Calling it Clear in K9 Nose Work®

If you're into the sport of K9 Nose Work, you've probably seen or heard this two word phrase: blank room (the official terminology is blank area). A blank room is a searchable area with no odor. It can be a bathroom, or it can be an interior area consisting of several connected rooms. A handler must call clear if he believes his dog has searched the room and found no odor present. For most teams nearing competition at the NW3 title level, the blank room looms like some distant and foreboding, sky-piercing mountain on the horizon. If you know your dog and understand his behavior in the presence and absence of odor, you can turn that mountain into a mole hill and move one step closer to that NW3 title.

Be Clear About What Your Dog Looks Like In Odor

Some dogs are painfully subtle with their signs and behavior in the presence of odor, but most dogs display easily identifiable changes when they catch a target odor. If you're competing at an NW2 or NW3 level, you should know your dog pretty well, and be able to see when he's picked up a scent and when he's working up to an alert.

Most dogs exhibit one or more of the following signs when working odor:

- change in pace; if your dog speeds up or slows way down, it could be because he's caught odor

- stiffening of body, lowering of head and shoulders (like when stalking prey)

- head turn or other sudden movement of the head

- intense sniffing around a specific area or in a specific direction (not frozen nose sniffing)

- intense sniffing ending in a forceful exhale

- trotting along and air scenting 

What will throw you as a handler is the occasional high or inaccessible hide. These hides tend to be harder for your dog to commit to and thus it's harder for you to see the signs that he's working odor. The best way to learn to read your dog in these situations is to have your CNWI/ANWI set up search scenarios with high or inaccessible hides and to guide you and make sure your dog has success and you can identify all the signs that he's working odor.

Know What Your Dog Looks Like When Odor Is Not Present

Our dogs are very keen searchers and will show just as many identifiable signs that no odor is present as they will when there's a hide to find.

Look for these signs from your dog when no odor is present:

- no/diminished interest in entering the room

- frantic, generalized searching

- frequent checking in with you

- inconsistent/fleeting interest in some areas, often ignoring the areas initially or ignoring them on subsequent passes

What will throw you here is the amount of time you spend in the room before making a decision to call it clear. Every dog has a threshold for searching, once they've passed it their reliability decreases. If your dog's threshold is forty-five seconds and you're at a minute, he may begin showing increased interest in a specific area where no odor is present and he may even false alert. You'll want to train to avoid this scenario, so have someone force you to make a decision at thirty seconds into the search. If you call clear and there is odor present, it just means you need to try and pick up on some signs your dog shows in those first thirty seconds that would tell you odor is present. 

If you fail to call clear in a blank room, you need to try and recall what your dog did in the first fifteen or thirty seconds of the search. Most likely, your dog showed all the signs that odor was not present, but as time elapsed, he maybe did a head turn in a part of the room he previously showed no interest in, then sniffed something and gave you his alert signal. If you compare a search where odor is present to a blank room search like described above, you will see that when odor is present your dog will usually search a more specific area and make a continued effort to get to odor and alert, rather than randomly showing interest in an area he had previously ignored.

Practicing Blank Rooms

It's best to practice a blank room with someone else present, ideally an instructor or a seasoned handler. What you want to get better at is identifying your dog's signs in the first thirty seconds of the search and making a decision to call it clear or continue searching for odor. The instructor can help by enforcing the thirty second rule and by offering feedback on the search, specifically your dog's behavior and anything you might have done to influence your dog.

Always have a search with odor present set up to do before or after a blank room search. Your dog should never go out to do K9 Nose Work and not do at least one search with odor present.

When you call a room clear, verbal praise is the best reward - a few pats on the back work, too - you just want to let your dog know that you're happy he searched the area. Save your food and toy rewards for when he finds odor.

Try to get exposure to a variety of rooms. Kitchens and highly cluttered rooms are often the most difficult rooms to search and call clear - not necessarily for the dog, but for the handler who perceives the clutter as adding to the difficulty of clearing the room. Surprisingly, room size doesn't affect the dog as much as you might think. A twenty by forty room can be called clear in the same amount of time as an eight by eight room.

Observe the length of time it takes your dog to alert on odor in a variety of rooms. A rule of thumb for experienced dogs is about one minute or less to find the first odor in a room. This means that the dog is actively searching for this odor, most likely from the first seconds of the search. In a blank room, if you hit the minute mark and your dog hasn't been working an odor and on his way to alerting, then you're best strategy is to call it clear.

