05/06/2024
Excellent post by Jill-Marie O'Brien, one of the NACSW founders.
Jill's thought process: This seemed to resonate with some participants during TFSE24 last weekend and I figured I'd share it in the event the visual helps handlers deal with managing situations in which the dog gets caught in an apparent vortex of of converging odor in the middle of a space.
"Converging odor is like being on a roundabout, but with your dog. Your dog gets drawn into the collection of odor and then cannot seem to pick a direction to go. Like those folks that get themselves onto a roundabout but cannot figure out which lane to use and road to take off of it. They just go around around. Our dogs will do this. This is when we need to take the steering wheel, even briefly to get off the roundabout. Then we can turn the controls back to the dog until our assistance is needed again."
When we just allow our dogs in the name of following them all the time and never feeling justified in influencing their choices we often make their "jobs" harder. As searches get more complex having the balance between you and the dog is most critical. This doesn't mean pointing to where the dog should put their nose every second, or dragging them around, but being able to take the steering wheel from time to time to get things moving. And if you chose the least productive road off the roundabout, make a u-turn (most dogs will dog this without your help) and try a different road.
Creating visual comparisons and analogies is helpful for me in how my brain sees things (thank you ADHD) and I figure it might help others.
Graphic borrowed from the FHWA.