September 5, 2008

Jackie:
One of the questions I had is that eventually he will only be tracking animal scent, and he won't be trained again on human? So he will remain specialized? But, you are saying, that, at this point, I should be training him only on animals, except for my own with the food?

Should I be working on simultaneously working on extending the track and the age of the track, like I have been doing?


Donna:
It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask them if they'd be willing to let you train with them. You could always tell them that, although you want to eventually move to finding animals with Dino, you're considering getting a puppy which you'd start to do SAR for humans. (Whether or not that's true...) That'd make them more likely to be willing to work with you. Each county has their own "personality," and some are much more militaristic and...what's the word...not exclusionary...not cliqueish...not discriminating...not particular...well, you get the idea. There's a word, and I can't come up with it. If you don't want to do things exactly the way they want them done, they won't let you play with them. Others are very relaxed.As far as when to do just animal, and when to do people... For the last 6 - 12 months of his training, you need to do *just* animal, no people. For now, I don't think it matters which you do. At the very beginning, you did just your scent, to keep things very simple and clear for him--he got rewarded when he followed your scent. (Also to keep it easier for you--you could lay your own trails!) Now, it's time to start adding "other people," whether those people be humans or animals shouldn't make a difference to him. If he learns now that "scent" simply means "some individual," whether that individual is human, cat, dog, horse, ferret, rabbit, or whatever, it'll be that much easier to do "Russian purple spotted guinea hen" later on when someone asks if you can. :-) But, for the last 6 - 12 months, no *humans* because it'll be complicated when the owner's scent is all over the scent article, and they've walked all over the search area. If he's spent 6 - 12 months looking for animals only, and getting no reward whatsoever for finding humans (and working problems specifically with contaminated articles, where he gets rewarded *only* for following the animal's trail and not the owner's), then he should be "mostly" proofed against following the owner's trail.As far as age vs length... On each training session, pick one variable to change. So, each session change either age or length, but not both. Or, add in an extra turn. Or, add in a different surface. Or, a different, hotter time of day. Or... But make sure it's just one variable. If he does well with that variable, then you can make that particular variable harder the next time you work it. (So, if he does well going from a 20 minute old trail to a 30 minute old trail, then you can maybe jump to a 45 minute old one, instead of 40. But if he has a hard time going from 20 to 30, then you don't change that variable for quite a while, and you might even need to go back to 25 or even 20 for a while.)As you move on, you'll add in other complications, like contaminated scent articles, negatives, double-backs, split trails, etc, etc. But that's *way* later on. Do be careful for now with laying trails and things like accidental trips to the bathroom. :-)