Going To Trial With The Possibility Of A Blank Room

Try as you may to remember all of your training, at trial you will probably be too nervous and uncertain to call clear in a room search in under thirty seconds. Some of you will probably take all the way up to the ten second warning to make your decision. Try not to go this route. Instead, put your training to the test and find out if your practice has paid off. 

Officially, an interior search at trial *may* contain a blank room or area. If you call an area clear, you will not be told if you were correct until after the trial. If you find out that the room had odor, try to learn the hide placement and see if your instructor can set up a similar search for your next training session.

Some dogs behave differently at trials and competitions (so do their handlers), usually becoming over exuberant and sloppy searchers, or shutting down and giving false alerts. Try to keep your dog calm and focused, but, accept that nothing can substitute for experience. The more you and your dog experience searching in trials, the more reliable your team will be on subsequent trial days.

Enjoy really watching your dog and understanding him a little bit better as you encounter possible blank rooms in practice and at trial.

Happy Sniffing! 

  

What Motivates Your K9 Nose Work® Dog to Search?

A few nights ago, I innocently forgot to feed our dogs. When morning came, I got Muriel ready for some searching before breakfast. While I watched her work I looked for any difference in her performance having missed two meals before searching instead of one (Muriel usually searches for treats then gets her meal after she's all done). From what my eyes could see, Muriel seemed to be working as good as ever. I wasn't sure if this was because she was extra hungry, but that was the most obvious variable to me that morning.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a post to the K9 Nose Work yahoo group (you can join by invite only if you've attended a workshop or attend a weekly class taught by a CNWI/ANWI) sharing a link to a study touting the benefits of feeding search dogs before they work. The study found that a dog working on an empty stomach is less successful in a search activity than a dog working with a meal in his belly (I know I'm glossing over the specifics). I have no doubt my own anecdotal evidence is no match for the data collected in a real study; at the same time, I'm working with my dog, not one of the dogs in the study. Perhaps she's just different.

My point is not really to debate the findings of the study. The fact that someone is out there studying how dogs search and providing any information on the subject at all is pretty cool. I say never turn down a chance to learn something new, even if you subsequently decide it has no practical application for you. What I'm interested in are the ways we might motivate our dogs to search more enthusiastically and successfully in the activity and sport of K9 Nose Work.


Finding Out What Motivates Your Dog in the Beginning

Choose the most valuable reward - In K9 Nose Work most dogs start out searching for a high value treat. If you have a dog who loves his rope ball more than anything, let him search for that. The key is to find out what your dog goes a little bit crazy (the good kind of crazy) for and use that.

Give your dog home field advantage - Just as important as what motivates your dog is how comfortable he is in his search environment. Searching for his favorite treat/toy reward is supposed to be fun, so play the game in places your dog feels safe and secure enough to have a good time.

Keep distractions to a minimum - If you're trying to get your dog to search for his favorite squirrel squeak toy in the backyard while a real squirrel scurries across the fence, you won't get too far. The intended reward should be the only reward your dog can get, otherwise you're inviting confusion as to what your dog should put his efforts into searching for.

Stay one step ahead of your dog - Remember that look of excitement in your dog's eyes the first time he was enticed with his favorite reward, then set loose to search for it - try to keep that look in his eyes with each new search. That means setting up searches that are challenging but achievable.


Keeping a K9 Nose Work Dog Motivated

Once your dog gets the game and has progressed from self-rewarding in the searches to searching for the target odor only, maintaining or increasing his motivation to search is about much more than choosing a high value reward.

Build a routine, but be flexible to change - The average K9 Nose Work handler with a dog searching for one or more of the target odors has probably developed a routine for playing the game of K9 Nose Work. I'm a bit OCD, so I'm all about the routine.

I have my K9 Nose Work backpack that holds all of our gear - collar, long line, treat rewards, the hat I always wear. Picking up that backpack is a clear sign to Muriel that we're going searching.

We go to class every Wednesday now for over four years. Muriel has learned to read the calendar and knows exactly when Wednesday is approaching; she makes this clear by burning holes in my head with her laser-eyed stare tracking my every move until I pick up our backpack and drive her to class.

Before a search, we go through a little wind-up routine where I ask here if she's ready to do some nose work and she replies with an enthusiastic muzzle-punch-to-the-face yes. At the start line I hold her leash tight and give her search command.

If you have a routine similar to this, do something every once and a while to surprise your dog. Sometimes I'll set out a hide in my front yard while Muriel's hanging out in the backyard, then I'll just call her in, pop on her search collar and let her go. I also like to carry a travel size odor kit so I can set up random searches when we're on the road.

