Nosework (6/6) & Workshop

We've been busy for the last few days.  I bought a tree-stand platform at Home Depot and my neighbor (the guy who does my remodeling) helped me modify it to take care of the two things Kathy suggested about my props.  So Gimme and I have been working on "orbit", "cane" and "can" as much as we can.  She's having difficulty getting the difference in direction between "orbit" and "cane" and so I've started training them in different sessions.  She didn't seem to have the same problem when I taught "spin" and "turn" in the same sessions, but I was using luring to teach them, so I think it helped her know which is which.  

On Saturday after I taught pet classes, Gimme and I went for a walk.  When we came back, no one was using the arena, so I did a quick session there.  Gimme hadn't been in this arena for about a year, so she was really distracted to begin with.  I just gave her the time she needed to acclimate and clicked/treated when she was close.  I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be a good session, when suddenly she turned on and we had a fabulous session.  I'm seeing this trend with her lately where she is totally focused when she is ready.  Before it was a more gradual to go from the acclimatizing process to ready to work - now its almost like flipping a switch.  This could possibly be the extra training we've been doing, but I also think it could be due to the recent flower essence remedy changes.

Sunday we attended a 2-hour NW3 workshop.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I was looking forward to learning a lot.  Unfortunately Gimme did not do her best searching, though some was really good.  

The first search was a container search with lots of distraction and she did really well with it.  After we found the four hides, Dorothy had us continue to walk our dogs around, basically being the dumb handler.  The idea was to have the dog still only commit to real odor and not suck into alerting just to make us happy.  Gimme did well.  The second search was an exterior and Gimme was brilliant.  I think she was much faster and more accurate than the other dogs I watched.

As I was walking her back to the car I went by a patch of wet shiny pavement and a splash of reflected sunlight hit me directly in my right eye - instant migraine.  It came and went for the rest of the day.  Our two interior searches were minutes later and Gimme didn't do as well for these as I would have expected.  She couldn't get one and really struggled with an easy hide she's seen before.  At the time I didn't understand was was going on, but in hindsight, I'm sure it was my migraine.  I've seen before where she isn't as able to focus when I'm in pain.

Our third time was a vehicle search and where they had it set up was in deep shade, so the migraine abated a LOT and Gimme did much better.  There were three vehicles lined up in a row and we had three minutes to find the hides.  We were allowed no more than 1 minute per vehicle and once you left a vehicle, even if early, you couldn't come back to it.  Gimme found the first hide fairly easy and so I walked her around it again with our remaining time.  Just as we were about to get to the back bumper our one minute was up and we had to move on.  Gimme found nothing on the second vehicle and wasn't even particularly interested in it - we walked around it twice.  On the third, a long trailer, Gimme found a hide on the far side and then was showing a lot of interest on the top of the trailer.  She could only get her front feet and nose up there, but kept walking the edge checking.  After we were done Dorothy asked me where I thought there might be more.  I said it was possible there was an inaccessible hide high on the trailer, but it could also be because air was moving from the hide-side under the trailer, then hitting a nearby wall and curling back on the trailer.  She agreed with my assessment and then said the other hide was on the back bumper of the first vehicle - the one we ran out of time on.  Gimme had sniffed it briefly on our first approach, but didn't indicate.

Try as I might to stay out of or face away from the sun, I still got eye-zapped several more times from reflective surfaces.  I walked to the last search (exterior) staying in the shade, but then had to cross through sun again.  By this time the migraine had really geared up.  Gimme searched and found one hide really nicely.  After it, she then got stuck fringing 12 feet from source, which is not like her at all.  So again, I think she was distracted by my pain.  Dorothy had us walk back and forth between the two small wood spools (one had odor, the other fringe).  When she indicated the right one she was rewarded, when she stuck on the fringing one - nothing.  This let Gimme sort it out for herself.

Last night in class we got 1 search, with 8 minutes to find as many hides as we could!  The room had been set up this way all day, so there was a ton of odor.  Of the eight dogs in our class, all but one found ten hides.  Little blind, arthritic and slow-moving, deaf Hallie found eight hides.  It was interesting to watch all the dogs go through this process.  They each came in and found one or two hides pretty quickly, then they'd get kind of overwhelmed by how much odor was in the room.  You could see in their behavior they just didn't believe there could be this much and weren't sure what to do.  But then each dog would just hunker down and bring on their A-game to really focus and puzzle through the converging odor challenges.

Gimme could have been the dog to get 11 hides, but I messed her up.  She went in the bathroom and sniffed around the edge, spending a little extra time on a heat vent on the wall.  Then she went up on the sink and indicated the paper towel dispenser with enthusiasm - she really loves high hides best, as long as she can reach them.  I rewarded her and then just left the bathroom.  After all, everyone knows there is only going to be one in such a small space - except there was another in the heat vent.  If I had waited and let Gimme be the one to make the decision to stay or leave, she likely would have gotten the second hide.  Its common for dogs facing a converging odor challenge to find both without indicating, then indicate them one by one.  So she might have gotten the 2nd one if I hadn't drawn her out of the bathroom by leaving it myself.

Since converging odor puzzles take extra time to work through, its interesting the time average per hide was 48 seconds for each of the dogs (except Hallie).  I've always known she has good persistence.  From her behavior, I'm sure Gimme would have found all fourteen if she'd had enough the time.

Barn Hunt Weekend

Gimme and me spent the weekend in Salem playing barn hunt.  We had four chances to get a senior leg and came away with one.  Sadly I didn't get videos of any runs.  This trial was held in the same location as an agility trial and most people were trying to do both sports, which left less people hanging around watching (and made getting enough volunteers challenging as well).

