Darwin's Dog Training School

The best way to motivate my dogs to do what I ask, is to use a reward currency that they deem valuable. You wouldn't do your job if your boss decided one day that they were going to pay you in buttons from now on. For Astrid her ultimate reward is this Emotional Support Bear! #dogtraining #dogsofinstagram #dogreels #malinios #dutchshepherd #funnydog #happydog #belgianmalinois #positivedogtraining #dogstagram

I very rarely play fetch with my dogs, or at least normal fetch. The repetitive nature, the adrenaline and dopamine highs can make it very addictive. To the point that your dog can forget how to dog when out on walks. It can also massively increase the risk of injury if they are leaping, twisting or suddenly stopping to catch it. We are about to go through Darwin's second surgery for a ligament tear, so trust me that this isn't something you want to go through. Whilst his aren't fetch related injuries, ligament tears are commonly caused by fetch. Instead I like to use Astrid's favourite Kong tug. And we mix up how we play with it. In this video we are working with frustration and impulse control. Calmness is definitely something a lot of people want to work on, but here I'm purposefully amping her up. I want to work on her being able to hear, listen and respond to me even when she gets that tunnel vision. So instead of just fetch, we are working on impulse control, leave it, recall and then finishing with scentwork as she needs to search for the toy.

Here's a video of my helper Bertie, who is very new in his scentwork journey. He volunteered to help test out my new makeshift scentwall contraption. Thank you Bertie!

Recently Rori, Henry and Cleo had a go at searching the mail for "contraband." Inside one of the sealed envelopes was a metal tin that had a single drop of gunoil on it. Bless Cleo, this was a really tough session that put the dogs through their paces, she got a little distracted but got straight back to work and got the job done!

What a lovely video of... perfectly in-focus grass 😅 A bit of drive capping with the little shepherd in the background. Lovely to be out playing with her again now she's healed up from her spay 😊 #dutchshepherd

Saturday Adventures: Part 2 After a successful training session, we headed home for lunch. Got two dogs and a giant dog bed inside, and then realised I had lost the spare car key... 🫠 (We've been taking the spare out in case one of us needs to take a dog to the car to rest as both big dogs are injured) So back we went. I took Darwin to the area I had been sat in with Astrid, positioned him downwind of the prospective search area, cued an under and sent him off. And voilà - car key found buried in the long grass 🎉 Not the first time Darwin has saved the day 😅 A few notes on search success: 1️⃣ I brought Darwin in to a small search area - easily done as Astrid and I had sat still all morning! 2️⃣ I started the search downwind of the primary search area. Whatever odor was present was blowing into Darwin's face, making it much easier 3️⃣ I cued an under before releasing Darwin. You can see in the video that his nose is going before I release him. He's already picked up the scent and wastes no time 4️⃣ We practice this a lot! We'll often practice finding our keys, phones and wallets while out on walks (whatever we have in our pockets) Darwin doesn't know this wasn't a drill, but I'm very glad we train this 😅

Can you spot when Mylo is trailing and when he is distracted? Being able to read our dog is key to helping them find their trail layer- but it's really hard to spot body language changes when we are the ones on the end of the lead! Mylo is a collie, so he is more inclined towards visual distraction when passing something that could be herded... like a football. What I notice when watching this video is: 1️⃣ Mylo's trailing behaviour is fluid, fast paced and determined. He regularly dips his nose down to the ground and moves with confidence. He doesn't rely on his eyes at all when he is confidently trailing. 2️⃣ His distracted behaviour is very different. He lifts his head, his pace slows and he slightly lowers himself in typical collie fashion. He is guided by the visual rather than engaging with the scents around him. He needs a reminder from his handler to continue trailing - because he has stopped trailing in the midst of distraction. 3️⃣ When Mylo is working but loses the scent, we see him working nose down until he realises he's lost the trail. He lifts his head, but doesn't stop moving (unlike when he is distracted). He is easy to guide back to the last junction, and doesn't need reminding to keep trailing - because he never stopped trailing in the first place. We are working to introduce a "working" cue with Mylo for his handler to use when he forgets what he's doing (whether that is through visual distraction, scent distraction or if we have to interrupt the trail for some reason). Sometimes we all need a little reminder of what we are meant to be doing! #mantrailing

A quick breakdown of one of Team Toby's trails from yesterday! Toby is a relatively novice trailing dog, but as you can see, he's taken to the sport amazingly quickly. This trail involves surface changes between hard and soft ground. The trail layer's scent 'sticks' better to the soft woodland floor than the impacted gravel track, because the woodland floor has more surface area and moisture to trap the scent. When Toby trails down the track, he utilises the soft verges to more easily identify the scent trail- sometimes by sticking to one side of the track, and sometimes by weaving left and right over the track in a flowing negative pattern. When the soft verges run out in the carpark, Toby has to pause to work out which way the trail goes, and his intensity picks up as soon as he figures it out. What I find really interesting when I watch this trail back is how clearly Toby's head movements indicate his next turn. As handlers, sometimes it feels like we are just following the dog, but actually a big part of our role is to keep a running tally of all the little clues the dog is giving us, so we can be informed when our dogs need a little help in getting on track. Super trail Toby!

