the dog’s nose engaged. Who is to say the intelligence is right? (Am I going to allow my dog into someone else’s area? No. Will I make a point of telling base that I observed scent behavior in my dog going past an area…for what it’s worth? You bet. It will just be part of my report. It’s up to the IC to decide what to do with the information.)
3) Once you are past the puppy being imprinted, the umbilical cord needs to stretch if not snap. As I gain confidence in my dogs, the distance between myself, the dog, and the sources increase. I want the dog out in front of me, actively searching on its own. Dax has indicated a find to me over 200 feet away. Murphy is now at about 50 feet away. Do I want the dog to leave the source? Nope. I expect commitment to the source where the dog will stick with it until I release the dog. Why? So, we don’t have to find it all over again. Handlers that don’t trust their dogs to work farther than a leash length away from them are demonstrating they don’t have all the proper skills trained in their dog. I used to attend seminars where before you were allowed to play with the “smart kids”, you had to stand behind a line and send your dog out to make the find without you.
4) Have the fortitude to allow your dog to miss a source in training. There is a rule when working blinds. We all know (or should know) that whomever set up the blind will be able to work their dog must faster than the rest of the dogs. If nothing else, this handler knows what to ignore. If you’re given an area 0-2 sources and you haven’t found 2 targets, you’ll get out the nasal fine tooth comb before you say, “I think it’s clear or at least my dog doesn’t have scent.” So, in training problems where the handler knows where the sources are and the dog isn’t hitting, we often get to watch the dance of how the handler “guides” the dog into the source. If this is a new type of scent problem for the dog, that’s one thing. If the dog should already know how to work it, your presence creates a crutch for the dog. Why should the dog become a problem solver if Mama or Daddy always comes to their rescue? In a real search you have no clue where anything is if there is anything. My personal rule is the dog gets three passes at an area whether I know if something is there or don’t. I developed this rule because I realized if I stick around longer that I’m likely to talk my dog into something that isn’t there.
5) Rather than claim your dog is “broke” if it missed a source, analyze scent travel and conditions as to why the dog didn’t get into scent. Run another dog in the area if possible…..knowing that conditions can change in seconds. Use that miss to determine if you need to step back in your training expectations, if you need to develop a better search strategy, if the conditions suck for searching…..Like a handler with a solid black Newfie that searched a cornfield in the middle of summer at NOON…. From what I heard the dog was searching for shade instead of scent. Who was at fault? THE HANDLER. If he expects his dog to work in these conditions, I hope his logs show routine finds in 100+F weather in sunshine. (When I got called to work this, I told them the only way I’d work it is if they’d meet me at 0300 to work dogs. They had no problem with this request.)
Search as you Train and Train as you Search.
(Oh, and yes, I sometimes train at 0300 as well in the summer… laugh Hell, I sometimes do it in the winter if I can’t sleep. )
6) Once your dog has the essentials and maturity, start working blinds once every four training sessions. Go into the blind with the ethic that you are going to work it as you would any training. Go into the blind that this is where the dog shows you what you’ve created. If you miss source(s) in a blind, take it as an opportunity rather than a personal affront to your ego. This is not AKC obedience. I don’t care how crisp you or your dog look. I care that you place flags very close to the scent sources based ON WHAT THE DOG DID. This means no analyzing who set up the problems as to how they think. This means no visual searching by the handler. This means you practice 3-in-and-out giving your dog ample time and availability of the area to give it a good scent once over. This means when your dog indicates/alerts and targets, that you place the flag based on how you read your dog. This varies with every dog, so why should I care (or you) if our dogs don’t look the same. You (should) know your dog better than anyone else (if you were paying attention), so go by how you read what the dog is trying to tell you. If your dog shops through out an area, you should be able to tell me every place you saw your dog exhibit change in body posture due to scent. Then I’d be happy to let you go back to those specific locations and rework the dog however you choose. (That your dog shops means you have a commitment weakness, but if you can still work through it with your dog, I can live with it. Our goal is to find the dead stuff for family and L.E. If you were on my team and your dog shopped without your intervention, I’d never deploy you though.)
