Post by oksaradt on Jan 28, 2009 15:44:08 GMT -5
The best way to prove an effect is to use extremes in difficult situations. Not being one to preach but not practice, Mother Nature has given me the best of all worlds to work scent the past two days. Today is the 28th and the low was around 9F. Certainly not cold to my northern friends, but definitely a bit nippy.
On the 23th, the high was 55F and we'd experienced gentle temperatures such as this for days. On Monday, we experienced an ice storm with about 1/2 inch of ice laid down. On Tuesday, the ice turned to sleet/snow. Tuesday morning I put out some small bones using landmarks as my triangulation. I pressed a 3 inch rib shard into the ice in one location and a carpal bone in another location. They were about 80 feet apart. We got around 2-3 inches of sleet/snow over the ice. Again, for those up north this is nothin'. For okies, this is a decent snow.
The point of this was to create clean sterile burieds and apply termperature differential. The temperature of the ice and snow should stay around 28-30 degrees due to ground temperature. So, if I work my dog when the air temperature is in the single digits, the scent ought to just puff right up. Hot goes to cold.
Last night as I was pushing my wife's Prius up our hill as she'd figured driving on the grass would be better traction...... anyway, I'm thinking, "I still have that 12-14 buried that I haven't dug up yet because some dog handlers still ask me to leave it for them to work. The temperature at 12 inches down in the soil should be a nice stable 42-47F. It's warm down there. I took a temperature with a short digital probe last night and got 30F about 1/2 inch into the soil. It was 18F air temperature at the time. The weather station showed 20 mph winds. In Oklahoma, this is a normal day.
Soooo, I requested young Murphy's presence over the buried last night. The flags were buried in snow that border the area marking my landmarks, but the clumps of grass where I couldn't mow were still just visible. I was set. I had my map showing the blanks, the teeth, the bones, and the distractions. Murphy hadn't worked this in ...oh (guessing without looking back through logs) about six weeks. Murphy located all ten correctly in 7 minutes 31 seconds including ball tosses and trades for hot dog between each find. Murphy got to race after the ball flying over the ice, so find time really wasn't much. My point is not to brag on my dog. My point is that the application of the environmental factors at play let me work my dog in what most would think were horrendous conditions, but in fact were the optimum conditions for a find. Not only did I have a temperature differential from the soil to the snow, but the snow to the air. We had been experiencing near drought conditions for a few months. The ice hitting the warmer soil allowed for slow moisture to sink down into the soil, again giving my scent particles an additional carrier to travel through the soil medium. My dog had a blast working this problem because it was easy due to the conditions.
This morning, I wanted to work Murphy on those bones. I knew by watching the weather that the sun would be coming out. While the sun's rays do reflect off the white snow, it will still warm the air. I worked the bones at 0745. The Air Temperature was 9.0F. As of 1330, it was already 30.3F. With a soil temperature at the surface of 30F, these problems would start becoming difficult as air pressure would begin pushing down into the snow and soil. Working a 1/2 acre area in 25 foot wide grids, Murphy located the two bones in just over 5 minutes. Murphy's targeting was within 3 inches which I considered understandable considering snow thickness.
Of course, I couldn't stop there with such conditions. I have a special area set up some 4 years ago now. I pushed a plumbers probe down into a sloped area from 18 to 22 inches deep. I'd have gone farther, but I hit a shale layer. Into these 8 shafts, I put two teeth or a small bone and pressed them down as far as they'd go. My soil has a high clay content, so with moisture, these shafts have closed up . I conisder this my Ph.D cemetery. There are 8 sources with outer-flags to allow for visual siting of targeting.
My goal was to keep Murphy in the vicinity of these sources, no further away than 20 feet from any outer border. Murphy located four of these sources in 6 minutes and 22 seconds. For a change, there was no wind when we worked.
So, the point of all this is the HRD dog handler must begin thinking about the environment as a whole as to how it affects scent flow. The scent flow is important because if the scent isn't there, your dog can't find it....no matter how good the dog is. Notice, I said "if the scent isn't there." A scent source might be there, but if the conditions are not right then a dog may not have scent to work with. While the dog is the scent expert when in the field, the handler's job is to determine when the field is workable. On a real search, try to stack the cards in the dog's favor so it has the opportunity to shine and family's get their closure.
