Detector Dog Training: Obedience to Odor Methodology

Issue 8 | March/April 2018 | $9.95

Chicago Police Mass Transit Explosive Detection Canine Unit

2018

Detector Dog Training Obedience to Odor Methodology

#workingdogmagazine

VISIT US AT: WORKINGDOGMAGAZINE.COM

“LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM

Photo by Caylor Arnold tailandleather.com

14 | workingdogmagazine.com

Detector Dog Training OBEDIENCE TO ODOR METHODOLOGY

By Dondi Hydrick Problems in Detection Training

There is a widespread problem in the police and military detector dog training programs. Here is the problem as I see it: The majority of detection dogs currently in use have been conditioned to be too handler dependent, and the next group is being trained the very same way. Let me explain that just a bit.

The majority of police dogs, at least in this country, have been trained to search where the handler presents, tap, tap, tap. The dogs have been conditioned to be extremely obedient to their handlers right away. If their handlers give a command to sit or down as in a passive indication, they are expected to comply without thinking. If detector dog handlers tug on the leash, they cause the dog to move off odor and follow them. When the handler is not standing in the correct spot or fails to keep moving, the dog either fails to give the final indication or moves from the source of odor.

Trainers from all walks of life have created this problem, or at least allowed it to continue, without giving the problem any thought, much less concern. All of us, regardless of the type of detection dogs we train and have worked, have seen these same issues way too many times. Here is the biggest “secret” in the training of great detection dogs: Odor must be the most important thing to the dog — not where the handler is, what the handler is doing, or if the handler is pulling on the leash.

March/April 2018 | 15

Confidence Issues

I want to discuss a method of eliminating these issues and some others, such as false indications. You may have heard of obedience to odor before; some refer to it as aggression to odor. But what does that mean? To most, it means that the dog is actually searching and strongly imprinted on that target odor regardless of what it may be. I contend that it goes well beyond the imprinting stages and that it is only the most basic step in training dogs for detection.

Here at my kennels and during seminars, I train dogs to be virtually 100% obedient to each of the target odors for which they have been trained. You see, when a dog is obedient to odor, the dog must be at its highest peak of anticipation and remain there whenever it has detected one of its odors. The dog becomes compelled to get to and stay at the source, or as close as physically possible, regardless of its handler's location, what its handler is doing, or what is happening around it. To me, that is a dog that is obedient to odor!

Let me give you an example. While watching a detector dog team work, you see the dog give a clear change in behavior, and the handler misses the change. As the handler goes to redirect the dog, the dog gives a firm tug or even pulls his handler to a location other than where the handler directs him.

The handler allows the dog to go there to satisfy the dog’s curiosity. However, when the dog gets to the area, the handler tries again to pull the dog away because he does not believe the dog or for some other common reason. Yet, the dog now pulls the handler back even harder than before and refuses to move. The dog gives his trained final indication. The handler walks between the dog and that area, trying to get the dog to move to the other location he wants, but the dog runs around the handler and goes back to the same spot. That is obedience to odor.

The dog works the scent cone confidently to source (as close as physically possible) and gives a clear, resounding final indication. He cannot be called away by presenting another area, and/or when physical attempts are made to remove the dog, he is determined to stay at the source of odor. You may take the dog by the collar and pull him away, but he rushes right back. You pull on the leash, and the dog pulls harder trying to get back. You push the dog away with your legs, and the dog runs around you to get back to the source of odor. Not only is the dog

16 | workingdogmagazine.com

firmly committed to the source of odor, but he is so focused on the source that you become nonexistent to him. He does not care what you are doing or where you are. You, as the handler, can climb on top of a filing cabinet across the room, walk to the other side of the car, do push ups, tap on anything else, and the dog remains locked as if by magic to the location that contains the source of odor.

Realization I became acutely aware of how lacking current detection dog training was and needed to fix these issues quickly and easily for a government entity. The training had to account for the handlers’ lack of true understanding and limited abilities. I also needed a method that the group could easily see and believe in quickly. One not only supported by the handlers, but training that produced real, tangible results the upper echelon would see and trust.

