3 day scent workshop

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
We’ve just done day 1 of a 3 day scent workshop, and it was fascinating - and exhausting! I’ll post more after tomorrow’s session, but in brief(ish),today we covered shaping a nose touch to a scent pot that looked like this:
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So we got a reliable nose touch, rewarding under the pot to reinforce the dog’s nose getting the scent, then moving this to a nose touch on the pot on the ground, then in different locations relative to the handler, then increasing distance. We also worked on scenting squares, where the handler walks in a square depositing their scent by taking little steps and using a defined entrance/exit route, scattering food on the square. Then they bring in the dog who theoretically hoovers up the food and pairs the scent with the food reward. Kipper didn’t do this as the food (kibble) wasn’t interesting enough in a stimulating environment, so we’ll be prepared to up the ante tomorrow! We finished by shaping to a new ‘object’ (poker chips we’d had in our pockets all day) and we’ll continue with these tomorrow. There were lots of breaks in cars in between sessions, I was surprised how tiring the dogs (and hoomans) found it.
D710F342-50F4-4ADA-8110-91928506F6BD.jpegIt was a great day, I learned a lot about my handling and Kipper just loves it. Looking forward to tomorrow.
 

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
Day 2 was equally tiring! We worked through strengthening the association between the poker chip and the indication of nose touch - lie down pointing at the thing. Then started generalizing to our scent on a small dog tag, we’d been carrying in our pockets for the whole of yesterday.
This was a case of going back a stage or two (nose touch in the hand, nose touch holding object on the ground, nose touch with object directly in front of handler, then adding difficulty with orientation to the handler, proximity to the handler, then different surfaces etc).
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We had a good day, but it was very warm and Kipper’s energy levels were quite low. He enjoyed it and picked things up, but we didn’t have much snap - which was actually fine by me given the heat and the pace of new information. Some people were moving on to adding a cue, but we didn’t quite get there.
We did a scent square this afternoon and I upped the value of the food used (cheese!) which meant Kipper did clear it, albeit quite slowly. I think the environment is also quite tricky for him there, there are a lot of smells. We then did another square in a fresh location and put the chip in the square (without the dog) then got the dog and took them to the scent square and cues them to find the chip. I was dressed for ‘Nam with a bandana by this stage, as you can see:
E83F9910-B01A-47BC-A024-FA42C93FD0E5.jpeg This was tricky for us (understatement!) as we didn’t yet have a verbal cue, so when we got in the square Kipper wasn’t really sure what I wanted - so sat beautifully and looked at me until we called it a day :)
So tomorrow we need to nail the verbal cue and hopefully the rest will follow...
 

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
“Tomorrow came, a few days late...”

Day 3 of scent training
Going back to my notes ((I made a lot!) we started rebuilding value in the item to be found - a plastic poker chip in our case. So this was stepping back to basics = 1. Hold chip in hand behind back. Bring out chip - dog nose targets it - Mark “yes!” - reward on/just under the chip, so smell of chip is strongly associated with reward. 2. Hold chip behind back, then hold on ground - dog nose targets chip on ground, then into a down with front legs either side of chip - Mark ‘yes!’ - reward on chip on ground. 3. Place chip on ground a small distance (5/10 cm) from handler - dog nose targets chip then into a down - mark and reward as above. 4. As 3 but move chip around in relation to handler, with behind being most tricky. 5. Throw treat away from dog, place chip (‘blind’) when dog occupied, dog returns, finds chip and indicates (nose target and down), Mark and reward.
Once this was bullet proof, then we started adding the cue - most people went for ‘find it!’ - as soon as the dog turns from getting the thrown treat as in 5. above.
All the way through we kept returning to the order of training:
Search - locate - down - mark - reward.
We did a lot of talking about observations on body language (human and dog), eye contact, focus and energy levels and talked through troubleshooting games to increase independence & working at a distance, (playing search games through a tangle of objects - cardboard boxes, umbrellas, squeaky toys etc), increasing focus on the article (feed on the article, increase value of rewards), duration (increasingly delay the reward after marking), handler timing (practice without dog!), focus with distractions (work with other dogs around), and independence (‘working the clock’):
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It was a long old day, but plenty of rest time in cars for the dogs. In the afternoon we worked on more scent squares, in between exercises to work on distance, independence etc. this is Kipper and me working on ignoring distractions and keeping focus (I.e. staying on the boundary :)):
 

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
all sounds very complex
That’s my write up! It was actually quite well structured using a back chaining approach, moving from building value in the item-to-be-found to the mechanics of searching to creating a trail. I think the challenge was in the different levels of progression for the group, but generally it worked pretty well.
you are both obviously enjoying it.
It was a good course overall, but actually 3 days was quite long - and Kipper lacked his usual zip. I think he finds the environment difficult, as do I a bit. Not sure I’d do another 3 day workshop.
Will you do any more workshops?
I’ve booked up for a one day workshop in September on learning new games to play. I’ll report back!
 
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