Our first run on Saturday was nice, we found 3 out of 4 rats before we ran out of time.  75% is consistent with our first two tries on Easter weekend.  On our second run... Gimme didn't indicate any rats - she usually scratches at the tubes.  She busily ran around and sniffed a lot, seeming to have a great time, just didn't settle anywhere or indicate.  Needless to say I was bummed.

The judge asked me if I had any idea where any of the rats were and I pointed to three locations, which he said all had rats.  He showed me another spot Gimme had been to once, but only stuck briefly.  So it was clear she knew where the rats were, she just wasn't sharing.  I talked to Amy about it and she said dogs often change their indicator.  I can't imagine Gimme changing from scratching/pawing, since it IS her preferred style of interaction with stuff.

The next day they started with small dogs, so I had plenty of time to observe while I waited.  I often eavesdrop and sometimes join other conversations.  A gal who had already run in the novice ring was talking with her friend while watching and complained about her dog no longer indicating the rats, though still eagerly entering the ring and hunting.  Hmmmm, sounds familiar.  The friend, who was just there to watch, commented saying she didn't understand why the dogs would continue telling us where the rats are, since right after they do, someone comes to take the rat away.

Out of the mouth of babes... it makes perfect sense...

So I decided I would make a big deal if Gimme did anything which even remotely looked like her indication.  I could praise her all I wanted and can pet and stroke her while I'm holding her back from the rat wrangler.   The first indication was weak, but recognizable and I made a huge deal about it.  Then the other two were her normal pawing at the tube and I also made a big deal of those.  We got three out of four rats and then ran to our treat bag. 

For our afternoon she was even more excited and indicating very clearly.  I continued making a big deal of her indications.  We had three rats and she was just going through the motions after them.  So I told her, "Gimme, find vermin, show me, show me."  'find vermin' is our rat searching cue and 'show me' is a cue I use to get her to re-indicate in nosework when I'm not clear where odor is.

In response Gimme went over to a 5 bale stack and got in a position with her nose down in an area where she'd been before.  This time I circled behind her and clearly saw her paw reaching down into the area, so I called "rat", resulting in our fourth rat find and first senior leg.  I realized Gimme had tried to indicate this rat before, but my position when she did, kept me from seeing what she was trying to show me.

She is such a good girl for understanding what I wanted when I used her nosework cue and being so willing to try again for her inept mom.  I love what a smarty she is.  I'm always amazed how she is able to generalize a concept for a cue from one sport to another.  In nosework I also have the cue, "Thank you, find another one." when she has located odor and we need to move on to find more.  I used this cue once in barn hunt and she immediately understood what I meant, so I've been using it ever since.

We also attended a nosework seminar on Monday.  I was really disappointed and I don't feel like I learned anything much, certainly not $145 worth.  I found the presenter's comments, when she was CO for a trial we entered earlier this year, to be so insightful, so maybe my expectations were too high.  Possibly she just had something especially perceptive to say at a moment I most needed to hear it.  I've been to other nosework and scenting seminars and so far the best ones were from people who were not deeply involved in this sport. 

Inaccessible Hides Seminar (4)

The fourth and final installation...

4th Exercise – odor placed in the "crotch" of a tree, about 5½ feet off the ground
8. This proved interesting because when the dogs weren't finding odor, Barbara reminded us to go to where we handlers hadn't been.  In almost every case that was the same place of the search area.  As we moved there, the dogs followed and almost all got the drift of odor right away.  Usually the instruction is to note where the dog hadn't been and in some of these cases the dog had been there – so something about the handler's movement through the area changed the search for the dogs
9. Note in Gimme's search that she follows the drift of odor out to its furthest edge and then turns and goes directly to odor.  Keep in mind that odor falls like a waterfall, but it also emits and stays on a plane at its height, gradually drifting down to earth.  This is often apparent in converging odor situations, but was also discussed at length in Jeff Schettlers book on trailing.

 ~ Video Notes ~
Gimme seems to find odor at the 8 second mark, but then leaves it to search the rest of the area – a common behavior for her.  I stalled in place at the 28 second mark, not moving for 8 seconds – an eternity of bad handling.  She seemed to find it again at 51 seconds, but didn’t stick it.  Right at 1:19 she finds the limit of the scent cone and then if you watch you will see her nose go straight to odor – almost as if she were following a string from that point to the highest place she could reach on the tree.  We took longer than necessary with this search because the slight breeze kept changing directions and I wasn't aware of it. 
** I saw one of the other handlers had tied a piece of orange construction tape to her wrist with about 10 inches hanging down.  The tape flutters with the breeze and is readily visible to the handler while the search is ongoing.  And, importantly, the tape on your wrist while handling will show you what the breeze is doing closer to the dog’s nose level (unlike a wet finger held up to test the breeze).

5th Exercise – hide is placed 12 inches under from edge of running board
10. many of the dogs tended to follow the odor to the vehicle next to the one the odor was on and had it not been there, might have checked some other barrier for odor to collect on
11. no dogs go to the far side of the vehicles on either side of the vehicle the odor was on, though many went around the vehicle with the hide
12. in frustration Gimme tended to go vertical on the vehicle while searching for source – see discussion below

~ Video Notes ~
Gimme went vertical on this search four times. She has a very light touch, but still… once, even twice, is acceptable… more than that would probably result in a fault.     Generally feet on tires, bumpers and running boards are not an issue. 