I discovered and developed a method to help overcome the issues partially by accident and part by design. My first experience with a dog acting this way was a black Labrador named Otis. I was training Otis to be a narcotics detection dog. I discovered in the second and final week of his training, that once he located the source, no matter how many times I tossed his reward into place, Otis would not come off odor. I tried leading him by the collar, but he would rush right back in. After the second attempt of trying to pull him away, the Lab became aggressive. Otherwise, he was the most social dog you could meet.

Later, a small bulldog I was training to search nightclubs discreetly acted much the same way.

Years later when retraining dogs for a combat unit, I quickly became aware of the limitations that the dogs had working in that particular environment. Most often these were extremely low-lit, cramped, small areas or vast areas working quite a distance from anyone. The areas always had a lot of distractions: audible, visual, and an abundance of delightful and notso-delightful odors.

Methodologies I started by examining all the top detection training devices and processes, including those used by the U.S. military and many others at the time: the box method, Dutch boxes, the search wall, remote-controlled boxes, and methods such as having the dog search for and retrieve scented towels that were placed for weeks, if not months, ahead of time. What I discovered was that all the devices had the same basic flaws.

They all introduced something into the basic detection equation that caused the dogs to use their eyes first, and these devices had to be

phased out of the training later. This process took additional time and did not produce the reliability I wanted.

Methods such as allowing the dogs to search for and find scented towels or the like and retrieve them back to the handler produced dogs that tended to become aggressive at the location of the odor or become so frustrated that they would bite other items in the search area. Each method had basic flaws of their own built within the design. Each had certain things that needed to be eliminated later in the training process, and some used “sterile rooms” that also had to be dealt with later in training.

After examining each of these designs and methods by watching and talking to the experts who had used them for many years and listening to each person’s ideas and the logic behind them, they all seemed to fall short of what I was looking for.

Then I remembered Otis and the little bulldog and began analyzing whether they were closer to what I wanted. I had to rack my brain regarding what I did or did not do with those dogs to get them to act that way. I reviewed all sorts of research on detection training methods, behavior modification, learning — you name it, I read it. And I experimented.

March/April 2018 | 17

Photos by Derek Cain & Kimberly Scott

18 | workingdogmagazine.com

“The major factors that contribute to the dogs becoming extremely obedient to odor are quite simple and highly effective.”

Little by little, the light of hope and inspiration started to flicker. I had actually witnessed the answer many times and read about it at the Department of Defense Dog School at Lackland Air Force Base ages ago.

The first part of the solution was testing the dog for the correct drives, or at least adequate levels of each. The major part of the solution was the simplest and done with every detection dog: allow the dog to use those innate drives on his own in a manner that worked best for him. Of course, I had to establish boundaries for the dog to work within, but the hardest part was allowing the dog to use its abilities that it was selected for in a way that worked best. The key I had been missing was that I had to get out of the dog's way.

Putting the Puzzle Together When I put all the pieces together, I found that within a short time frame, I could continually produce functioning detection dogs that would search on their own with minimum assistance by the handler, give clear changes in behavior, and remain at the source of odor. I could have these dogs searching vehicles on their own and finding 75% of the odors without any handler interference within the first few days. The same method could be used to teach a dog to search for up to eight odors within a week and have them searching multiple rooms, including blank rooms, off leash and without any false indications within a week and a half. I added the obedience to odor, which was my original focus to this endeavor, and I found that an overwhelming 99% of all dogs that were selected for the correct drives and have the correct levels of each could be trained in this method and outperform dogs that had been in training using other methods for three times as long.

The Process The process I explain here is not meant to be allinclusive instructions about how to train detection dogs using my cognitive detection training method.

It’s an overview of how to make your dog more selfconfident in his detection abilities. The major factors that contribute to the dogs becoming extremely obedient to odor are quite simple and highly effective.

First and foremost, you have to have plenty of patience during the imprinting of the first odor. That is, you cannot be too quick to jump in and assist the dog. Allow the dog to learn to search on his own and without assistance from you. Any assistance should be only by means of attracting the dog from one location to another. This seems to be the hardest thing for trainers to do since virtually all our training has involved controlling the dog and the situations.

Instead, by using place association or aid placement, if you will, we condition the dogs to check productive areas 90% of the time. Therefore, they learn to develop a search pattern naturally.