When we don't have our Wednesday class, I'll sometimes not do any searches with Muriel until the next class - so two weeks go by without searches. When we do get back to the game she's giddy like a puppy to show me she's still got skills. I've witnessed this same renewed enthusiasm for the game in many dogs with time away from training varying from a few weeks to months (not sure any of us could willfully stop playing for months!).

I don't usually change my pre-search wind-up routine, but if I see that Muriel is ready to get down to business right out of her crate, I'll sometimes just let her follow her nose.

Get creative with your training - Sometimes it's just you and your dog with a little free time at home and you want to do some K9 Nose Work, but you feel like your dog has searched the bathroom umpteen times and you just can't think of a good place to set out the hide. This is a perfect time to think outside the box.

Find an object you can place odor in that's accessible to your dog, but requires a little extra effort to get to, like a laundry basket. Creating situations where your dog has to work over, under, around or through physical barriers to get to the odor can increase his overall motivation to search.

Try taping a hide to the inside bottom of a laundry basket and tipping it on its side. Give your dog a chance to put part (or in some cases, all) of his body inside the basket to find the source odor; when he does get to source, reward and praise him. Next, tip the basket upside down so he has to tip it over to get to the source odor.

If your dog is the polite type, or a little timid around objects, and he indicates that the odor is in the basket, but he's just not willing or able to get any closer, offer help. Tip the basket slowly and let him find his way to source odor or, if he's very timid, hold his reward right at source to give him extra incentive to brave getting inside the strange object.

After an exercise like this, you might observe your dog working harder in searches. For many dogs, having to overcome a physical barrier to getting to source odor seems to raise the overall value of finding source odor in all situations.

Get out of your head and let your dog be motivated - As a K9 Nose Work handler you will probably go through times where you feel like your dog has lost his search mojo. You might be working on higher hides and find that he's suddenly alerting up every tree and sign post. Don't dwell on these occasions, it's just part of the learning process. Resist the temptation to help him in any way other than an invisible one, and don't get in the mindset of, "my dog can't do this" or "this is too hard". Just believe in your dog and keep challenging him. He wants to rise to the occasion. When he does achieve new and great things you'll both be happier and that'll keep him highly motivated.

Build a special relationship with your dog outside of K9 Nose Work - There's nothing like the bond that forms from working as a team in K9 Nose Work, but for that bond to be its strongest you and your dog might need one-on-one time outside of the search area. Take walks together, bring your dog to work, just relax together on the couch on a rainy afternoon. If your dog is truly your best friend, there's no doubt he'll be motivated to do his very best K9 Nose Work searching for you.


Keep Searching For What Works Best

It's easy to identify a motivated K9 Nose Work dog: eager to search, happy, willing to face new challenges. It's hard to say exactly what's motivating the dog. For most dogs, it's the food or toy reward, and the reigniting of their hunting instincts. For some dogs it's the fun of the game. If you're hoping to maintain or increase your dog's motivation to search, you have to keep things familiar yet fresh.

Add some variety to your reward - If you always use salmon strips, try rotating in some pizza crust or some steak. You may see a bump in motivation, but don't overuse a special reward - keep it random to keep your dog excited about it.

Try a new location - It can be a familiar location, like a friend's house your dog has visited before, or make it brand new, like a park across town. In both cases, you'll pique your dog's excitement when he realizes every trip he takes could be a K9 Nose Work outing.

Change your handling approach - Maybe you're used to shuffling through the search area, taking long pauses while your dog ploddingly details everything on his way to finding source odor. Then again, you could be racing around at the end of your leash while your dog chases everything from the scent trail to butterflies. In both cases, you might be able to help your dog get motivated to search for the target odor more successfully.

Try varying your pace with your dog on leash. Speeding up with a dog who's slow to make a decision may signal to him that he better hurry or his opportunity will be lost. Slowing down with a rambunctious dog will help him to pay more attention to what he's sniffing and to follow that odor to source more efficiently. Both types of dog will like getting their reward faster, and your change in behavior will keep them more focused.

You can also try keeping your emotional displays to a minimum while your dog is searching, waiting until he's found source odor to beam with pride and shower him with enthusiastic pats and rubs in addition to his usual reward. Your dog's eagerness to see you express yourself may motivate him to search with vigor.


Share Your Ideas

What motivates your dog? Comment below and maybe you'll help a few fellow K9 Nose Work handlers to motivate their dogs.

Happy Sniffing!

When is My Dog (and When Am I) Ready For an ORT?

