Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Dogs Can Be So Literal…

I have been following a discussion/activity associated with a facebook group that I belong to. Numerous people are training the scent discrimination exercise with their dogs. Most are training the AKC competition obedience exercise; others are looking towards nosework or other competitions. For those that don’t know the exercise - this involves putting out a series of identical objects, one with the handler’s scent on it. The others are clean/unscented. The dog then must go to the group of items and select the one with his handler’s scent on it and bring it back. This is a simple exercise for the dog. It is the canine equivalent of me telling you to go pick the red crayon out of a pile of other colored crayons. The challenge comes in communicating the specifics of this task to the dog. There are some things that can go wrong in this communication process. In a recent FB post one person was having trouble switching the dog from the articles that they started with (a metal tin) to an actual official, AKC approved metal articles. While the dog was consistently working the exercise on the first item, his proficiency dropped off on the other.

I am stealing this person’s “problem” in order to take an opportunity to comment on something that I see in almost all phases of dog training. And I put the word “problem” in quotes because sometimes it is not really a problem but rather a normal process of learning. Whether or not it is easy or not to fix, it IS a sign of some miscommunication; however temporary. Often the dog and handler are not on the same page with the exercise. When I am teaching I quite often suggest that the trainer think about what would happen if they could ask the dog to write out a description of the task.  I think the results would be eye opening. I could just see my first cadaver detection dog taking about a hour (and needing to get to get up for extra paper and to sharpen his pencil) to write his essay. He learned the task and had a successful career but I sure didn’t make it easy for him to figure out what I wanted. I am pretty sure my current narcotics detection dog would be able to quickly fit his response onto a 3 X 5 card with room to spare and then run outside to play!

The difference in the two is in my ability to better explain to the dog exactly what the exercise is. The smoother the process is; with as few extraneous pieces of information as possible, the better this works. Making learning faster and less stressful for both of us. However some things are part of the learning process, the dog makes initial assumptions and we quickly let him work through the process and correct his initial assumptions on his own. As a trainer, I find these “wrong behaviors” fascinating because they often show me how much the dog is thinking and quite often the dog flat out amazes me with his thought processes. I have to stop and go “Wow! I DID teach you that didn’t I?!” Then I rethink how I am training and exercise and hopefully become a better trainer.

Here is a simple easy example of what I am talking about. Years ago when I was teaching my young future patrol dog to go through the police academy’s obstacle course I left him in a stay and then directed him to go through one of the culvert tunnels. We normally did the course counter clockwise during certification tests so I had started him in that direction. I did this a couple of times, followed by much praise and enthusiasm for his skill.  Then I set him up at the other end of the culvert, again in a stay, and directed him to “tunnel”. He immediately ran to the opposite end, went through the culvert in what he considered the correct direction and blasted out the end, anticipating yet another party. He was also clearly delighted with himself for solving such a complicated exercise! And yes he did get the party he so clearly felt he deserved. Followed by my taking steps to manipulate his environment (putting him closer to the culvert and standing near the entrance) so that he quickly discarded his very brief assumption that he gets rewarded for running through the culvert right to left.

Another more recent observation: my young Rottweiler had passed both his TD and TDX easily and we were prepping for his VST. He worked a very nice section of track across a parking lot and then he came up to an article placed right before the curb at the edge of the parking lot. He stopped, carefully picked up the metal object in his mouth, gently set it down in the nearby grass and then laid down to indicate it. It was my habit to usually place articles in the grass portions of the track. Being strong on articles, I knew he wouldn’t have an issue indicating them on the hard surfaces, but because he is so article driven I had seen signs of him starting to use his eyes to scan for them on hard surfaces. However he clearly showed me on that day how well he understood the whole picture of what I had been rewarding him for – “Momma is very happy when I find articles on the grass. Therefore I must put this here…” When he came up on the article below the curb, seeing nearby grass, he took pains to arrange everything to maximize his chances of being rewarded. In his case the proximity to the grass was a big factor but it was also eye opening to have him show me just how attentive to detail he was capable of being. That they are so attentive is what makes them so amazing. It is also what makes training challenging.

While some dogs are more “literal” than others they all notice stuff that we can’t even imagine would be important to their understanding of the exercise. Sometimes this is totally unavoidable and a normal process of their learning, likely the case with the dog having trouble transferring from one metal object to another. We just back up our criteria a little bit and let them work through the transition. He learns that we want the scented item, regardless of its shape or material. However many times, in both competition and working venues, we inadvertently allow them to continue to make assumptions that we are totally unaware of. Familiar containers in detection. Or items contaminated or overwhelmed with other scents. Or our body language or other prompts or cuing.  I see this in all types of work and sports but it is especially common in scent or detection work. All we see is the dog getting it right – if we are not careful in how we train them to do the work they can get it right for reasons that have nothing to do with scenting or using their nose.



Steel demonstrating his understanding of just how close to the source of odor he needs to be in order to get rewarded!


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