6th Exercise – hide under running board remains and an additional hide is readily accessible on the trailer hitch
13. keep dogs from going too far under the vehicle by restricting how much line you give them, taking care to not let an unintended correction occur

~ Video Notes ~
While we were setting up to search another dog was too close and started barking.  Barbara reminded them to move further away.  While Gimme definitely noticed, she immediately returned her focus to me and was ready to work.  She has come a long way this year.  Interestingly with the added hide on the bumper, almost all the dogs started by coming down the other side of the red vehicle, unlike their first search where they came down between the red and white vehicles.  Gimme got the inaccessible hide much faster the second time.

Going Vertical on Vehicles

• Gimme put her paws up on the vehicle 4 times in the first search and once in the second search.  She doesn't normally do that and I think it was likely frustration from the difficulty of the search.  I think we need to do more inaccessible hides on vehicles so she has more experience and doesn’t get so frustrated.  Unfortunately we really can’t between now and the trial in ten days, so hopefully the two searches we did here will carry us through.
• Going vertical once is okay and won't be faulted (if its a light touch with no pawing), most judges won't fault for a second time... but beyond that is likely to incur a fault
• Dogs can place their paws on a car/truck body to steady themselves and check for odor.  We have to realize that odor can get blown over a vehicle as well as under and around.  Paws on hitches, bumpers and tires is not an issue.
• Hides on vehicles will never be placed higher than wheel well or bumper, so dogs don't "need" to look higher than that for source.  Barbara suggested I study Gimme's video to see how her head moves right before she goes vertical.
• Then I can gently discourage it with line tension.  Giving less line when she's about to go up will restrict her ability to go vertical, while taking care not to give a line "check" since it feels like punishment/correction to the dog.

I got compliments from Barbara on every run on my line handling and how well I work Gimme.  That sure felt good.  She even mentioned once during the seminar that some dogs are so fast that you need a much longer line, "almost like a tracking line".  Thus validating another difference of opinion between Joyce and me.

All in all, I was very happy with how Gimme did.  I hadn’t thought Joyce was doing a very good job of teaching inaccessible hides to our dogs that are training for NW2 trials.  Then again, Gimme was the only dog for both days that did so well on all her searches that she never got any extra runs to work through a problem.  So I guess we’ve done much better than I thought.  Either that, or she’s just naturally brilliant!

Inaccessible Hides Seminar (3)

Resuming with exercises from the 1st Day...

4th Exercise – Under vehicle 12" in from edge of running board
8. You need to limit how far you allow the dog to go under the edge of a vehicle and this is partly dependent on the size of the dog.
9. Safety of the dog is the primary factor... generally not past shoulders/mid-back
10. Use line to restrict moving further under the vehicle, but not in a way where you are pulling them back or giving an unintended correction.
11. Proximity of sign that creates handler impediment would make this a NW3 level hide, without changing difficulty for the dog.

5th Exercise – Under vehicle 12" in from edge of running board, with accessible hide on hubcap of nearby vehicle
12. Again most dogs chose to do the easier hide first.

6th Exercise – Odor on the head of a long-handled paint roller, leaned high on a wall and behind a barrier
13. I cautioned against the unsteadiness of the barrier (a chain link gate just leaned in place to fill a gap and offered a bungee to make it more secure.  Barbara said she didn't think these particular dogs would put their feet on it.  That proved wrong!  Two dogs knocked it down and it was necessary to recover their confidence.
14. One dog knocked it so hard the gate nearly landed where Joyce was squatted for filming and the odor tin went flying and was lost in the deep weeds.
15. If something happens to concern the dog, the handler should not be the one to reward or work through it.  A trusted instructor or assistant can reward through it while the handler handles.  Thus, the dog doesn't learn to expect the handler to bail them out and there's no risk the dog will associate the scary thing with their handler.

7th Exercise – Back to the vehicle, where hide was moved to the far side from the sign and the accessible hide was removed.  This was intended to test the following question and discussion.
16. if the dog isn't committing (making a decision), how do you know if the odor is on the near side and inaccessible or on the far side?

• if the dog is bracketing (left in diagram below), the odor is probably on the near side
• if the dog is t-boning (right in diagram below - i.e. wanting to go under the vehicle at a 90º angle) and especially if breeze is coming from the other side, odor is probably on the other side.
• some dogs will act just the opposite, but a dog is generally consistent within its own searches, so know your own dog.

BTW – After the day's end, Joyce's dog couldn't find the odor tin in the weeds from the 6th exercise, so I volunteered Gimme.  She was generally dithering and not committing to search and Joyce gave up, thinking it was too hot for her and assuming she'd wait and find the tin when she removed the weeds.  I suspected Gimme was annoyed with me because she'd spent the whole day in the car and was having an attitude about being pulled out of the car and commanded to perform like a trained seal.  So I teased her with the treats I had for her and restarted her.  Then she went to work and had it located within 15 seconds where it had fallen down by the railroad tie and had mulch kicked over it.  Whether or not it was attitude or needing to know I was going to make it worth her while in the heat is anyone's guess...  in any case, as always...

Know Your Dog

~ Day Two ~   at Cindy's condo common area Meeting Room

1st Exercise – hide was placed just forward of center under a swivel based recliner
1. The dogs approached from the rear of the chair and most found odor from the front, Gimme included.
2. They seemed to check out more of the room than the previous day's dogs had and we believed this was because the door was left open and that caused more air movement than was present in the other building.