In K9 Nose Work®, our dogs are almost always ready for the next challenge before we are, and that's definitely true in the case of the Odor Recognition Test, or ORT. An ORT is meant to be a test of your dog's ability to recognize one of the three target odors used in competition, and of your ability to recognize when your dog has found the target odor. The test is set up as a container search using twelve boxes, one box containing the target odor. While this all sounds simple, an ORT can prove to be unexpectedly difficult. Here are a few signs to look for that will help you know when you and your dog are ready to enter that upcoming ORT.

1. Odor Obedience

An odor obedient dog is one who actively searches for and goes to source odor. An ORT is made infinitely more difficult if your dog is not self-motivated to go to source odor. If the typical search for you and your dog involves you having to take your dog back to the source odor several times to get him to show interest and go to source, you're not yet ready for an ORT.

Make use of pairing the odor with food again to give your dog more time to make the connection that finding source odor is finding food. Keep searches simple so your dog has success without wandering or struggling. Once you move back to odor only, make sure to time your rewards properly to reinforce the desired behavior from your dog. Some dogs will alert to source odor, and if not rewarded quickly, they will begin exploring other ways of getting a reward (usually false alerting or fringing) and may not willingly return to the source odor.

As a handler, avoid cuing your dog during the search. Keep an even pace as the two of you work the search area and don't stop or linger at the hide location; keep moving until your dog has actually gone to source odor. This is especially important when practicing container searches. The scent from source odor contained in a box will sometimes fall on or in the nearest box or boxes, and this will cause many dogs to show strong interest in an empty box, sometimes even resulting in a dog alerting on an empty box. If you keep moving while your dog is investigating empty boxes - even if he alerts - he will eventually learn that the only way to get your attention and get his reward is to alert on source odor.

Keep your ratio of blind to non-blind searches low, say one blind search for every four or more non-blind searches. While blind searches are a way to test your readiness for an ORT or trial, they can also contribute to problems like fringing and false alerting. There's more value in strengthening your dog's understanding of what you want from him in a search (like described in the above paragraph) than there is in working blind and potentially supporting unwanted behavior. Too many times, I've seen a promising K9 Nose Work team rush to do a blind search only to have the dog fringe or false, and the handler reinforce the behavior through his body language - pretty much doing everything but rewarding the dog. The result is a handler who has less trust in his dog and is more likely to second-guess him in a search even when the dog is correct, causing further problems.

This is a good time to remind you to do blind searches with a CNWI/ANWI or a seasoned handler who can help you avoid any major missteps - like supporting a false alert - in the search.

2. Recognizing the Alert 

If you can identify one or more things your dog does when he locates source odor, you're on the path to entering an ORT.

Many handlers have odor obedient dogs and have mastered promptly rewarding at source, yet, when it comes to the alert, some handlers just can't see the signs that their dogs are in odor. For many handlers, the trouble is not that their dogs are too subtle, it's that reading the signs and making a call in real time is challenging.

It turns out, there is a very easy solution to the problem of not being able to read your dog: patience. If you stick to well-timed rewards for your dog and continue to advance your training then you will begin to see the signs indicating your dog has found source odor. Many dogs begin with the "looks at me" alert, looking back to the handler for a reward after finding source odor.

Once your dog begins to offer some kind of alert at source odor, don't expect it every time. Remember that a timely reward is still most important to your dog. If you develop a habit of waiting your dog out for a desired behavior, you may end up with that behavior even when it's not desired. Build a chain of events that lead up to your dog sourcing odor - maybe he always stiffens up and does detailed sniffing right before he finds source odor, even if he doesn't do his "looks at me" alert. If you practice this way, then in a blind search you can use the behavior changes to get a pretty good idea of where the odor is even if your dog isn't alerting, as opposed to figuring out which of the five boxes he alerted to has the odor in it.

3. Handling Under Pressure

That part in the opening paragraph about ORTs being unexpectedly difficult, well, it's usually due to the pressure of searching blind and getting it right in an official setting. Performance anxiety. Sure, you and your dog only get one shot to call it right or you have to sign up for another ORT. Yes, you're likely to be at a new location in front of many unfamiliar faces (or worse, familiar faces you don't want to fail in front of), including officials and judges, and you'll have paid a nice chunk of change for the pleasure. No, there isn't really a way to completely eliminate that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling that goes along with facing a challenge, outcome unknown. So, what can you do?

First, employ whatever relaxation techniques you care to try: meditation, yoga, acupuncture, soothing herbal tea, gregorian chant - be open to anything. If you can relax and keep your cool during a test like an ORT, your team will perform better.