Regards,
Jim
On the 23th, the high was 55F and we'd experienced gentle temperatures such as this for days. On Monday, we experienced an ice storm with about 1/2 inch of ice laid down. On Tuesday, the ice turned to sleet/snow. Tuesday morning I put out some small bones using landmarks as my triangulation. I pressed a 3 inch rib shard into the ice in one location and a carpal bone in another location. They were about 80 feet apart. We got around 2-3 inches of sleet/snow over the ice. Again, for those up north this is nothin'. For okies, this is a decent snow.
The point of this was to create clean sterile burieds and apply termperature differential. The temperature of the ice and snow should stay around 28-30 degrees due to ground temperature. So, if I work my dog when the air temperature is in the single digits, the scent ought to just puff right up. Hot goes to cold.
Last night as I was pushing my wife's Prius up our hill as she'd figured driving on the grass would be better traction...... anyway, I'm thinking, "I still have that 12-14 buried that I haven't dug up yet because some dog handlers still ask me to leave it for them to work. The temperature at 12 inches down in the soil should be a nice stable 42-47F. It's warm down there. I took a temperature with a short digital probe last night and got 30F about 1/2 inch into the soil. It was 18F air temperature at the time. The weather station showed 20 mph winds. In Oklahoma, this is a normal day.
Soooo, I requested young Murphy's presence over the buried last night. The flags were buried in snow that border the area marking my landmarks, but the clumps of grass where I couldn't mow were still just visible. I was set. I had my map showing the blanks, the teeth, the bones, and the distractions. Murphy hadn't worked this in ...oh (guessing without looking back through logs) about six weeks. Murphy located all ten correctly in 7 minutes 31 seconds including ball tosses and trades for hot dog between each find. Murphy got to race after the ball flying over the ice, so find time really wasn't much. My point is not to brag on my dog. My point is that the application of the environmental factors at play let me work my dog in what most would think were horrendous conditions, but in fact were the optimum conditions for a find. Not only did I have a temperature differential from the soil to the snow, but the snow to the air. We had been experiencing near drought conditions for a few months. The ice hitting the warmer soil allowed for slow moisture to sink down into the soil, again giving my scent particles an additional carrier to travel through the soil medium. My dog had a blast working this problem because it was easy due to the conditions.
This morning, I wanted to work Murphy on those bones. I knew by watching the weather that the sun would be coming out. While the sun's rays do reflect off the white snow, it will still warm the air. I worked the bones at 0745. The Air Temperature was 9.0F. As of 1330, it was already 30.3F. With a soil temperature at the surface of 30F, these problems would start becoming difficult as air pressure would begin pushing down into the snow and soil. Working a 1/2 acre area in 25 foot wide grids, Murphy located the two bones in just over 5 minutes. Murphy's targeting was within 3 inches which I considered understandable considering snow thickness.
Of course, I couldn't stop there with such conditions. I have a special area set up some 4 years ago now. I pushed a plumbers probe down into a sloped area from 18 to 22 inches deep. I'd have gone farther, but I hit a shale layer. Into these 8 shafts, I put two teeth or a small bone and pressed them down as far as they'd go. My soil has a high clay content, so with moisture, these shafts have closed up . I conisder this my Ph.D cemetery. There are 8 sources with outer-flags to allow for visual siting of targeting.
My goal was to keep Murphy in the vicinity of these sources, no further away than 20 feet from any outer border. Murphy located four of these sources in 6 minutes and 22 seconds. For a change, there was no wind when we worked.
So, the point of all this is the HRD dog handler must begin thinking about the environment as a whole as to how it affects scent flow. The scent flow is important because if the scent isn't there, your dog can't find it....no matter how good the dog is. Notice, I said "if the scent isn't there." A scent source might be there, but if the conditions are not right then a dog may not have scent to work with. While the dog is the scent expert when in the field, the handler's job is to determine when the field is workable. On a real search, try to stack the cards in the dog's favor so it has the opportunity to shine and family's get their closure.
Regards,
Jim