2nd Exercise – hide stayed just forward of center under swivel based recliner, upturned chairs, trash can, plastic tree, and noteboard were placed around the chair as barriers
3. Dogs followed a similar pattern of looking to handlers, wanting help
4. Some dogs actually seemed intrigued by the possibility of training their handlers, though all opted to work instead
5. These dogs spent a bit of time checking each barrier after it was moved for odor.  we think this may be because of the carpet and the additional air current moving odor onto the barriers more than happened the day before

~ Video Notes ~
You'll note that Gimme doesn't really ask to have the barrier moved the first time.  I have always encouraged her to push in and help herself - something she is happy to do.  The second time she also doesn't look right at me, but just kind of pauses and watches me from the corner of her eye.  I think if I'd just waited she would have pushed in beside the trash can and indicated on her own.  You'll note she wasn't the least bit bothered by the noteboard falling over against the chair when she did get in to indicate odor.

3rd Exercise – odor was placed high on a coat alcove (hangers removed for safety) and one accessible hide was placed at the rear of the base for the swivel recliner.
6. Students expressed concern that there was nothing for the dogs to put their paws on to stretch up to odor.  Gimme proved that was not the case as she stretched her legs out to the full extent to the side to brace against the alcove wall, while still stretching up to odor
7. The two smaller dogs got fixated on the edges/cracks/hinges of the adjacent door to the utility closet.  One larger dog showed interest in the door handle.  Odor falling from the elevated source would land on these and be somewhat more concentrated than on the floor.  It was important to be extra careful about timing with these dogs to make sure they were making the right connection to odor source and not pooling odor.

~ Video Notes ~
We closed the door this time and so the dogs were much more likely to get into the area to the right of the door.  There was a vent overhead pushing air in where Joyce stood (the door closer) and another on the floor sucking air in behind where Barbara stood.  Gimme first found the accessible hide behind the chair and then you'll see her go right over to where the floor vent was.  She found both hides and got right up to indicate the overhead hide within 29 seconds.  Is she amazing or what?!  Barbara had to remind me about placing her treat at source and bringing it toward her - which we did several times, encouraging her to note source and go vertical toward it.  Then Barbara had me let her get the accessible hide again - something Gimme would not have done on her own.

More to follow... with 3 more videos...

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...

Inaccessible Hides Seminar (1)

Over the weekend we went to Vancouver to attend the "Inaccessible Hides: The Search for Elusive Source" seminar, presented by Barbara Schwerdt.  It was great.  I'd been to her converging odor seminar and it was okay, but  not great.  We discussed the difference - in a large part its because its easy and obvious how to set up training for inaccessible hides.  Whereas for converging odor, sometimes what you think will be converging isn't and vice versa - so you can't count on seeing the clear progression in the dogs.

So, what are Inaccessible Hides?  
Odor that's inaccessible because its "contained" or "out of reach".  Can it be both?  -- YES!

• Contained in – drawers, crates, a pallet, appliance, cabinet, plastic egg, inside vehicle bumper, electrical switch plate
• Out of Reach -- high, low, deep, on top of stack of pallets, center under dolly, inside child's desk, on a shelf, in a breaker box, far under vehicle

What is the difference between "bracketing" and "detailing"?

• Bracketing – The dog can't get to odor source and goes back and fourth, ping-ponging on either side or multiple sides of nearest place to inaccessible hide. 
• Detailing – Dog moves in and out of scent cone, analyzing concentration and odor quality to move nearer to source. 

Barbara reiterated that its common to many dogs to move in and out of odor, seemingly leaving odor and the search (as if distracted), as part of their search technique.  She sees this a lot with hunting breeds, possibly related to "quartering"; though other breeds do it too.  Gimme does this, most noticeble with vehicles, but probably always.  This has been a recurring disagreement between Joyce and I.  Because she remembers Gimme being distracted and leaving vehicles in her early searches, she views every time she moves away from the vehicles in that light.  To me the difference between distraction and Gimme's  searching technique is that she turns back before she comes to the end of the leash or before I encourage her to come back AND she doesn't go sniff some obvious distractor.

"What might be considered inaccessible for one scenario for one dog, may be accessible in another scenario or for another dog or another day."

Acceptable calls for trial purposes become much more flexible for inaccessible than for accessible hides.  Conditions vary so much as the day progresses, so there may be more than one perfectly valid place to indicate odor for an inaccessible hide.  Certifying official and judges predetermine acceptable limits of indication location.  Even though conditions may change during search, these limits must be adhered to for all competitors, for fairness.

Q:  When the hide is inaccessible, how does the handler know when to call "alert"?

• look for the dog to make a decision – relies on handler to read their dog's behavior
• if the dog was searching for a primary reinforcer they couldn't get to, such as a chunk of hotdog, what behavior would you see from the dog?  that's when you reward...

When do you start training inaccessible hides?

• when the dog is proven to be odor obedient
• when the dog has completed their NW1 title
• when the handler knows when to reward the dog
• the first biggest difference between NW1 and NW2 is stamina... so the dog should have it before moving on to inaccessible hide training

What symptoms will you see if you are doing too many inaccessible hides?  Fringing, too much handler dependence, the dog starts to offer other behavior and/or the dog is confused or gives up on search.

When setting up for inaccessible hide training always consider safety for both the dog and the handler and consider potential for property destruction.

When rewarding for inaccessible hides always put treat at odor and then bring down/over to dog, so you get their focus to where the odor actually is.

