Question #4 Should you Reward on Real Searches??? скачать в хорошем качестве

Question #4 Should you Reward on Real Searches???

Question #4 Should you reward your dog on a real search or wait until you can confirm something is there? Also what do you do if the search area may have multiple finds? My answer is this…if your training is sound and you follow the proper principles of training and preparation, such as incorporating proofing Odors distracting odors, Blank searches, single blind and then Double Blind testing then why would you doubt what your dog is telling you when it alerts on a real search. Why would you create a circumstance where reality consistently looks different than training? Why would you open the door for someone to question whether or not you even believe your dog on a real search. Frequently, responses to this are "well I don’t want to inadvertently reward my dog for some other type of odor, or I want to be sure some thing is there before I give reinforcement". We all know there are many circumstances in which the dog will indicate to the odor but no substance can be found, this does not mean the dog was wrong. However, if we keep not reinforcing on real searches because of being unsure… why are we doing real searches?? If you want the legal system or a client to have faith and trust in your dogs ability and your ability to work your dog then your training should prepare you for real searches and you should be able to reinforce the dog when it properly does the trained response because it located the presence of target odor. Of course there are safety considerations, as well as when we are using variable reward schedules but even in those circumstances if you use a conditioned reinforcer (marker signal) you are at least able to signify to the dog that what they did was correct. We also understand there are no perfect dogs and there are no perfect Handlers and if for whatever reason on a real search the dog indicated to something non-target...you utilize this information to address and create corrective action that you need to work on in training. Again, the legal system understands and is not looking for a perfect dog so if in the history of the dog both in training and reality there are errors this is understood if we try to portray that we have a perfect dog they are already going to know we are not being forthcoming with our information. Push yourself in training have a proper training system in place and your training and reality should match up as close as possible so that way you are best prepared when deploying your dog.