Sometimes painful but always necessary....

In order to train effectively we have to set the dog up to demonstrate what they do or don't know about a particular exercise. This does not mean that we set the dog up to fail but we need to take an honest look at the dog's understanding of the exercise.  This allows them to improve - because it allows us to determine what assumptions they are making about the exercise. It also allows us to determine how important certain tools are in their success - sometimes the things that they are relying on to succeed are not the things we want them to use. Take scent work for example - we only want the dog to use his nose to be successful - we dont want him using his eyes or reading the handler or being restrained or guided by the leash or line.

Another benefit of looking at training this way is that it allows me to tweak my training and teaching. That is the point where I am with training my tracking dogs right now. Steel and I were supposed to attempt his Variable Surface Tracking test in Kentucky this past weekend. Unfortunately due to car trouble and logistics I wasn't able to get him there. The next test likely won't be until October or November. At first I was very disappointed as I had put a lot of time and work into his training and we were ready. He narrowly missed passing in May and likely would have if it had been just a little bit cooler.  VST trials are also hard to get into - who knows how well I will fare in the entry lottery this fall....

However missing the test was unavoidable - so now I have plenty of time to play with my tracking without the pressure of an impending test! So I am working on allowing the dogs to show me how well they understand their tasks and working on improving their training - partly for my benefit but mostly for the benefit of my students and their dogs.

Here is a short clip of Amber showing me what she understands about tracking. I have placed gloves about every 20 feet along the track. The articles have a high value to her and serve as reinforcements along the track. As she progresses I will continue to space them further and further apart. This was her first road crossing so I put two pieces of hotdog in the roadway - I want to shape a behavior of her staying attentive to the pavement, not just rushing across it to get back onto the grass. Note that this is NOT SchH tracking - she more likely will do AKC tracking but my main concern is improving tracking training for police and search&rescue dogs.

The reason that Amber is showing me what she knows is because she is working on a flexi lead for the first time (as opposed to a tracking line). During this track I worked hard to keep her from getting to the end of the flexi, the only spot where she hits the end is at 8:48 when she is trying to figure out the road crossing. It was interesting to watch where the scent would take her without my reading her and providing handling input based upon her behavior. I always tells my students to let the track teach the dog and my goal this summer is to find better ways to help them do that!