If the dog gets struck and you have to "present" an area to the dog to encourage searching... (should only happen on rare occasions)

• present low, high, then low, then high
• doing so routinely will teach the dog a pattern so that you can ensure you stop presenting high when the odor is low and would be next
• use a hand motion as if you were tossing treats

Remember, there are more than 4 corners in a room for a dog.  We humans only count the four physical corners of the walls.  Dogs "see" with their noses all the corners presented by furniture, closets, alcoves, windows and window seats, cabinets, steps and stair landings, etc.

Handlers influence their dog's movement with their own movement.  Whether you move in or out to get a specific result depends on the individual dog.

• is it crowding or support -- or -- is it pushing or pulling the dog
• our influence about how a dog moves in the space is underrated
• most dogs are easily crowded and pushed off odor, but some need the support
• you can move away to test whether the dog is "sticking" to odor
• you can move to an area to draw a dog into that area

"Paws on" versus "Pawing"

• there is a big difference between putting paws on and pawing
• putting paws on something to access a hide is not the same as pawing
• that being said, there is such a thing as too much paws on, especially repeatedly going vertical on a vehicle (see discussion about Gimme going vertical at the end of day 2)

When is Re-cueing appropriate?  When the dog is distracted, when dog is crittering and as a new cue after finding first hide.  Joyce tells us to never recue, because in a NW3 trial there might not be another hide.  That doesn't make sense to me because its equally possible there will be no hide in a clear room and we cue for that.

When is it appropriate to Re-start the search?  When search is not progressing or when handler is becoming emotional (probably because the search is not progressing <eg>).

More to follow... with videos of Gimme's searches...

Helfers NW Seminar, part 4

The last part of the seminar talked about training.  Fred has a four step approach to each training experience to ensure the dog has a successful and positive experience.

• Develop a Plan - You get greater consistency if you have a plan, short, medium and long range.  Still, be prepared to be flexible when things don't go according to plan.
• Conduct a Safety Check - Check all areas/equipment/etc for hazards to both dog and person.  
• Each environment has a potential to contain hazards, usually sharp or protruding objects.  Also watch for things that could tip over.  Remember vehicles could be dripping unsafe fluids, such as antifreeze.
• Also be aware that you don't put hides in places that will cause the dog discomfort, such as on a hot metal surface they might touch with the nose.
• Check the Environment - Check for air flow throughout the environment, air conditioning, temperature, distractions... which all combine to tell you what to do to make sure the search/training is successful.
• Air is always moving, even in interiors - kitchen & bathroom vents, doorways, windows, a/c, sun shining through windows, duct work, even switch plates and electrical outlets.  Know the wind direction and strength so you can estimate how the odor will flow around buildings and other items during exteriors and how it will flow under and around vehicles.  Whenever possible start from the downwind side - even if that means quickly passing straight through the search area to get there, though be prepared to follow the dog's lead.
• Temperature affects how much scent molecules disperse, humidity levels and how much water your dog needs before and after searches.
• Distractions are everywhere and not just for the dog - verbal and physical from other people, food, other animals, and new environments.  Handlers can be distracted by their own dog and forget to cover all the things they identified in their plan.
• Have a Plan "B" - Fred says that training and testing are two distinctly different things.  Always have a plan so that your training challenges don't unintentionally turn into testing.  Always end on with success.

 Make sure your training plan covers all the contingencies you can think of, such as:

• hot vs. cold
• dry conditions vs. humidity
• different floor/ground surfaces
• food distractions
• use of heat from a wall heater to convect air up to curtains (like in a hotel room)
• in the rain and snow
• high wind, low wind and no wind
• buried source odor
• low quantities of odor, normal and super saturated odor
• on and off leash
• be aware of even tiny amounts of scent transfer
• NOTE:  I often see this in practices where I try to stick a tin somewhere and it doesn't attach, so I place it elsewhere.  Still even though the odor/oil is safely contained in the tin, the dogs ALWAYS pay extra attention to those spots.
• odor may be intensified when placed in a patch of sunlight
• odor pools in cool spots

Distractions in Training - always know the answers to the following:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Are you trying to fool the dog? 
• Are you setting up challenge proofing?
• Are you conducting a test?
• Are you teaching the dog to work unfamiliar smells?
• ESSENTIAL - Are you training or are you testing?

Change of Behavior - Your job is to be able to tell when the dog is IN or OUT of odor.  You must learn to identify what your dog's "tells" are for when he is in odor.  There will be some change of behavior (COB).  The COB occurs when the dog first gets in the area of odor, but is distinctly different from his detailing behavior to get to source.  Some are readily observable, such as snap backs (don't we all love those easy ones).  Some body language indications include: tail flag, tail wagging faster, tail stiffening, body stiffening, change in body carriage/posture, change in mouth (closed vs open).  Know your own dog. 

Handler Error - is defined as "verbal or physical communication by the handler which when interpreted by the canine will lead it to manipulate or not detect the odors for which it was trained".  He gave numerous examples, including but not limited to:

• over detailing - guiding the dog too much so it learns to become handler dependent and only sniffs where the handler indicates
• handler belief creates subtle handler behavior that "sells" the dog
• insistence on working to a pattern and ignoring the dog's vote
• failure to work the pattern 
• cuing the dog
• poor detailing/guiding skills
• unable to read the dog properly
• little to no search pattern
• belief that the dog should do all the work
• poor leash handling skills
• lack of knowledge of odor movement
• handler doesn't hold dog accountable
• preconceived idea that odor is or is not present
• preconceived idea that odor is or is not in a specific place in search area

REMEMBER ALWAYS - the dog is the EXPERT. 

