Detection Trainers Course Australia First Days

The three day Detection Training Seminar ran through yesterday and was well attended by state, federal and military detection trainers from throughout Australia and elsewhere. We also had a number of professional dog trainers and search and rescue dog handlers who attended. Today was then the start of the two week long Detection Trainers School where the students enrolled get more in depth instruction on the training techniques presented during the seminar.

Students learning how to prepare detection substances such as explosives or narcotics for the training session

 

Student learning to evaluate a dog's potential for detection training:

 

 

Possessiveness with the reward objects is usually a good sign

 

 

As is this level of effort to get to it

 

 

 

And this one also gets high marks for being extra cute:

 

 

One of the primary things we look at in assessing dogs is whether they will engage in a game no matter who it is or where they are. It is one of the biggest indicators as to whether they will have the focus and intensity to be the kind of detection dogs we need.

This girl was not 100% sure she liked the game enough to play it with me.

 

 

Teaching one of the students how to handle a dog on the short rack:

 

 

 

And sunset from the training center at the end of the day.
It is late winter/early spring here right now but gets dark about 6pm and the sun seems to set much faster than it does on the other side of the world.