If needles and monophonic monks don't lower your anxiety levels, then try practicing some searches in settings that raise your anxiety levels. Many K9 Nose Work teams fall apart in their first test or competition because the dog senses some major changes going on with the handler and reacts by shutting down or trying to please the handler, often with a false alert. The practice searches don't even necessarily have to be blind; you could do a demo for your son's kindergarten class or some coworkers, or make a bet with your husband offering him nights off from getting up with the baby for a week if you and your dog can't find the hide. The more exposure you give your dog to the various emotional states you might be in during a search, the better he'll cope when it really counts.

Ultimately, the best defense against competition nerves is experience. As your team's skills increase and you and your dog do ORTs and trials, it'll become easier to get into the right state of mind for a test or competition.


Still not sure when you should enter an ORT? Talk to your CNWI/ANWI and see if your class can do a mock ORT for practice. Your dog will most likely be ready and able to do an ORT long before you are, so when you do finally enter one don't forget to relax and trust your dog.

Happy Sniffing!     

What a Smile Can do for You in The Sport of K9 Nose Work®

This week's post comes to you a little later and a little lighter on the word count, courtesy of my new baby girl, Mackena Grace! She was born on Thursday, September 27, 2012.

I've been tossing around the idea of asking K9 Nose Work & NACSW co-founder, Amy Herot to unearth some early trial footage of me and Muriel to post here for instructional purposes. I have a feeling that the video would speak louder than any words I could conjure up to describe the experience. Still, I'm going to try and conjure some words.

The first trial I entered with Muriel was a December 2008 practice match in Torrance, CA. We were about 3 months into our training and had very little experience on all four elements of competition in novel environments. We had not even searched in grassy areas yet. For these reasons alone, my expectations for the outcome of the trial would have been pretty low, but a bout of fringes and false alerts just days before the trial had me focused on failure as the only outcome.

Trial day came and we took it one element at a time. We finished the day somewhere in the top ten - passing all four elements - and earned the first ever Harry Award; an award recognizing high performance, exceptional teamwork, and the special bond shared by a K9 Nose Work handler and his rescue dog (click here to learn more about the Harry Award). I was so shocked and overjoyed that I cried. Right there in front of all of my fellow competitors, the judges, volunteers, the score room tabulators, and the co-founders of the sport. I cried.

Now is probably the time to explain that I am not that guy who cries in public. Even behind closed doors, I'm just not the lachrymose type. At most, I'm a crying on the inside fella. Here's the thing though, I had adopted Muriel from a little two-woman rescue in Pasadena (Mutts & Moms) with no intention of competing with her - really, I just wanted to save this poor animal from a terrible life that nearly ended in early 2007 in some dusty Bakersfield shelter. What I adopted from Mutts & Moms was not an animal, not a pet, but a piece of my spirit I never knew was missing. That we shared some asomatous connection was the only explanation for why this being whose body and soul had been beaten and abused by humans, would allow me to get close to her. Muriel trusted me unconditionally from the moment we met and her penetrating stare and robotic focus on me were eerie at first, but I now know she merely wanted an opportunity to prove to me what others failed to see: that she wasn't worthless. Once I began to provide Muriel with opportunities to show what she could do, she set out on a path that led to my moment of public weepiness and she continues to amaze me daily.

That December trial was not just significant because we succeeded unexpectedly and earned the Harry Award, but because it was the first time my very personal feelings about my relationship with Muriel were recognized by others through our performance in a sport.

The next trial we entered was on January 25, 2009 and was the first official NACSW sanctioned trial in the sport of K9 Nose Work. I was on a high from the accolades Muriel and I received in the December trial, but I was trying to remain level-headed about the competition and the challenges we would undoubtedly face. First we gave an underwhelming, but successful, performance in the box drill (we got one of those "trust your dog" comments from the judge for not calling her first alert when I was only trying to be certain she wasn't up to her recently acquired fringing/false alert behavior). After that we waited to do the exterior and vehicle searches.

We failed the exterior search. It was a complete and total failure, beginning with Muriel nearly peeing on some ivy and ending with me calling a false alert that may have been caused by odor blowing and pooling, but was nowhere near the source. I was disappointed in our performance and not looking forward to continuing with the other two elements.