Helfers NW Seminar, part 3

First a little update on our project to moderate Gimme's paw indicator.  I have been working on it away from nosework - focusing on clearly defining the desired "paw" behavior... using the nearest paw, place it on the object (one paw only) and hold it there.  We are having to weed out Gimme's creative embellishments.  I just came home from NW practice with Mary and Susan and they both commented that Gimme's paw indicator is a noticeably lighter touch.  So the training is already affecting her indicator and we are nowhere near pairing it to the indicator cue and/or working with odor.  How cool is that?

=====================

Scent discrimination describes a dogs ability to match one odor from the overall scent picture he's presented with to the one he's looking for.  Dogs have a far superior ability in this respect.  If you were trying to find the source of an icky smell in your house, you'd go sniffing all around moving your whole nose from place to place to try and find where the smell is stronger.  Dogs can actually tell which way the odor is stronger based on the difference in concentration of scent molecules between one nostril and the other... the difference in location might only be one-quarter inch, but they can tell.  Dogs can control the little flaps at the side of their nostrils to let in more or less air.

Comparing scenting capability between dogs and humans.  Dogs have 25 to 60 times more scent receptors (depending on breed) than humans.  The dog's devotes 40 times more of its brain to scenting than humans do.  The area inside the nose that is devoted to turbinates is 60 times larger for a dog.  Dogs can detect smells at 100 million times lower concentration than a human.  Add to those physiological differences the way a dog's nose can move and process scent and the difference goes up as much as a dog being able to smell a million times better than you and I.  Fred talked about a dog he'd trained that could find a gas pipeline leak, that was buried 20 feet underground and when analyzed by a mechanical sniffer at source was only 2 parts per million!  That sounds amazing enough, but we now have evidence that dogs can detect odor in parts per TRILLION!

Different environmental conditions affect how odor molecules behave.  You need to take these into account to train all the different conditions and remember they may increase or decrease the setup time.

• Temperature - Warmth expands the scent cone and causes the release of more molecules.  Cold causes a reduction in the release of odor molecules.
• Organic vs. Synthetic - Generally organic sources respond more to warmth, with some notable exceptions (such as ether).
• Buried Sources - Soil conditions affect the release of odor.  The ground is warmer than the air in the early evening, so more is released, but once it reaches the surface it stays close to the ground and may attach to dew or other moisture.
• Air Movement - Strong breeze creates a narrower, but longer scent cone.  Slight breezes create shorter and wider scent cones.  Air movement can channel odor, such as through cracks in the body or under a vehicle to the other side.  Air conditioning units move air, as do heaters and fans.
• Air conditioners also dry the air reducing a dog's scenting ability - remember that need for moisture.  So a dog kept in a running vehicle with the a/c running will have less capability as their noses dry out, unless the handler takes care to rehydrate the dogs nose.
• Quality and Quantity of Source - Higher concentration source will clearly put out more odor molecules.  Don't assume that its easier to find source with a higher quantity of odor.  Dogs have to learn to work through a super saturation of odor, just as they do for a miniscule amount.
• Packaging and Concealment - Be sure to vary the type of packaging you use.
• Humidity - High humidity means more molecules in the air and low humidity means less.
• Moisture - More moisture means more odor, lower moisture means less odor.
• OPTIMAL is Moderate Temperature and High Humidity... we are so blessed here in Washington state to have ideal scenting conditions most of the time.

=====================

During our practice today I buried an odor container in the ground - about six inches under.  I arrived early to bury it so it had about 90 minutes setup time.  There was a light rain, so plenty of moisture and humidity.  It was evening, so the ground was warmer than the ambient air temperature.  Birch is an organic source and there were 4 q-tips in a very open plastic package.

All three dogs found it quickly.  Tucker was faster than Gimme, but he's more methodical and slower.  Gimme blew by it numerous times.  Grafton found it, paired with cheese, plus the ground had been disturbed by both Tucker and Gimme, releasing lots of odors and causing him to focus on the area sooner.

More to come...

Helfers NW Seminar, part 2

Our dogs have a wonderful ability to identify and discriminate different odors.  While humans smell in fruit salad style (all smells lumped together), dogs smell and recognize each smell individually even though they are presented together.

The other analogy he shared was that of entering a flower shop.  Humans walk in and are overwhelmed by sweetness, a combination of all the flowers there.  As we decide to buy one kind, such as roses, we hold it up to our nose to focus on that one flower.  A dog would smell each of the flowers individually, as well as leaves, plastic basins, wood of the door, linoleum, the shop owner's clothes... and everything else that is present.  If searching for one particular odor, dogs can focus and separate that one out of the potpourri.

This reminded me of something I had learned about watching/listening to an orchestra or band with singers.  As humans, we mostly listen to the music and voices as a whole.  What some people don't realize, is that if you focus your visual attention on one singer or one instrument, you will hear that singer or instrument over the rest of the performers.  Likewise most people can pick one voice out of a melange of voices and background noise to listen to that person (this ability is lost with hearing aids).

Everything gives off molecules and in order for that thing to be smelled, the molecules must make it to the nose.  Molecules come in three types:

• lightweight - move in the air
• volatile - evaporate easily
• soluble - broken down by moisture

Moisture and heat are necessary for scent to be processed.  Moisture from the mucous membranes combines with warmth, is passed over two types of turbinates (bony ridges covered in mucous that control air movement) and then information from the olfactory cells (receptors) pass information to the olfactory lobe of the brain.  The vomeronasal organ is located in the roof of the mouth and has basic scenting ability.  This is why your dog sometimes appears to be "tasting" smells.