7) Last and maybe the most important. Don’t do searches that you haven’t trained for. The search should not become a training exercise. If you make a find, you’ll be questioning yourself the entire time because you have no experience to base your findings on. Your dog may give you totally different responses than you are used to. Is it wrong? YOU DON’T KNOW.
This also means it’s foolish to go work a search in swamps when you only train in mountains or visa versa. If you want to be that dog team that can go anywhere in the world then get out your visa card and start attending seminars all over the world; Otherwise, you aren’t cheating yourself, but you are darn sure cheating the victim.
Train as your search and search as you train.
jim
I was mulling over what cough hack wheeze sage words of advice I could leave to fill the void. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the honor, joy, pain, etc. of getting to work with various experience-levels of cadaver dog handlers. Regardless of the experience level, the biggest obstacle I saw with any of the dog teams was either being oblivious to or ignoring an essential rule. Even the most experienced dog handlers can get trapped into a mindset with issues they are experiencing with their dogs. That’s what keeps us humble. No matter how many searches we’ve been on with positive outcomes, there come times when we must consult with someone else. The less experienced will start out with, “my dog is broken and I don’t know why.” The more experienced will start out with, “I’m sure I’m doing something wrong with my dog.”……if WE KNOW the dog has all the right drives, the right temperament, and is healthy then WE KNOW the handler is to blame. It doesn’t matter if someone else is screwing with your dog when you aren’t looking. YOU ARE TO BLAME. (For those people that just decide to give their cuddly-wuddly a hobby, this might not apply.)
So, what’s the rule so many choose to ignore?
“Train as you search and SEARCH AS YOU TRAIN.” It’s a pretty simple statement and philosophy, yet few actually stick with it.
The implications of the statement are this:
1) The dog should come to no longer note the difference between training and a real search…because the handler acts the same during training and searching.
2) The set up for the dog to go train should be the same for searching as for training….So, if you don’t pump your dog up for an hour before going out to train, don’t do it before you go out to search. No excited talk through out the long drive. ….A lot of this is the “handler thrill”….THEY ACTUALLY GOT A CALL OUT! Get called out enough and your attitude changes to things like, “wonder if this is going to trash the vehicle and cost me $20 to clean? Wonder if the L.E. has things scoped out? Wonder what dangers I will be subjecting my dog to? I wonder if the scent conditions are decent. Hell, I wonder what I’m getting myself into?” My point? Searching should be ROUTINE whether it’s problems you’ve set up, a blind, a mock search, a cemetery, scattered skeletal remains because a foo-foo came back with a skull, or hoping to find clandestine graves to put some slimy pedophilic serial killer away for life.
Many dog teams migrate into cadaver work from area search. When I started in area search, it was popular to pump your dog up before you literally “launched” it out into the field to make the find. As the dog matured, it learned to pace itself, but I continued to observe the handler going through this ritual from puppy to field ready. If my dogs launched out on a search, there’s a very good chance they’ll miss something. My ritual? When I open the door of the vehicle, I tell the dog, “Let’s go to work.” The dog should be working as soon as I let it out. Yes, it’ll poop and pee along the way. Hunting dogs often do this to “lighten the load”. I take this as a sign that now we’re focused. Even if we’re going to walk 2 miles to our area in the boonies, I want the dog’s nose engaged. Who is to say the intelligence is right? (Am I going to allow my dog into someone else’s area? No. Will I make a point of telling base that I observed scent behavior in my dog going past an area…for what it’s worth? You bet. It will just be part of my report. It’s up to the IC to decide what to do with the information.)
3) Once you are past the puppy being imprinted, the umbilical cord needs to stretch if not snap. As I gain confidence in my dogs, the distance between myself, the dog, and the sources increase. I want the dog out in front of me, actively searching on its own. Dax has indicated a find to me over 200 feet away. Murphy is now at about 50 feet away. Do I want the dog to leave the source? Nope. I expect commitment to the source where the dog will stick with it until I release the dog. Why? So, we don’t have to find it all over again. Handlers that don’t trust their dogs to work farther than a leash length away from them are demonstrating they don’t have all the proper skills trained in their dog. I used to attend seminars where before you were allowed to play with the “smart kids”, you had to stand behind a line and send your dog out to make the find without you.