What a year! Thank you to everyone who joined us in 2023. It's the best job in the world and it is a privilege to work with you and your dogs. We've got some exciting stuff planned for 2024. Looking forward to seeing you next year 🎆 - Reece & Becky

A new skill for Darwin - submerged scent articles! This was our first introduction to the idea, with a simple set up of 3 shallow trays, one containing a scented article stuck at the bottom. I had no idea what he'd make of the scenario (and half expected him to tip the trays over) but he tackled it with ease. You can see that he is in odor right from the start. Scent particles 'stick' well to moisture, so even though the article is submerged, you can see Darwin is easily able to determine the source by scanning the surface of the water in each tray. And to top it off, I thought I'd put his indication duration to the test on this one. I broke before Darwin did at around the 20 second mark! #scentwork #scentdetection

Better late than never- here is a selection of Darwin's finds during his silver scentwork assessment! He powered through the assessment faster than I could film it, but I did get a couple of his finds on video! We've put a lot of work this year into solidifying and proofing his indication, and I'm really happy with where we've landed. The duration he will hold an indication is now well beyond the 5 seconds I was aiming for at the start of this year 🎉 A note on lead pressure: I have very slowly built up to proofing Darwin's indication against lead pressure. I would strongly advise against this kind of proofing until the dog is really, really confident in the sport (it would be extremely easy to demotivate or confuse your dog if they're not ready!) I've trained Darwin to ignore lead pressure when he's indicating as a way to proof him against my own handler mistakes. If he thinks he's found something, I want him to be 100% confident in holding that indication, even if I don't believe him! I've also worked on proofing his indication against things like me tripping or dropping things for the same reason. Proofing an indication should never, ever be aversive to the dog, and proofing should definitely look different for every dog-handler team! #scentwork #scentdetection

Come with me as I set up a blind search for Darwin and Reece! 13 articles hidden throughout the building, including inside bags, in cups and even in a musical biscuit tin 🍪 Followed by an article submerged in water! Reece worked this completely blind (a rare opportunity when you are usually the one setting up the searches!) Check back in with us to see how Darwin got on... #scentwork

A lovely demonstration of how trailing dogs work when scent is lifting into the air from super-lab Henry! This rather dramatic landscaping is the terrace at Staunton Country Park. The wind is carrying the trail layer's scent up and over the terrace, which is pretty novel for the dog! Henry works through this brilliantly by sampling the air through the railings on either side, before committing and heading down the stairs. It's a tough trail set up (not in the least for the line handling challenges it presents!) but a really interesting one. Excellent work from Team Henry! #mantrailing

More than a bit chilly today- the longlines were freezing as we trailed!

Little Bertie who has been doing a 121 puppy course is progressing wonderfully. On his latest session we introduced a whistle for recall for the first time. In this video it shows how far he progressed by the end of the session. I throw down a handful of chicken, back off and recall him, he not only responds immediately, but leaves the rest of the chicken behind! He then gets rewarded with his most valued reward, which is saved specifically for recall.

Monty may not be the fastest search dog, but I love his careful, methodical approach to searching. He covers absolutely everything as he passes, leaving no stone unturned and ends with a perfect indication. Bonus points for freezing in a handstand!

Ronnie was recently introduced to scentwork and he has been the fastest progressing dog that I've ever worked with. This is a short video of him being introduced to the concept of searching for food on cue and indicating. The final clip is his third ever session where he has pieced together searching and a freeze indication on an article that contains one droplet of gun oil.

Roland and Monty have really impressed me with their progress in scentwork. During the learning process the main aim is to teach them to enjoy the love of searching. Indication - where they freeze to let us know that they've found the scent article, is taught separately. Once they are enthusiastically searching and also doing well in the indication exercise, it is time to stitch the two together. Here is a short clip of our first session where they search and perform a freeze indication. Monty and Roland are the fastest two dogs to have gotten to this stage in Darwin's Dog Training School!

A bit of social learning in practice today! I'm teaching Astrid to stop on cue. Darwin already knows this trick, and can stop on a vocal cue, a whistle or a gesture. I'm using him as a shortcut to teaching Astrid the same cues. Dogs are social creatures, and often naturally copy each other if they spend a lot of time together. Used correctly, you can use an experienced dog to model a behaviour you want to teach to an inexperienced dog. On the second repetition, I introduce the whistle cue which Astrid hasn't been trained on. She doesn't know what the whistle means, so she looks to Darwin to see what she's meant to do and does her best to copy. From there, I can capture and shape the behaviour further. Be aware that social learning goes both ways, and bad habits can be passed on just as easily as good ones! #dogtraining #sociallearning

What else do you do on a Wednesday evening? I've been working on proofing Darwin's indication under increased distraction levels. In this video, I drop a pen, bang on some cupboards, jump around, and finally some kitchen-snow-angels where I'm making contact with him. It's all quite silly of course, but my aim is to proof Darwin's indication against whatever stupid human error I might be making when he's searching. As you can see, Darwin holds his indication solidly until I get on the floor, and even then he goes back to indicating after checking out what on earth I'm doing. I'm very proud of him! A note of caution: it's very easy to poison an indication with misguided attempts at proofing. You should be very careful to make sure your dog is indicating with enough conviction to ignore minor distractions, and proofing attempts like this should be done gradually. We must also be careful to not do anything that the dog finds aversive. For instance, my "banging" on the cupboards isn't loud enough to spook Darwin, which would be a quick way to demotivate him. #scentwork