Post by oksaradt on Nov 10, 2008 14:04:13 GMT -5
Area search dogs usually have to be taught "victim loyalty" which means they stick with the victim as they learn all good things come from the victim OR when the dog brings the victim and its handler together. I like to see an area search dog that routinely runs laps from victim to handler over and over again till it brings the two together. If the dog doesn't have a recall/refind, but a bark-at-find, I want to see the dog bark until the handler gets there....if the handler is slow, the commitment may have to be long.
I don't like recall/refind on HRD dogs because sometimes it was hard enough to make the first find in the first place. Those people that cross-train their dogs tend to have the recall/refind on their cadaver work. That's fine for the easy tissue remains; Otherwise, they shouldn't be expecting an area search dog to work skeletal.(just my opinion) I don't think much of jack-of-all-trades dog teams. To me it creates dogs that are so-so at everything instead of an expert at one thing.
With HRD dogs, we want "commitment to source". This means that the dogs stays with the source until recognized by the handler and rewarded. Putting this into your training regimen can eliminate the "shopping syndrome" some dogs get into when their handlers routinely place multiple sources out in a small area. The dog can be observed to "shop" from source to source, knows all the places it might get rewarded for, and then returns to the handler looking for the paycheck. Sometimes the dog tells the handler about all the sources and other times the lure of the reward loses its luster such that the dog decides enough is enough.
Teaching commitment is basically a matter of not letting the dog leave the scent source once it has found it and lengthening the time till it gets its reward. I usually work towards 5 minutes of commitment by the time the dog is mission-ready(to my personal standards). How this is taught depends somewhat on the dog and how much it expects the reward. With Murphy, he expects the ball to mark the reward. So, I can walk around about the source, telling him he's a good dog, and he'll look at me like I've lost my mind and repeat his touch/bark on the source. I keep an eye on my watch till we reach today's goal then reward profusely.
Another method used for dogs that are highly excitable is to "not let the dog leave", basically not recognizing the find till time is reached but also not letting the dog leave the source to "go shop". You can do this with correction, verbal or stim-collar. I prefer the verbal correction if the dog makes a find and tries to leave it. We do have to be careful here as a dog may not have located the source. What we perceive as leaving the source may be working the scent to locate the source. Sometimes this entails leaving the source to find the scent from a different direction. So, when I'm training commitment, I don't overlap sources close to each other to allow the dog room to work a source, yet not leave my established area. Once the dog has located the source, then you should set your timer to train commitment. I don't care what the dog does as long as it doesn't leave the source and doesn't get destructive. At the end of the time, I might tell the dog, "let's work" and expect the dog's response to give me yet another indication saying, "it's here, you idiot!" My first dog, Dax, will stand over the source and bark. If I move around the source, she'll continue to stay over the source, but turns her body to face me the whole time with non-stop barking. Murphy seems to be a blend. He'll look at me, do a touch, look at me, bark, do a touch, look at me, etc. while I walk around him verbally praising. Eventually I'll quit with the verbal praise and just walk around oblivious, or check out the cedars, pull weeds, etc. This is a gradual increase. The goal is to teach the dog to get the handler's attention about the find, but to also never leave it. Dogs with downs need to just plant their bellies right next to the source and never get up. Dogs with sits plant their butts next to the source.
This is important because invariably on a real search the handler is engaged with a radio, a map, the cell phone, someone else searching with them, a reporter, etc. Our goal is to stay focused on the dog when we're searching, but we must bomb-proof our dogs for the times when we become distracted from our job.
As with obedience work where you gradually lengthen stays, you should gradually increase commitment to source as you can confuse the dog otherwise. If you start this with a puppy, as I did, you start with minimal expectations and build. Murphy is up to one minute at a year old.
Regards,
Jim
I don't like recall/refind on HRD dogs because sometimes it was hard enough to make the first find in the first place. Those people that cross-train their dogs tend to have the recall/refind on their cadaver work. That's fine for the easy tissue remains; Otherwise, they shouldn't be expecting an area search dog to work skeletal.(just my opinion) I don't think much of jack-of-all-trades dog teams. To me it creates dogs that are so-so at everything instead of an expert at one thing.
With HRD dogs, we want "commitment to source". This means that the dogs stays with the source until recognized by the handler and rewarded. Putting this into your training regimen can eliminate the "shopping syndrome" some dogs get into when their handlers routinely place multiple sources out in a small area. The dog can be observed to "shop" from source to source, knows all the places it might get rewarded for, and then returns to the handler looking for the paycheck. Sometimes the dog tells the handler about all the sources and other times the lure of the reward loses its luster such that the dog decides enough is enough.
Teaching commitment is basically a matter of not letting the dog leave the scent source once it has found it and lengthening the time till it gets its reward. I usually work towards 5 minutes of commitment by the time the dog is mission-ready(to my personal standards). How this is taught depends somewhat on the dog and how much it expects the reward. With Murphy, he expects the ball to mark the reward. So, I can walk around about the source, telling him he's a good dog, and he'll look at me like I've lost my mind and repeat his touch/bark on the source. I keep an eye on my watch till we reach today's goal then reward profusely.
Another method used for dogs that are highly excitable is to "not let the dog leave", basically not recognizing the find till time is reached but also not letting the dog leave the source to "go shop". You can do this with correction, verbal or stim-collar. I prefer the verbal correction if the dog makes a find and tries to leave it. We do have to be careful here as a dog may not have located the source. What we perceive as leaving the source may be working the scent to locate the source. Sometimes this entails leaving the source to find the scent from a different direction. So, when I'm training commitment, I don't overlap sources close to each other to allow the dog room to work a source, yet not leave my established area. Once the dog has located the source, then you should set your timer to train commitment. I don't care what the dog does as long as it doesn't leave the source and doesn't get destructive. At the end of the time, I might tell the dog, "let's work" and expect the dog's response to give me yet another indication saying, "it's here, you idiot!" My first dog, Dax, will stand over the source and bark. If I move around the source, she'll continue to stay over the source, but turns her body to face me the whole time with non-stop barking. Murphy seems to be a blend. He'll look at me, do a touch, look at me, bark, do a touch, look at me, etc. while I walk around him verbally praising. Eventually I'll quit with the verbal praise and just walk around oblivious, or check out the cedars, pull weeds, etc. This is a gradual increase. The goal is to teach the dog to get the handler's attention about the find, but to also never leave it. Dogs with downs need to just plant their bellies right next to the source and never get up. Dogs with sits plant their butts next to the source.
This is important because invariably on a real search the handler is engaged with a radio, a map, the cell phone, someone else searching with them, a reporter, etc. Our goal is to stay focused on the dog when we're searching, but we must bomb-proof our dogs for the times when we become distracted from our job.
As with obedience work where you gradually lengthen stays, you should gradually increase commitment to source as you can confuse the dog otherwise. If you start this with a puppy, as I did, you start with minimal expectations and build. Murphy is up to one minute at a year old.
Regards,
Jim