Scent Dog Training, How to Choose An Indication
in this week’s lesson we’re talking
about choosing an indication it’s very
important to know what your indication
is and what it isn’t you need to decide
what you’re going to reward and what you
won’t
don’t forget the dual purpose of an
indication is to tell you when the dog
has decided on the location of source
and show you exactly where source is
located this dogs indication is a down
with focused attention and also a freeze
like a statue
in the next clip practice by calling
alert when you have an indication that
gives you all the information you need
don’t forget the indication is down and
focused attention at source ready 3 2 1
start
if you call the alert when you see the
change of behavior you’re calling too
early on box number two in comparison if
you wait until the dog is fully down
with attention at source you have all
the information you need and you’ll make
the correct call at box number three
let’s break it down further so here’s
the dog searching then you see a change
of behavior interest here he’s starting
to lie down and here’s when his butt
hits the ground and his nose is that
source curly showing that the hot box is
box number three because it’s a reliable
indication he’ll stay there and wait for
his rewards even with handler continuing
movement even with leash pressure so if
you’re not sure all you have to do is
wait so here’s the same dog doing an
interior search
you
next I want to show you what this dogs
indication looks like for a high height
it’s intentionally something different a
dog of this size is only able to down
and press his nose for a height less
than 12 inches tall
once the hide is above head height
something like 4 feet high in the upper
levels of nose work then when the dog
lies down he wouldn’t be able to press
his nose at source if you chose to have
your dog do a sitter at down on high
hides
you would have to notice where his nose
was the second before he did that
position in this dog I don’t ask for a
sitter adown I ask for fries with
focused attention at source for high
heights
here’s one of our students doing a
vehicle search with a high hide and the
indication is sit with focused attention
you
here’s the same dog learning that down
isn’t all he has to do to indicate odor
but rather he has to down and put his
nose at source we should always reward
to find it but after that eventually we
want the dog to both down and knows its
source and you’ll see how it looks in
this proofing session
this clip shows the same dog at another
session we reward the dog for finding it
and then he is not rewarded for lying
down only he hast down and knows that
source with focused attention
where all the training starts is with
one hot indication box in a
distraction-free environment on that
note here’s a fun initial training
session there is a lot of luring going
on here don’t worry we get rid of it
quickly and you can see better Drive and
the motivation and the habits that it’s
helping to form
[Music]
[Music]