The rest of the trial was a far worse display of K9 Nose Work than our failed exterior search. I remember the actual experience being unpleasant - the searches going all wrong, Muriel signaling randomly and the judges begrudgingly uttering no to my feeble calls of alert - but watching the video a week later was painful and embarrassing. The images of me and Muriel searching show a slump-shouldered, blank-faced handler, and a broken dog trying anything she can to make him happy. After watching the video, I realized the January trial was just as significant as the December trial, it was the first time my feelings about our performance had a negative effect on Muriel. It was also the last time.

For every trial since that January 2009 trial I have worked very hard to keep things fun for me and Muriel. I'm still competitive and I want us to perform well at trial, but my number one concern is that we're both having fun. This is especially important when we fail with one or more elements remaining in a trial. Even though I know we won't take home a title for that day, there's no reason we can't do some great searching. I blew it for us on a vehicle search at the December 2011 NW3 trial in Livermore. It was our first element, and it was frustrating, but I knew our failure was because we didn't take our time and move throughout the search area well enough. Instead of bemoaning our loss of a chance to earn a title, I kept a positive attitude and looked forward to the remaining three searches. We ended the day with that one vehicle hide being the only thing we missed. I considered that a great day of searching, and I was very proud of Muriel.

Even professional handlers with working dogs recognize that the dogs see their job as a game, and it's best to play the game with the least amount of stress, especially when the stakes are high. There are accounts of search and rescue dogs working the rubble from the 9/11 attacks getting to search for and find live firemen who'd purposefully hidden themselves to give the dogs a chance to be correct and be rewarded and to keep the dogs' (and handlers') stress levels lower.

While there are many things a handler can do to make sure his dog is having fun while doing K9 Nose Work, one of the easiest things is to remember to smile. All dogs are sensitive to human emotional responses - some dogs to a greater degree than others (there is a great Nova documentary called Dogs Decoded that explores this topic). Don't just smile when things are going well, but try to keep a truly positive attitude when your team experiences failure. Some people like to use the mantra: trial is just another training day; I say do whatever works to keep a positive attitude. As long as your dog is able to enjoy searching and playing the game of K9 Nose Work, you can feel good about the day no matter the outcome of the trial. And, more often than not, your positive attitude will contribute to a better performance that you really will feel good about.

I remember what I said to my classmates the day I watched the January trial footage, I said that I never wanted to cause Muriel to fall to pieces again because I'd become so wrapped up in the outcome of a competition. I watch Muriel have the time of her life doing amazing things in practice sessions on both blind and non-blind searches and I know that there is no difference to her if the search is set up for practice or for competition. There should be no difference to me either. Every time we do K9 Nose Work I should be smiling at how much fun my dog is having doing what she loves and that should be the greatest reward.

Happy Sniffing!

Can You Read My Dog?

I set up a search for Muriel in my backyard on a recent hot and dewy morning; and with the help of my two year old son and a Canon T3i that's nearly idiot-proof, I captured an astonishing number of out-of-focus pics of my determined little cattle dog mix hard at work.

Take the K9 Nose Work® search quiz and see how well you can read my dog!


SEARCH AREA

I've set up a two hide search in an area roughly eighty feet long by twenty feet wide, with the start line/threshold bisecting the search area lengthwise. The search will be off-leash and I won't really be an active handler (other than to provide rewards for finding the hides) since I'll be behind the camera the whole time.

The start line is the threshold in the doorway opening out to
the rectangular shaped search area 

View from inside the search area and just to the right of the doorway/
start line

Looking across the search area (the wall is opposite the doorway/
start line)

1. As a K9 Nose Work handler looking at this search area, it would be important for me to know:

a) Which direction the wind is blowing
b) How tall the grass is
c) how many cracks are in the concrete patio



START LINE/THRESHOLD

2. Based upon the photo montage above, Muriel is:

a) Showing no interest in the search area
b) Catching scent and choosing to go to the right as she enters the search area
c) Waiting for me to tell her what to do



WORKING A SCENT TRAIL

3. Assuming these photos are ordered (top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right), it appears that Muriel is:

a) Trying to source a hide in the large crack in the concrete

b) Closing in on a hide on the tricycle

c) ruling out the patio area

WORKING MORE SCENT

4. This sequence of photos (top left to right, bottom left to right) shows Muriel is:

a) sourcing a hide suspended in mid-air

b) working drifting odor

c) dancing to the grass to relieve herself

HITTING THE WALL

5. Based upon the photos, Muriel appears to be:

a) trying to escape

b) telling us the hide is low

c) chasing scent back and forth along the wall; bracketing

DECISIONS DECISIONS 

6. In these photos, Muriel is:

a) checking the wall for cracks and the tires for air

b) Being obedient to me

c) sourcing the hides and sitting to alert me to them

All quizzing aside, some interesting things happened during this search. Here are photos of the hide placements up close, and answers to the quiz along with some additional details about the search:

Tin hidden under the front fender

Clear tube with cotton swabs wedged in between bricks on the wall about
four feet up from the ground

The quiz answers are as follows: 1.a, 2.b, 3.b, 4.b, 5.c, 6.c 

At the start line, there was a slight, but noticeable breeze blowing into our faces, so we were downwind of the odors - a good place to be. Muriel sniffed both sides of the threshold, but chose to follow her nose to the right and out the door.

