Post by oksaradt on Dec 16, 2009 10:44:23 GMT -5
I looked through the posts to make sure I hadn't described this, but if I missed it then please excuse me for getting old and repeating myself.
When I've worked any of my dogs on a long hard search where their nose, body, and brain are all taxed beyond normal then I give them a break. With Murphy I gave him four days off recently after he stepped up beyond my expectations for a dog just over two years of age. As I told my flankers, I really don't sit back and relax, giving full search freedom to the dog until it reaches between three and four. By then the relationship between myself and the dog has solidified into a rewarding working relationshp where we are both entirely focused on the same goals, to find and target the scent of human remains.
This is a good place to mention this. On a search, especially a search for human remains, search teams often find themselves searching negative areas OR searching for clues that point to other areas to search in hopes of making the find. Some search teams never get this concept that a search really is a group effort. There are teams that take all the information that command gives them, huddle-up and strategize, then go off on their own because they want to be the ones that make the find. The end result is that command can't trust teams like this to tell them where they've searched or how thoroughly they searched it; Thus, such searches can become a waste of time OR have to be repeated.
Next are the search teams that (when a find is made by another dog team) simply have to go in with their dog as well. With human remains, this can often damage the crime scene (every search is a potential crime scene...live or remains...never forget this fact). I've seen handlers suddenly become like a crazed fan wanting to see "their rock star...the one and only" driving their dog into a find another handler made. It doesn't matter if both dog teams were working towards the same source. Once a find is made, every one needs to feeze, consult base, and (most likely) tip-toe out the way they came. If someone else makes the find, everyone else should be happy that a find was made, closure can be had. When searching for intact remains, if I see the remains my dog is taking me to, I'll praise the dog as I'm hooking it up and moving it away before it ever gets to the remains. The dog did it's job. It made a find. I reward it. I could also tell law enforcement that my dog didn't disturb the remains.
I was on one search with many dogs where such a thing happened and law enforcement stated it was ok for the dogs to imprint on the remains. One handler comes racing in with the dog on a tight lead and yelling, "Make Way! My dog's on Scent!" As I'd suddenly changed roles from dog handler to death investigator, I calmly walked my dog over to a tree out of the way and looped her leash to it then went to work. After the dog frenzy was over and I was helping the lead investigator process the scene, one of the officers came over to me and commented, "I noticed you didn't work your dog on the body." I replied, "The scent is everywhere, she knows it's there. We've done this before, it's not a big deal."
He went on, "Can you show me?"
I looked at the other investigator, who nodded. I handed over what I was working on, went over to my dog, unhooked her and said, "show me".
My dog gave me this incredulous look like, "Are you daft!? It's right over there?"
I sighed, nodded, "yea yea, show me."
She gets up, walks over to and around the body, giving me looks of, "I am so embarrased that my human is so stupid."
I'm not saying a word. I haven't moved from the tree I released her from. She stops at a hand, looks at me, does a very gentle touch on a fingertip and barks at me. I threw her ball. The officer that asked, watched this and went, "oh, yea, you have done this before."
My point is that dog handlers need to act with professionalism that demonstrates they are prepared when they show up at a search.
So, anyway, soap box session over....
The training exercise I'm going to describe is something that I've done with all my dogs. It does require coordination, fast thinking, and a special type of scent source to do properly. It is intended to be a fun day training exercise. It is intended to be go, go, go!
Required is a long bone that is either still greasy from human decomposition (very hard to get and probably belongs in a morgue instead of in your source kit) OR a long bone from one of the legal bone vendors that you rub down with adipose tissue and (from then on) keep separate from your other skeletal sources. This bone has just become a decomp source, never forget that. When I treat a bone like this, it takes very little adipose tissue. You can use the oily substance from a decomp cavity wipe as well as it is high in adipose tissue.
The reason to create this source is because it (should be) is easy to find for the trained dog. It is easy to throw with a gloved hand without spreading decomp everywhere.
Required is your good hand in a latex glove.., i.e. if you are right handed, then glove up on the right hand. Your other hand will be busy with rewarding. I put a baggie of food treats in my left jacket pocket and ball in my left hand.
Your gloved good hand will be throwing the bone after a find. Your other hand launches the reward toy and rewards with food.
Now, if you reward at the source with food, then you'll have to be tricky in not letting the dog see you throw the bone while it enjoys the food reward.
I always throw the ball past the dog's eyes as the chase for the ball is as much the reward. As it runs after the ball, I quickly grab the bone with my gloved hand and throw it in another direction as far as I can. The dog brings me the ball back, I trade for food, then resend the dog to find the bone again. It doesn't matter that this is the same source. With recent scattered skeletal, the bones all smell pretty much the same as well. IF the dog sees me throw it, it's still not a big deal as this is a training game, but I prefer that the dog has to use its nose to find rather than its eyes. Dax used to try to cheat. I've even seen her try to run sideways in hopes that she could see the direction where I was throwing the bone next.
With Murphy, I decided that I would stop at 10 finds or less. If he was showing signs of still being sore from the search, I'd end early. Ten finds were done in six minutes 23 seconds over an area of two acres, in tall grass, short grass, woods, gully....where ever the bone landed. Murphy wanted to do it more, but that's the best time to end it.