As I mentioned yesterday, dogs process air in two ways, directly through the olfactory structures for scenting or in a curved path for simple breathing.  Dogs actually have the ability to re-process air through the olfactory structures!  Dogs often sniff more forcefully when they are focusing to find an odor and you can sometimes hear the difference.  There are times that I can really hear Gimme make a huffing noise as she is searching, which sounds like a tiny cough to me.

Fred told us that scent memory is the strongest memory of all for dogs.  This likely explains why imprinting a scent associated with feelings of calm and safety is so powerful.  Gimme and I both sleep on large flat sachets of lavender, so I'll have that available as a scent cue for her to feel calm and safe in challenging environments.  I asked about the practice of some handlers to re-scent a dog while tracking and he believes its completely unnecessary. 

He also cautioned against the practice of some trainers to whack their dogs across the nose with the leash or cuff them on the side of the head by hand.  The olfactory structures are located in the top part of the nose and any blows can damage those structures.

We watched a LOT of videos of dogs doing scent work (mostly from his time as a police canine trainer).  Fred told us to watch the dogs' mouth and note when it is open and when it is closed.  A dog with an open mouth is still taking in some scent information through the vomeronasal organ, but when they sense a smell that interests them, they will close the mouth (or partially close it) and start using the nose.  Some of the videos were shown at regular speed and again at half speed.  Once I understood about the importance of whether the mouth was open or closed, It was fascinating to see it in action. 

In tracking and nosework, we are mostly behind our dogs and not able to really see this.  One advantage to nosework is that we can move alongside or around the dog to take advantage of seeing the working end more clearly. This is an obvious clue as to when a dog is scanning versus when they've started detailing.

Our dogs are looking for a scent picture... that is "the combination of odors which are present that a detector dog identifies as a trained odor."  He touched on the importance of making sure that we use many different types of odor containers in training, so we don't unintentionally teach our dogs that they are searching for birch+plastic or anise+tin.  We need to vary the container so the dog understands its birch, anise or clove that is the odor picture they are looking for.

More to come...

Helfers NW Seminar

Yesterday I went to a seminar by Fred Helfers; it was great.  Before retirement, Fred was a police detection dog trainer, training all kinds of detection skills, including bomb, drug, fire accelerant, insect, and pipeline gas.  Now he's retired and naturally couldn't get totally out of dogs, so is teaching nosework and giving seminars.  My brain is still reeling from all the things I learned.  I will write more about the seminar this week. 

Still I wanted to share something.  I am reading "Cracker!", a novel, by Cynthia Kadohata.  There are two passages that struck me.  First:

"She lifted her nose to the air and breathed deeply, the way she did when she wanted to know what was going on.  This was different from the way she took in air when she was just breathing.  All she knew was that the air went someplace different when she was just breathing versus when she was trying to figure out a scent."

Interestingly this is one of the things I learned yesterday.  Dogs have the ability to direct the flow of air through their nasal chambers into different areas.  When a dog is sniffing scents, the air flows directly through olfactory sensors, sending information directly to the olfactory center of the brain.  When a dog is simply breathing, the air is detoured around the olfactory sensors.  

Fred told us there are only four species that can do this and of those, only canines are "useful" in this respect.  I find it interesting that an author who has written no other books featuring a dog would know something so specialized about how dogs process scents.  In fact, until yesterday, I would have considered this passage as just flowery prose.

Rick snapped back, 'People see what they want.  Dogs see what they see.'  That was a line Rick heard Cody use sometimes.  Humans saw in wholes, not in pieces.  They saw a total picture, colored by what they believed.  Dogs used their senses to 'see' all the details, uncolored by expectations and beliefs."

I am also reading "Animals in Translation", by Temple Grandin, this passage is spot on with her observations. Hers is a fascinating book that delves into how animals perceive the world around them, written from the perspective of someone who has autism.  Temple has become very influential in food producing industries and she designs facilities used worldwide for humane handling of livestock.  Her ability to "see" their world the way the animals do is instrumental in her success.

I recommend both books:
"Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam" and
"Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior". 

Nosework (6/11) & Seminar

Class was all about interiors.  Joyce choose to use a smallish room, made even smaller by the amount of furniture that was crammed in there.  There were bookshelves/desks along two walls, a filing cabinet on an end wall, a bunch of wood stacked against the opposite wall and a u-shaped set of tables with chairs in the middle.  There was just enough room to walk a medium sized heiney between the furniture.  Add to that Joyce and 2 or 3 spectators, the handler and the dog...

So the environment was very crowded.  I was surprised to see that all but two of the dogs were intimidated by the conditions the first time around, especially since they've all been in there before, just not with all the furniture set up.  Not Gimme, of course.  The other one that was unaffected was little bitty Kia.  Gimme just zoomed around like it was no big deal.  I think Kia is so small that it still seemed spacious to her.

The hides were set up to be a bit inaccessible.  Gimme didn't find them challenging at all.  I wish Joyce would come up with a separate class for those of us who are competition ready, so she can focus more on getting us ready.  Gimme, Tucker and Una would be a good advanced class.  I'm going to email Joyce and suggest it.

This weekend we had the Master Vehicles seminar, called such because we get to train with someone who is a master at that element.  We trained with Josh McCorkle; it was great.  I learned tons and have lots of ideas and things to try.  He's a creative thinker and I sure love the opportunity to train nosework with someone who isn't restricted to only using the NACSW-approved training method.  Josh is mostly reward based, though as someone who works with his dogs for a living (a police officer doing bomb searches at the ports), he's also no-nonsense and willing to use the very occasional punishment.