Once she entered the search area she locked down the tricycle hide, circling once between the center support post for the overhang and the tricycle itself, before detailing the tricycle, finding the hide, and alerting.

Muriel left the tricycle in search of the second odor, which she picked up very near the house and air scented all the way to the grass. Interestingly, because I was taking pictures from the patio, Muriel remained trapped under the overhang working drifting scent for thirty to forty-five seconds. She climbed both sides of the table on the patio and she fixated on the center support post for the overhang - nearly going to an alert at one point (although there were none of the signs leading up to the alert that would have made me believe it in a blind scenario). It was only once I changed position in the search area, moving to the grass, that Muriel broke free of the "scent trap" and started working the wall. Nice lesson learned regarding handler positioning and the "invisible leash" our dogs can sometimes be tethered to even when we think they're free to follow their noses.

Once Muriel hit the wall opposite the start line, she began bracketing the odor, working to the left and right and climbing the wall - clear signs she's locking down a high odor. It took her a while to source the hide, maybe because scent was staying high, travelling along the grooves in the bricks and she thought it was out of reach for her and telling me it's up was good enough. Once she checked high within a few feet to the right of the odor she was able to work the scent back to source and alert.

Overall, a challenging search for Muriel - especially with me present, but not doing my part as handler. A number of the things talked about in past posts played out in this search, and hopefully the pics helped make concepts like drifting odor, waiting at the threshold, and a dog's behavior changes in odor seem a little more concrete.

Happy Sniffing!

p.s. - Here's a pic of my junior handler in training. Doing his best to hold onto Muriel until she picks up the scent coming from the tricycle hide!

Alert! (The Final Response)

In K9 Nose Work®, we consider a dog's final response to be his alert, or indication that he's found source odor. In a competition, when you see your dog give a final response you should yell out "Alert!" This allows the judge to evaluate how well you can read your dog. A clear final response can make it easier to read your dog when he's found source odor, but how do you get from the sometimes subtle behavior changes - tail stiffening, forceful exhale, lip curl - to the solid performance of a sit or down? And is it what you really want? Ask most K9 Nose Work enthusiasts if they would like their dogs to have a clear sit or down response and you will get an overwhelming yes.

*If you're interested in a final response for your dog, discuss it with your CNWI/ANWI to figure out what's best for your dog and how to achieve a final response without adversely affecting your dog's overall K9 Nose Work performance.

Are You "Looking at Me"?

In the transition from self-rewarding to handler delivered reward, most dogs develop a habit of anticipating where the reward will come from (handler) and checking in to see when it's coming. We refer to this as the "looks at me" response.

There are top dogs in the sport of K9 Nose Work who can communicate clearly and consistently just by looking at their handlers once they've found the source.

One benefit of the "looks at me" response is that it develops very naturally and without prompting, so there's less confusion on the part of the dog as to what gets him paid.

How do I Know If My Dog is Ready to Be a Better Communicator

The important thing here is not to rush things. If your dog finds source odor, looks at you, and moves on to sniff the next thing, you need to focus on raising the importance of the odor for your dog. Nothing trumps odor obedience, not even the prospect of your dog striking an odor pose at source.

If you've got an eager searcher, the type who won't leave the odor box even when you're a little slow to deliver the reward, you've got a good candidate for developing a clear final response. 

Sit, Down, or Both?

Just like the "looks at me" should come very naturally, your dog may also display a preference for sit or down - or be agreeable to both. To figure out which final response might be better for your dog, use a box drill with chairs. Have the odor box elevated on a chair and let your dog find it, then move in with the reward in a closed fist and hold it right on the box. Offer your dog enough food (a lick and a nibble from between your fingers) to get rewarded for finding the odor box, but keep the rest for rewarding his potential sit or down. Your dog will probably slide into a sit position to get the food reward from your hand - that is the moment you open it and give him his reward. To see if your dog prefers to down, just have the odor box placed on the ground and use the same closed fist on the box presentation, releasing the reward when he downs (or sits, if that's his preference). Got a tall or small dog? Just think of ways to set the hides as close to the nose height of the dog as possible. Stacking boxes to achieve desired height is one plan, so is using a table top. 

