08/02/2025
What game do you play?
(A bit of nosework philosophy)
The competitive nosework trials have been around for over 10+ years now – it has changed?
It’s gotten more popular with more teams playing than ever before, NACSW, AKC, UKC, USCSS and many more trainers all pitching the best ways to train, how to prepare and strategize.
Which has made it easier?
If this is true then more teams would pass each level quicker, handlers would call less false alerts, the
average scores would be higher at the upper levels of competition. Maybe the case could be made for
one or more of these assertions, but on average it's still very similar outcomes. The trial makeup has also changed – rules have been adjusted; trial
expectations have been widely disseminated. Trial video is readily available for all levels, people know
what to train for – debrief videos provide ideas of what was the desired challenge in some cases – or at least generally the officials view of what might have happened. So, all these above developments and
evolution of the sport should mean its easier?
After judging and setting hides for trials, classes, seminars, etc. for the past 10 years – I watch people
intensely and ask myself in observing the handler and dog if I can understand the decisions they are
making in the moment. Sometimes I’ll see team, the handler has a clear idea of how they desire to work in a particular search – the team many times can execute this process to the handler’s desire. By most observations it’s a clean search, the decisions are predictable and clear, the dog works within these decisions with what could likely be seen as successful. On average the team finds most if not all the target odors, the handler calls finish, or completes the search by finding all odors as it’s a known number.
So, what’s the problem – its easier now? I almost never see what I just described. Often, I’ll see part, I
can understand the decisions the handler is making, but the dog is not working within this process to the
handler’s desire. Or I see a dog making decisions, however the handles body language is tortured
because the dog’s process is outside of the expectations of the handler. On occasion the search is going well – handler’s process is clear and dog is working well within these unseen guidelines … then
something else happens – 2 minutes of retracing, wandering around, maybe a false alert or counting
down the last few chimes of the handlers watch before a halfhearted finish call. Wait everything was
going great and then we needed 2 minutes to redo everything, “find another”, “did I call that one”, etc. If
you have been a witness to this ask yourself, What game is being played?
We spend countless hours training the dog so we can recognize their response to odor – only to then
forget we have a dog tell us we have found all there is to find but still need to exhaust all the search area or
time? There are no extra points given for using more time. The resources developed over the last ten
years should mean we spend very close to just enough time to find all we think the dog can find and
then its great job buddy – lets go have some more fun elsewhere.
So back to the question – what game is being played? Let us boil it down this way – I’m playing a game
with my dog where each of us has some information the other doesn’t. I know the boundaries of the
area – if its containers, I know the odor is in only the containers. The dog may not have this understanding in that moment, given the varied environments we play in some days the dog may not have any interest in checking containers as the odor availability is dynamically outside of those containers. The dog has far more information at their nose – the olfactory system is their primary way of engagement with said varied environments. I cannot see the odor I can only see how the dog responds to dynamic interplay of odor within their matrixed world. So, what is a handler to do – see above use every last second retracing each inch in the hopes of finding that elusive thing I can’t see. I have done this too, and worse but here, I submit – no.
The dog continues to work out this matrix of a world – continuing to give us beautiful communication of
the dynamics of odor and the lack there of. Their body language changes, like a loop in a computer
program. These patterns take several forms but at its root it falls into two categories; (1) - repeating
trained behaviors or (2) - engagement with non-target odors.
Back to my judging observation – a handler will say “he’s never done that before” or the game for the
dog is now something else, finding distractions, jumping on people, coming to handler for attention.
How does these fit into these patterns? If the dog is engaging in things, people or objects in a way that is
not hunting for odor then it’s likely they are communicating the lack of odor or they lack the requisite desire to find odor in that moment and is in the loop of non-target odor.
If the dog is returning to hides, won’t leave a find, or giving quick “alerting” behaviors on objects without the prerequisite hunting body language then this patten is in a loop of trained behaviors. Both cases indicate the dog is worked out what is available to them and it’s time to consider a decision needed in the context of the search – perhaps a finish call. If you still have 1(or more) to find – then a handler must have the ability to step in and support the dog in a new effort.
This can take many forms as simple as a pause in the search and a breath before encouraging the partner
to continue anew. Or dramatically stopping and beginning a process that the dog understands from
training to begin searching.
If you don’t know which pattern the dog is in – then we need to get better at reading the body language
the dog is giving. Using more time is not the solution, those beeps on the timer should be the bell tolling
for a decision missed, just like throwing up your hands as a handler it’s not the solution.
Play the game – work dynamically off the dog’s communication, be decisive in decisions to support the goal to create a beautiful play. In my reading/listening recently someone said paraphrasing; everyone either dreams of surfing or does it already. Why because we see the beauty in the process – to be at one with something dynamic and living – that creates a sense of cooperative balance. Participate in the best game to play – let your dog surf the scent – choose to join in this dynamic cooperative game with a best friend and partner.
Nose work events in southern New England.