One idea I learned that I think will be a good one for us is what to do when Gimme notes a hide as she goes by, but keeps on scanning the environment, which he calls "cataloging".  He said dogs will do that to see if they can find something better... and that its usually a function of not being totally odor obedient.  In Gimme's case, I think its because she enjoys the hunt more than the reward of finding and wants to keep on hunting.  But his approach still applies because his philosophy is that we have to make finding odor soooooo important that the dog can't even think of passing it by.

His approach is similar to what Joyce suggested, but only slightly.  When Gimme goes by a hide with the tell-tale nose tilt that shows she's noted its location, Joyce suggested that she lose a turn and get taken away without getting to finish the search.  I find that approach punitive and frustrating, with no upside.

Josh uses that same basic idea... but turns it up several notches in a couple of important ways.  First, he said that in addition to making sure I'm using really great goodies, that I need to be more exciting and make each find a real party.  This is kind of the opposite of what Joyce has told me so often - that I should be more low key and to not rev her up.  With Josh its all about building so much drive that she lives to win by finding odor.  As for the losing a turn, he suggests throwing down a toy right by the odor she just passed and then dragging her away, meanwhile pumping her up to scratch and claw at the floor to try and get to it.  This should build drive.  Then when I bring her back in (the reward would have been removed), she'll go directly to odor and try to get me to pay up.  He said he'd done this with many dogs and it never failed.

Since I'm not training with toys, I asked Josh how to handle that, without contaminating the search area.  I thought I could quickly lead her to the odor and place the treat down in a dish or something, while not letting her get it and then pulling her away.  Josh said "NO", that he doesn't want me to be part of a no-reward-mark (NRM)... which that would be.  I sure hadn't thought of it in that way.  He suggested training with someone who can take the reward to odor and tease with it, while I drag her away, pumping her up.  I'll see if I can set that up with Mary.  I am also going to alter a tennis ball to make a food toy out of it that I can toss when I'm working by myself.

Gimme did great on her first search.  She was really fast and these pictures come from that search.  These pictures were taken by David Welton and given to me to use.  This one of her under the edge of the firetruck is the first hide...

These two were taken while I was getting my critique.











I live with this girl and yet sometimes I am still surprised by what a stunning beauty she is...

The second search proved a bit more challenging.  As we were waiting in the holding area, someone came out the door and started sawing on some plastic thing, making a really weird noise.  Generally Gimme isn't too concerned about noises, but to begin with she couldn't see them and found it spooky.  I had the guy show her what he had and she was better, but still suspicious, plus the noise kept going on and then we got called for our search.

Right as we started the search and she was detailing for the first hide, someone walked quickly by, really close, but half hidden by the bushes.  That distracted Gimme and it took her just a bit to get back to work, at which point the neighbor next door to the firehouse let their large barking dog out into the yard.  That also proved a challenge that ate up valuable time.  Gimme again got back to work and indicated the first hide, in a challenging spot.  I really whooped it up, making a big deal and Josh even whooped with me - joining us in the party.

I saw that Gimme got really excited by that.  She went on to find the second hide in a another challenging spot, but was 15 seconds over time.  Again we partied.  I'm going to do the party thing in class and practice - adding to the reward value of the treats.  I'm also going to rev her a little at the start line and let her start when she gives me a good pull forward.  Joyce may not like it, but she'll just have to get over it.

I asked Josh how to address the potential for a barking dog distraction, since that is one of her triggers.  He suggested getting someone with a recreational-barker who wouldn't mind having their dog in a car barking while Gimme searches nearby.  Generally she ignores dogs barking in cars, so we'll probably have to open the windows enough to make the sound more apparent.  The idea being to search nearby and as she is able to ignore the sound, to move closer until we are doing searches on the actual vehicle.  Now the trick is to find someone with such a dog who is willing to cooperate.

Converging Odor Seminar

It was a long and tiring weekend and I came home with a sinus infection.  Gimme was a good girl throughout.  I learned that in the future I should ask for an upstairs room, so we don't have to deal with people tramping around on the ceiling at all hours of the night.

I thought we had two days of working slots, but it was only one.  Probably a good thing, since Gimme was very tired after her working day on Sunday.  She was both the youngest and the least experienced dog there.  Most of them were getting ready for NW3.  While she had trouble with some of searches, she got them all eventually.

One thing I have to love and that was repeatedly commented on by the seminar presenter, Barbara, is how persistent Gimme is.  She had one search that ran over 7 minutes and another over 5.5 minutes.  We'll never face a 7 minute search even at NW3 and even the other was still verrrrry long for a level 2 dog.  She never gave up, even though she'd stop and look at me from time to time, as if to say, "Mom this is hard."  It took only a smidgen of encouragement for her to go back to work. 

I actually think she is ready for more challenges than she is getting in class.  Of course, they need to be interspersed with regular and easy searches.  For the seminar day, they were all pretty challenging and she was mighty impressed with herself when she'd get them.  She never gave up and was just as eager for the last search of the day as she was for the first.

I have to admit I was feeling a little down at the end of the day, thinking we'd uncovered a huge hole in our training and that we were grossly under-prepared for the trial in April.  But a couple people told me not to worry, that Gimme is doing great and will easily handle the NW2 challenges.

So we have a lonnnnng list of things to train... and we'll just keep on keepin' on.