Inaccessible Hides Seminar (2)

Continuing from my notes:

The two 80/20 Rules – these rules may be fudged for a specific session, but over a group of sessions (classes, practice and trials) it should hold true.

• Pair hides 80% of the time throughout the dog's training; unpaired 20% of the time.  You may want to pair 90% of the time just before a trial.  After NW1 title is gained, never pair container training again, because you are working on intentional distractions and pairing in this situation would send a conflicting message.
• Accessible hides 80% of the time; Inaccessible hides 20% of the time.  We did few accessible hides during the seminar, so we were advised to do all accessible hides for the next couple of weeks.  It is functionally impossible to pair an inaccessible hide.

When inaccessible hides are really new to the dog, always end the session with an accessible hide.   In a couple places in the seminar, we had both an accessible and an inaccessible hide and were free to let the dog find, or re-find, the accessible hide at the end of the session

Between NW1 and NW2 you will need more persistence/stamina from the dog because the differences between the levels will need a stronger commitment from the dog.  Those differences are:

• purposeful distractions in containers - remember there may be other incidental distractions existing in the environment in NW1, which are not removed
• multiple hides to an element
• inaccessible hides

Source versus Pooling

• pooling odor can theoretically be as strong as source odor
• quality of odor will be different between source and pooling odor
• source odor is always emitting new odor molecules (per Fred Helfer), so pooling odor will smell different to an experienced dog
• however, a dog that is never given the opportunity to access source odor may believe pooling odor is the real deal because its the strongest of what the dog had access to
• the longer a dog searches a specific area without indicating, the less likely it is that source is there

One way to teach elevated hides is to attach odor to a line through a pulley, so odor is suspended in mid-air.  Enables you to readily raise and lower odor to provide appropriate challenge level to individual dogs.

The Exercises with Training Notes:

"Accept Less to Gain More"
~ Amy Herot

~ Day One ~  at Joyce's Unsinkable Dogs training facility

1st Exercise – Odor was placed in the center of a wire crate, crate was in a corner and only approachable from two sides.
1. Reward the moment the dog acknowledges odor – any decision
2. Reward any sniff and look at handler
3. Novice dogs may note odor, but leave looking for something easier.  Rewarding early tells them "yes, this is it, even if its hard"
4. Dog looks at handler because they "need" handler assistance.  Rewarding for the look, even if it isn't your usual indicator, gives you additional information (and communication) so you know when the hide is there, but inaccessible

2nd Exercise – Odor stays in center of wire crate in a corner.  Various movable barriers are added around inaccessible hide.  A second accessible hide is added
5. Moving barriers when dog indicates they need help encourages dog to get as close as they can
6. Adding second accessible hide helps to maintain 80/20 rule and allows you to end with an accessible hide for newer dogs.  Most dogs chose to get the easy hide first, even when they had already noted the inaccessible hide.  Some tried to go back to the easy accessible hide.
7. In a trial you have to ask a judge for permission to move things.  The judge may say "no" because odor clings to a barrier and gets moved around with the barrier, contaminating the area for subsequent dogs.  Likewise dragging your line through the area can catch odor and drag it around contaminating the area for subsequent dogs, which is why its faulted in trials.

3rd Exercise – Under and to the back of a low stool, with immovable barriers so that dog can only approach from one side.
By this exercise, even the dogs new to inaccessible hides were more persistent in trying to get to odor.  Also, bracketing was very clear to see.

More to follow... with videos soon...