This is a clip from what would haven been an average training session with Beans 🫘 when he was a pup (under a year). During this time we were not doing much bite work, and instead, we were focused on developing his nose. We had already shaped his indication behavior on a blank box before adding the odor of methamphetamine, which is why his alert was already well established before I introduced a specific odor.
I like to teach detection in a way that I’ve modeled off of the Dick Stahl method of teaching tracking and article indication using free shaping and back chaining methods. In plain English I am saying that I start by shaping the indication behavior. Then I move into specific odor recognition, followed by search pattern, all before ever naming the behavior.
I’m one of the weird ones that not only prefer an indirect reward when it comes to odor detection, but I firmly believe that, for many dog/handler teams, doing so will make the final response much more consistent and less likely to result in the dog looking back at the handler or trainer once it identifies the target odor—making for a sharper, more identifiable and articulable, change in behavior and final alert to the presence of odor.
There are many ways to teach clarity and obedience to odor. Poppers and good timing with a toy via direct reward on the part of the trainer does work. So I’m not necessarily saying this is the right way for everyone, but for me, this is the best way to produce the cleanest end product.
What is Drive Capping?
There’s a very interesting discussion going on amongst a few friends of mine on social media about the whats and hows of drive capping in relation to working dogs. One of those folks made a post the other day about leaking drive when capping your dog and another friend made a response about preferring not to allow such behaviors particularly during the giving of warning announcements.
While both are giving very good information I wanted to touch on the how when it comes to not allowing dogs to leak drive. Whether we are talking about the quadrants of operant conditioning or a particular subject such as drive capping there is always going to be a ton of gray area. There is gray space in the definition of training techniques; there is grey space in the application of said techniques; and there is even more gray area because all of that is entirely dependent on the trainer’s skill and timing and the overall constitution of the individual dog.
So without getting too far into the weeds, I wanted to talk about the basics. I’m going to be using my personal dog Beans as an example. In the above video there are three clips.
In the first two clips I am using good communication and timing between me and my decoy in conjunction with the positive reward quadrant of the operant conditioning matrix. In plain English: my dog is not going to get anything from the decoy unless I am getting perfect compliance. Because I’m not adding any conflict I’m going to maximize the efficacy of our training time and improve overall clarity of task for the dog without shutting him down. I will repeat this process and slowly build up the amount of time that I can cap the dog without losing control.
In the third clip, only once the dog fully understands what I am asking him to do, I am adding positive punishment to extinguish the leaking behavior. Notice when the dog receives the correction there is zero confusion or conflict that could result in the
Pho 🍲 pt. 2 #pho #scratchcooking
Pho 🍲 pt. 1 #pho #homemade #scratchcooking
