In my very first class with students completely new to detection dog training, I explain that we will be aiming to achieve the following two objectives in their first six-week session: 1) To build the dog’s desire to hunt independently; and 2) To begin to develop in the handler the ability to “read their dog.” In “learning to read their dog,” I ask the students to watch for “changes of behavior” (“COBs”) that tell them the following things: 1) That their dog is hunting for scent; 2) That their dog has first hit the scent plume; 3) That their dog is working out the scent pattern; and 4) That their dog has found the source of the scent. Each of these four COBs, as well as many, many other behaviors that I instruct the student to later watch for, look very different to experienced detection dog handlers. But, together they form a dog’s own unique communication style and each student must learn to recognize these COBs in their dog. In each class, we continue to work on “independent hunting in the dog” and “learning to read the dog” but, at the start of the second six-week session, I also describe to the class the impact that temperature, moisture and wind have on scent dispersal. It is important for students to have a basic understanding of these environmental influences when the students and their dogs first get to search new interior spaces and controlled exterior areas in this second six-week session. The training captured in this video helps demonstrate the impact that wind has on scent dispersal and it is during this class that the students learn the concepts of “upwind,” “downwind” and “crosswind.” This particular training also helps show each of the four COBs listed above. The setup includes a number of open-weave plastic boxes placed along straight lines forming a large rectangle. Fans are set along one of the rectangle’s long sides. The student is asked first to introduce their dog to the fan (as most dogs are intrigued by a fan in their search area), and then move their dog to the line of boxes directly “downwind” of the fan. The “hot-box” is placed directly in front of the fan at the end of the box-line. In starting at this point, the scent plume from the “hot-box” is flowing directly into the dog’s nose. In the next repetition, the “hot-box” is placed at the end of a line of boxes at a point furthest away from the fan. The dog is started “upwind,” near the fan, with the odor of the “hot-box” being blown away from the dog. In watching the various clips, one can see the dogs working a virtual straight line up to the “hot-box” when started directly “downwind” of the “hot-box,” but having to quarter the search area and even getting “downwind” of the “hot-box” in order to locate the scent plume when starting “upwind.” The dogs are then asked to work the search area “cross-wind” from the short left side of the rectangle and then from the short right side of the rectangle, with the “hot-box” being moved each time. In many of the clips, it is obvious when the dog first hits the scent plume and makes a definite turn into the scent plume as they work it back to source. During the last repetition, the dogs are allowed to “free-search” for two “hot-boxes” placed in the rectangle, first from the downwind side and then from the upwind side. It is a fun training that not only teaches the students the concepts of “downwind,” “upwind” and “crosswind” but also repeatedly demonstrates those COBs that tell us “when the dog is hunting for odor,” “when the dog first hits the scent,” how the dog follows the odor into source” and what the dog looks like “when he is at source.” It is all about developing your eye!!! And, while this training does not always work, when it does the results can be quite dramatic! Enjoy!
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:15:04 +0000
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