Black sharks… Paco, Neko and Luca at the lake today
Neko & Luca
This wasn’t easy for me to video, while puppy maneuvering through a crowd. A different kind of walk for Neko and Luca, full of new people, scents and sounds. These two are fast learners.
Food chasing and body awareness play with puppy Luca
Paco’s enthusiastic comeback to the search wall. He doesn’t want to leave it, for obvious reasons.
A touch of indication training added. I’m actually not in a rush with that.
With the pups arriving, Paco is now the adult dog. He’s just turned one year old in June.
If you’re developing a search dog or puppy and want to do something similar I’ve done to get this result with Paco, check out Momentum Coaching with me:
https://www.ontargetk9.co/1-1-training
Little Neko enjoys a good chase, as well as biting that rag.
We play this in the build-up for her Detection dog training.
Raven back on the search wall.
We’ve been travelling for a while, a great opportunity for the dogs to gain new experiences, but also a time without brick wall training. Still, sometimes taking a break means we’re coming back with yet more enthusiasm.
Paco
A year on playing with Paco at our workshop venue in Mid Wales, in the same place I’ve played with Tora last year, resulting in the controversial video of him fighting to pull back to the Kong I’d left behind (link in the comments).
Training can now get serious with Paco, who shares the same genetic material as Tora and is now around three months younger than Tora was then.
He has the same possessive tendencies and loves to chase a Kong. Just like with Tora, I’d like to strengthen his targeting. He naturally fights me for the Kong, it’s not quite Tora level, let’s see if he’ll react the same with a few months more build-up.
Paco is now the big dog, since the new puppies have arrived. He’s got many common traits with Tora, but also his own quirky personality. He was walking on a roof the other day, searching for something.
Neko
Fun with Neko, mini searches in the woods early morning
Puppy Neko is now 16 weeks old and is doing her cat name proud. She’s done some growing but still only to tiny Kong size. I love how playful she is.
Luca
Luca food chasing this morning straight after my Yoga practice, and a little example of how you can give your pup their breakfast.
Puppies
Snippets from Lucifer, Fenix and Paco’s most recent brick wall practices
Raven’s turn to have fun.
He’s had fewer brick wall sessions than the other puppies, he’s still developing his own strategy to tackle this exercise.
Fenix having fun with brick wall searches.
Of all the puppies, Fenix is now the most experienced at this. This is still a no rules search, with no trained indication. But I can still subtly influence when he has success, with target placement, for example. At the moment, his highest expectation is at the left of the wall. I’m working to change this, for a more even search.
Lucifer’s brick wall practice last night. It’s all still 100% natural, motivational and fun, zero obedience, zero impulse control.
Backing vocals by Paco, impatient for his turn.
Want to learn the games I play with trainee search dog puppies for motivation and search development? A few places are still available for my Hunting Games workshop in Pembrokeshire, UK, 14-15 June.
More info and booking:
https://www.ontargetk9.co/courses/hunting-games-workshop-2days
Jump!
Fun at the lake with all the dogs
Training our dogs to search for a scent and pinpoint the location of its source is fascinating. But we’re often tempted to rush into expecting the dog to deliver the ‘end product’, to run before they can walk properly.
Over the years I’ve seen naturally driven dogs stop after two or three short searches, to just look at the handler - infuriating. With some other dogs you can tell their heart isn’t in it, and also that it could be - how much better would it feel to watch them then. I also see frantic, inefficient searching - what an unnecessary waste of energy.
Some years ago I’ve changed my approach to search dog training. I'll postpone the satisfaction of having a dog searching and indicating on scent asap and, instead, first make sure that they have a strong foundation, with tonnes of motivation in the bank. It's fun and the results speak for themselves.
This video is of the end of a play session with Tora at just over one year old. What do you think about his desire for the toy, and that he’d do anything he can to get it?
During my 2-day Play and Motivation in Detection Dog Training: Hunting Games Workshop, with Astrid Lowe in Pembrokeshire on 14-15 June you can learn and experience games like the ones I’ve played with Tora before we arrived to what you see here. Hunting Games, how I like to call my games for search dogs, are not tug-of-war. They’re different from playing for a fun interaction or as a reward for other activities.
If you’re just starting to build your dog’s foundation in Detection or want a recap or an overhaul, this is where I’d start. I’ve also scheduled a one-day event straight after on 16 June, to focus on indication - a topic that shouldn’t be as big as it can become. We’ll look at how to prevent and address problems in indication training, whichever way you decide to train it. You can attend both.
To learn more and to sign up visit my website:
https://www.ontargetk9.co/courses/hunting-games-workshop-2
Paco and his unique way to approach the search wall
Floyd
This is puppy Floyd practising his passive indication on a piece of Kong, at different heights.
There are many ways to train an indication for detection dogs. I’ll be coaching you through training one of these methods during my upcoming Detection Indication Facebook Challenge.
We’ll work with the same training progression I used for Floyd. You can use food only, or introduce a toy reward at a later stage, which is what we’ve done with Floyd.
My webinar ‘5 Common Mistakes in Training an Indication for Detection Dogs’ is good preparation ahead of starting the challenge. It has however already been delivered last night. If you’ve missed it and would like to purchase access to the replay get in touch.
To book the training challenge go to https://www.ontargetk9.co/courses/detection-indication-challenge
A glimpse of the physical conditioning work I do with the puppies: Lucifer’s first session to learn the handstand.
He’s since also done it without the platform, back paws straight up the wall, like Fenix in my other video.
More fun with sound!
Body awareness exercises at dusk
Training with Fenix is always fun, he's one of my fastest learners. Real footage of his first time up the wall. We'd done some walking backwards on a flat surface before, plus one session working up to almost this.
For added fun, watch with sound.