Once you've identified which final response your dog has shown preference for (or which you prefer) you can reinforce it by repeating the drill for a sit or down described above. Keep the search very simplified and do not worry about moving the odor box around. A few repetitions and a short break is more effective than a marathon session. 

Your dog will begin to respond quickly with the sit/down to get at the food in your fist. Now, when he finds the odor box, wait just a few seconds before moving your hand to the box. He should go into the final response all on his own; and, if he does you need to reward him right away. If your dog shows signs of confusion over what you want, don't delay any longer, bring that closed fist in again and wait for his final response. Do not over-train the final response. Make sure you are still doing lots and lots of regular searches and do not expect your dog to exhibit the same kind of final response behavior in these searches that you've been getting in your drills.

As you work on a final response, you may find that your dog sits most of the time, but downs for certain hides. This is not uncommon. It's generally related to hide placement, and can be addressed in your regular searches. If your dog is sitting most of the time, but downs on ground hides, just set out more nose-level hides than ground hides. The repetition and reinforcement on the nose-level hides should help get a sit on every hide. Despite your efforts, there will always be situations where your dog won't offer the usual final response, so don't obsess over the dual final response. 

So, You've Got a Sit Response... to Everything

My dog, Muriel, had a strong natural preference toward sitting as a final response; and, boy did she make it look good. The eager little cattle dog mix would sniff furiously until she found the odor box, then she'd snap her haunches to the ground and eye me for her reward. 

About a week before the first K9 Nose Work practice match in December 2008, Muriel began alerting to everything in the environment. Chairs, cabinets, flooring, stacks of books, etc. This would be fine if odor had been present in all of these items. It was not.

Turned out Muriel began to test a theory that she could get paid solely for striking her sit pose. I panicked and contacted K9NW & NACSW co-founder, Amy Herot, and begged for some miracle advice. Amy gave me a short list of instructions that boiled down to me showing no interest in what Muriel was sniffing and alerting to unless it was source odor. I even changed the pace at which I walked, and kept my body language to a minimum, all in hopes of eliminating every alert but the right one. After just a few days of practice, Muriel was back to being a solid searcher; she even won the first ever Harry Award in the 2008 competition.

Be careful with your own dog and a trained final response. It's easy for some dogs to make the connection between sit & treat and decide that odor is no longer the only thing that could get them a reward. If your dog starts alerting just for the "reward of it", take a deep breath and simplify your searches. Set your dog up a few feet from a hide and give him very little chance to fake you out with a false alert. Work your way back to larger and more complex search areas, but make sure your dog is clear that only odor gets him a reward before going on to challenging or blind search scenarios.    

Do You Really Need The Sit or Down?

The answer is "no." All you need is the ability to read your dog in odor. Even in competition, you need only be able to describe what your dog does when he finds the hide (wiggles three toes, whistles, says "it's right here, dummy!"). In fact, many situations will arise in training and in competition that will cause your dog to offer behaviors other than his usual final response, like odor placed in an area where he can't sit or down, a difficult hide placement or an unusually weak or strong concentration of the source odor (single cotton swab versus a jar of cotton swabs).

A sit or down alert does come in handy when doing blind searches in competition. When you're searching a new environment under the pressure of the clock and you need to be able to trust your dog, a strong and clear alert makes you as a handler feel more confident calling "Alert!"; but it doesn't mean your dog will be any more likely to find the hide than a dog with an ear twitch for an alert.

As much as I'm happy to have a dog with a sit alert, I've gone through a lot over the years to correct her false alerting issues, and to get her to make faster decisions. Just in the past week I've had to deal with her getting sloppy about sitting - now she's nose-touching the hide several times and doing more of a hunchback alert. It's a fixable problem, but it's a problem I wouldn't have if I was rewarding a "looks at me". 

Now, I know a number of people with sit-alert dogs who have been solid since the day they learned their final response, so my experience in no way defines the norm. And, despite the periodic troubles we've had with the sit, I'm committed to this final response and overall glad that Muriel chose it and that we've worked to make it work.

When you're ready to think about an alert behavior for your dog, just remember that the flashy sit or down final response is not what K9 Nose Work is all about. Odor obedience is most important for your dog. Observing your dog is most important for you. A good team that excels at those two things can go far in K9 Nose Work, be it with a sit alert or a nose-hair twitch alert!

Happy Sniffing!