4) Have the fortitude to allow your dog to miss a source in training. There is a rule when working blinds. We all know (or should know) that whomever set up the blind will be able to work their dog must faster than the rest of the dogs. If nothing else, this handler knows what to ignore. If you’re given an area 0-2 sources and you haven’t found 2 targets, you’ll get out the nasal fine tooth comb before you say, “I think it’s clear or at least my dog doesn’t have scent.” So, in training problems where the handler knows where the sources are and the dog isn’t hitting, we often get to watch the dance of how the handler “guides” the dog into the source. If this is a new type of scent problem for the dog, that’s one thing. If the dog should already know how to work it, your presence creates a crutch for the dog. Why should the dog become a problem solver if Mama or Daddy always comes to their rescue? In a real search you have no clue where anything is if there is anything. My personal rule is the dog gets three passes at an area whether I know if something is there or don’t. I developed this rule because I realized if I stick around longer that I’m likely to talk my dog into something that isn’t there.
5) Rather than claim your dog is “broke” if it missed a source, analyze scent travel and conditions as to why the dog didn’t get into scent. Run another dog in the area if possible…..knowing that conditions can change in seconds. Use that miss to determine if you need to step back in your training expectations, if you need to develop a better search strategy, if the conditions suck for searching…..Like a handler with a solid black Newfie that searched a cornfield in the middle of summer at NOON…. From what I heard the dog was searching for shade instead of scent. Who was at fault? THE HANDLER. If he expects his dog to work in these conditions, I hope his logs show routine finds in 100+F weather in sunshine. (When I got called to work this, I told them the only way I’d work it is if they’d meet me at 0300 to work dogs. They had no problem with this request.)
Search as you Train and Train as you Search.
(Oh, and yes, I sometimes train at 0300 as well in the summer… laugh Hell, I sometimes do it in the winter if I can’t sleep. )
6) Once your dog has the essentials and maturity, start working blinds once every four training sessions. Go into the blind with the ethic that you are going to work it as you would any training. Go into the blind that this is where the dog shows you what you’ve created. If you miss source(s) in a blind, take it as an opportunity rather than a personal affront to your ego. This is not AKC obedience. I don’t care how crisp you or your dog look. I care that you place flags very close to the scent sources based ON WHAT THE DOG DID. This means no analyzing who set up the problems as to how they think. This means no visual searching by the handler. This means you practice 3-in-and-out giving your dog ample time and availability of the area to give it a good scent once over. This means when your dog indicates/alerts and targets, that you place the flag based on how you read your dog. This varies with every dog, so why should I care (or you) if our dogs don’t look the same. You (should) know your dog better than anyone else (if you were paying attention), so go by how you read what the dog is trying to tell you. If your dog shops through out an area, you should be able to tell me every place you saw your dog exhibit change in body posture due to scent. Then I’d be happy to let you go back to those specific locations and rework the dog however you choose. (That your dog shops means you have a commitment weakness, but if you can still work through it with your dog, I can live with it. Our goal is to find the dead stuff for family and L.E. If you were on my team and your dog shopped without your intervention, I’d never deploy you though.)
7) Last and maybe the most important. Don’t do searches that you haven’t trained for. The search should not become a training exercise. If you make a find, you’ll be questioning yourself the entire time because you have no experience to base your findings on. Your dog may give you totally different responses than you are used to. Is it wrong? YOU DON’T KNOW.
This also means it’s foolish to go work a search in swamps when you only train in mountains or visa versa. If you want to be that dog team that can go anywhere in the world then get out your visa card and start attending seminars all over the world; Otherwise, you aren’t cheating yourself, but you are darn sure cheating the victim.
Train as your search and search as you train.
jim