10/30/2025
I had the pleasure of setting two AKC Detective Searches for the Metropolitan Baltimore Doberman Pincher Club a few weeks back. I had Shaman with me since we were staying at the trial site and ended up using her as the Demo Dog. This video is longer than I like to post but I wanted to post a Shaman video.
Here are my thoughts on this search:
Exterior - Why did Shaman go up to the deck? Most of the odor was indoors and that is where she was headed. I needed to encourage her to keep working outside. The advantage to this is that we cleared the exterior area and did not need to go back later in the search.
Doorway:
In transitions like this, allow a "reset" or in other words let the dog work that threshold. I did not need to grab the harness because the door did that slow down job for me and I was able to keep a good tension on the line to keep Shaman from bolting into the building.
Quadrant Handling:
Limiting the area the dog is searching and removing the decision to bolt too far into the space. This means the dog needs to understand tension on the line (or have a good working recall) and how to work an potentially clear area when the other areas are calling to the dog's nose!
Long Time for Shaman to Make a Decision:
Why does it take Shaman so long to locate and track down each hide? More simple than you think. This is AKC strength odor and I normally do no run at that level ( about five Q-Tips worth) and that is for each one set out!
Why are you working on Lead?
One behavior I noticed with Shaman is when she is off lead, her focus lessens. I chose to keep her on lead to make the quadrant handling easier, but also to keep Goofball's nose attached to her brain. :)
Do Not let your Lead Drag:
Keep your Leads off the floor so it does not get taggled up in the dog's legs! It makes it more difficult to untangle the dog and most often that is done way too close to the next hide!
I could have done a better job of covering the back of the main room, but as Shaman got to the next doorway, she turned herself around to work that chair under the table hide. If this was a trial search for me, I would have held her to finish this room and the nooks and cranies we missed with her dive to the back.
In the second room, Shaman went immediately to the second hide, but the call of the pool noodle hide was greater than sourcing what was in front of her. This is the benefit for working known location hides so they are held to finish what they started and not walk everything to find the next best thing.
The 18 Teams that ran this search did a fantastic job. Where Shaman had to get the idea of a intense strength of odor, the AKC dogs are old school with it.
The Pool Noodle hide I was most worried about was found by every dog that made it back there. Whether or not the Handler called it, well that is what it is. ;)
I had fun with this search and I think so did the competitors. :)
