I often get requests from clients to review video of searches they do in trials and critique them. These requests typically come after a handler learns that their dog “missed” a target odor that they swear their dog “should have got”. I can sometimes hear the panic in their voices and they often go on a downward spiral thinking that their dog is somehow ruined. Things like “I can’t believe she walked it” “I’m so shocked, he never does that!” get said and visions of remedial training start dancing through their heads. Now, those that know me and have trained with me have probably heard me say often “Foundation is everything. You must constantly be reinforcing your foundations”. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with remedial training. But the sense of panic and the need to start over that is felt is –for the most part - it is completely unnecessary. When you get into that panic- that’s when the real problems start. You are not perfect and despite what you may think-neither is your dog.
I’m not going to lie, after I review the video, often I see where the human part of the team made errors that caused the team to “miss”. But then again, I’m reviewing video of a search where I actually know where the odor is located. I have that luxury- the handler is doing it blind and under the pressure of a clock.
However sometimes it looks like the team did everything correctly but there is no noticeable change in behavior in the area where other dogs clear changes in behavior. Some of you ask me “What is wrong with my dog?” The answer is simple. Nothing. Your dog is fine. Do you want to know why that “miss” happened?
Because it’s a freaking a dog!
It’s a living, breathing, creature that is acting off of trained and instinctual behaviors. Their heads are constantly moving, their nose is at the end of their head so it is moving as well. Before we move on, let me clarify. If your team is consistently missing a target odor, then perhaps there is a deficiency that needs to be trained. But if it is one time, maybe even a couple, I don’t feel there is any reason to think the sky is falling.
But what else is moving during the searches other than your dog? The odor is. It’s not a question of “if” odor is moving, it’s a question of how much and how far. This movement of odor is often called the “scent cone” or “Odor plume”. I’ve probably used the term “scent cone” a thousand times when talking about the odor that is emitting from a source as it travels with air movement. But it’s actually kind of misleading. It’s a good generic term to give the general idea of how odor moves in air current getting wider and weaker the farther is away from source. But I feel “plume” is a far better word to describe the movement of odor. If you’ve ever seen a smoke plume, it is far from having straight edges. The plume has peaks, valleys, empty pockets, bumps and every other term you can think of for describing a surface that is anything but smooth. It is our job as handlers to provide the best opportunity to get the dog’s nose in that odor plume. Notice I said “opportunity” because sometimes no matter how great your team work is, the dog’s nose just doesn’t make it into the odor plume. You can’t see the odor or how the odor moving. You do your best but let us not forget that luck favors the prepared. Preparation and planning are what brings you up to that next level.
You train to the highest level that your team is able to. Strive for perfection as a team when you are training. That desire for perfection while transfer over when you compete. For those of us that are what the sport detection genre call “real world” or “professional handlers” – our competition is against humans hiding things they don’t want us to find. Narcotics detection teams are people the ones who really have to able to articulate what they as a team did because they most likely wrote a detailed report about those observations. They could be called into court to testify on what the dog is trained to do and what they observed. Explosive detection teams are probably under the most pressure because people can die if the team doesn’t locate a trained odor. However, we , the “real world/professional” are generally not under the pressure of a time clock, especially when the whole idea of the sport is to be fast and accurate. No one cares if I drop a piece of hot dog on the ground or toss a ball to my dog. And no one has ever warned me “30 seconds!” during one of my deployments.
Training should be difficult. If you sailed through the training session with ease, then ask yourself if you did have a training session or maybe did you just had a rehearsal. Teams learn far more from struggling and stumbling during training than they do when the team really isn’t challenged. Of course your trainer should have a plan to challenge you but also one to make you successful.
If you know that a certain element is where your team struggles, then don’t avoid training it. I got a bunch of calls and texts this weekend after a trial. I heard things like “containers are our nemesis” and “we always struggle with vehicles”. Well if you know it’s an issue, face the demon, and tackle that problem! Understand that training through an issue is not going to be fixed with one session. It’s a process and with a solid foundation the team will most likely be successful. But success often depends on how much time and dedication the part of the team with two legs is willing to put in. Don’t be afraid to break it down and rebuild. Your goal should be constant team improvement.
So while your dog may be pretty good, they aren’t perfect. And I guarantee you aren’t perfect either. This point of this article is to help you understand that just because your dog didn’t display any changes in behavior where other dogs did, doesn’t necessarily mean you have an issue. It might help you understand why they didn’t and help keep your confidence in the team. The dogs nose and the target odor need to meet. Sometimes that is more difficult than we think.
In the last 18 years of working and training dogs I have noticed one thing to be fairly consistent- there is always some skill we need to improve on. No matter how good your team is, strive for perfection. You may not be perfect but being pretty close to perfect feels pretty good.
Stay Safe and Know Your Dog!