We'll get back to the serious work next training session.
Hope this helps,
Jim
When I've worked any of my dogs on a long hard search where their nose, body, and brain are all taxed beyond normal then I give them a break. With Murphy I gave him four days off recently after he stepped up beyond my expectations for a dog just over two years of age. As I told my flankers, I really don't sit back and relax, giving full search freedom to the dog until it reaches between three and four. By then the relationship between myself and the dog has solidified into a rewarding working relationshp where we are both entirely focused on the same goals, to find and target the scent of human remains.
This is a good place to mention this. On a search, especially a search for human remains, search teams often find themselves searching negative areas OR searching for clues that point to other areas to search in hopes of making the find. Some search teams never get this concept that a search really is a group effort. There are teams that take all the information that command gives them, huddle-up and strategize, then go off on their own because they want to be the ones that make the find. The end result is that command can't trust teams like this to tell them where they've searched or how thoroughly they searched it; Thus, such searches can become a waste of time OR have to be repeated.
Next are the search teams that (when a find is made by another dog team) simply have to go in with their dog as well. With human remains, this can often damage the crime scene (every search is a potential crime scene...live or remains...never forget this fact). I've seen handlers suddenly become like a crazed fan wanting to see "their rock star...the one and only" driving their dog into a find another handler made. It doesn't matter if both dog teams were working towards the same source. Once a find is made, every one needs to feeze, consult base, and (most likely) tip-toe out the way they came. If someone else makes the find, everyone else should be happy that a find was made, closure can be had. When searching for intact remains, if I see the remains my dog is taking me to, I'll praise the dog as I'm hooking it up and moving it away before it ever gets to the remains. The dog did it's job. It made a find. I reward it. I could also tell law enforcement that my dog didn't disturb the remains.
I was on one search with many dogs where such a thing happened and law enforcement stated it was ok for the dogs to imprint on the remains. One handler comes racing in with the dog on a tight lead and yelling, "Make Way! My dog's on Scent!" As I'd suddenly changed roles from dog handler to death investigator, I calmly walked my dog over to a tree out of the way and looped her leash to it then went to work. After the dog frenzy was over and I was helping the lead investigator process the scene, one of the officers came over to me and commented, "I noticed you didn't work your dog on the body." I replied, "The scent is everywhere, she knows it's there. We've done this before, it's not a big deal."
He went on, "Can you show me?"
I looked at the other investigator, who nodded. I handed over what I was working on, went over to my dog, unhooked her and said, "show me".
My dog gave me this incredulous look like, "Are you daft!? It's right over there?"
I sighed, nodded, "yea yea, show me."
She gets up, walks over to and around the body, giving me looks of, "I am so embarrased that my human is so stupid."
I'm not saying a word. I haven't moved from the tree I released her from. She stops at a hand, looks at me, does a very gentle touch on a fingertip and barks at me. I threw her ball. The officer that asked, watched this and went, "oh, yea, you have done this before."
My point is that dog handlers need to act with professionalism that demonstrates they are prepared when they show up at a search.
So, anyway, soap box session over....
The training exercise I'm going to describe is something that I've done with all my dogs. It does require coordination, fast thinking, and a special type of scent source to do properly. It is intended to be a fun day training exercise. It is intended to be go, go, go!
Required is a long bone that is either still greasy from human decomposition (very hard to get and probably belongs in a morgue instead of in your source kit) OR a long bone from one of the legal bone vendors that you rub down with adipose tissue and (from then on) keep separate from your other skeletal sources. This bone has just become a decomp source, never forget that. When I treat a bone like this, it takes very little adipose tissue. You can use the oily substance from a decomp cavity wipe as well as it is high in adipose tissue.
The reason to create this source is because it (should be) is easy to find for the trained dog. It is easy to throw with a gloved hand without spreading decomp everywhere.
Required is your good hand in a latex glove.., i.e. if you are right handed, then glove up on the right hand. Your other hand will be busy with rewarding. I put a baggie of food treats in my left jacket pocket and ball in my left hand.
Your gloved good hand will be throwing the bone after a find. Your other hand launches the reward toy and rewards with food.
Now, if you reward at the source with food, then you'll have to be tricky in not letting the dog see you throw the bone while it enjoys the food reward.
I always throw the ball past the dog's eyes as the chase for the ball is as much the reward. As it runs after the ball, I quickly grab the bone with my gloved hand and throw it in another direction as far as I can. The dog brings me the ball back, I trade for food, then resend the dog to find the bone again. It doesn't matter that this is the same source. With recent scattered skeletal, the bones all smell pretty much the same as well. IF the dog sees me throw it, it's still not a big deal as this is a training game, but I prefer that the dog has to use its nose to find rather than its eyes. Dax used to try to cheat. I've even seen her try to run sideways in hopes that she could see the direction where I was throwing the bone next.
With Murphy, I decided that I would stop at 10 finds or less. If he was showing signs of still being sore from the search, I'd end early. Ten finds were done in six minutes 23 seconds over an area of two acres, in tall grass, short grass, woods, gully....where ever the bone landed. Murphy wanted to do it more, but that's the best time to end it.
We'll get back to the serious work next training session.
Hope this helps,
Jim