Next, you must have the correct timing and vary the reward based on the dog’s performance and level at that moment. Initially, as soon as the dog puts his nose where the reward and odor are placed together, reward the dog. Normally, within six placements of the reward and odor, you can and should be able to place only the odor, and the dog will search for and go to the source of the odor only. The dopamine levels in the brain (the natural chemical associated with pleasure) are at their highest level at the point of expectation; therefore, the reward must be delivered as close to that point as possible.

As you train and work, you have to refrain from working the dog on a 6-foot or shorter leash. The leash/line must be used only to contain the dog within the total search area. Do not pull on the leash or attempt to guide the dog from one location or another. Remember the vital key to success — you must allow the dog to use the drives and abilities for which he was selected.

March/April 2018 | 19

You must establish a search area for placement of the target odors that naturally allows the dog access with his nose and the odors. Placing the odors well outside the dog’s natural nose level to begin with is nonproductive. Additionally, always start the dog in an area that contains things that he will find during his normal actual searches — lockers, desks, bookcases, printers, furniture, etc. All of these should be items that it does not matter if the dog steps on or scratches, and of course items that cannot injure the dog.

As I stated before, nearly all trainers who start to learn this method of detection training and making the dogs obedient to odor tend to want to jump in and assist the dog. This is especially true when the dog first gets in odor and is at source. Trainers want to get right in there with the dog and encourage him. This is a huge mistake if you want the dog to develop confidence in himself and his nose. You will only shoot yourself in the foot by doing so.

Here is a secret. The dog has only two options at those moments: 1) stay with the odor and at source, or 2) move away from it. There is nothing else the dog can do!

2 0 | workingdogmagazine.com

If you interfere with this process that the dog must undergo, you will undermine everything you had hoped to build. Physically encouraging the dog or overly verbally encouraging the dog (the level of verbal encouragement has to be suited to that dog) will start diminishing the dog’s self-confidence. This is not to say that you cannot tease the dog by rattling the drawer or ever so gently pull rearward on the dog’s collar, but you also need to tease him back to the source of odor.

If you reward the dog too soon, then the dog will not develop a strong enough sense of expectation or association between the odor and the reward.

Waiting too long, though, causes that level of expectation to diminish too quickly. The dog will not stay with the odor, or the dog will offer an unwanted behavior, and some dogs may start to become aggressive at the source. The aggressive response can be built in a day or two, but at this moment, we strive to build the dog’s confidence and a stronger-than-normal association with the odor.

As these build, you can begin to call the dog softly with a neutral tone or tap on something well out of the scent cone. When the dog’s confidence increases, up the redirection. Tap closer to the dog. Call the dog by name and ask him to search another location. He will have learned to stay with the source of odor since the only time and the only location the dog ever receives his reward is as close to the source as physically possible. Placement of the reward is critical. Never allow your dog to pick up the reward from the floor if you drop it by accident!

The reward must be delivered no more than 10 inches from the source.

You must always stimulate the dog and allow him to become an operant student. Build and develop this by stimulating the dog and those drives that you selected him for. As you allow him to become an active student, you set up the learning lesson for that learning trial that fits within the dog’s abilities at the moment and thus stimulates the dog. You will be amazed how much quicker your dog will learn the detection game and how much better he will become in a shorter amount of time.

Here is the simple truth to dog training. I will write it below as you would a math equation:

S R RF ±

This is known as a conditioning model. Some may use another term for the same thing. The S represents the stimulus; the R represents the dog’s response to the given stimulus. And finally, we have the RF, which represents the reinforcement or reward. So, we present the stimulus to the dog in a manner that attracts him to it. Then we have the dog’s response to that stimulus, which can be only correct or incorrect. If the dog responds correctly (placing his nose at the source), then we must provide positive (+) reinforcement. If the dog does not respond correctly or not close enough to the source, then you must withhold the reward.

Now, in my mind, the following is where a lot of people get into trouble.

When you add anything else into this equation, you will run into problems.

Therefore, if we encourage the dogs to use their eyes to locate where they are to search and obtain the target odor, they learn to use their eyes before their noses, and we must undo that later. If we teach the dogs to go to and smell a pink bin, and that is the only place they find odor and their reward, then we must eliminate

±

and replace it with actual items the dog will be expected to search later. This takes time and energy and often confuses the dog, so why do we do this? You can use virtually any device or object out there and develop a dog that is truly obedient to odor, although it may take a slight adjustment in the training protocol.

I do want to state that I am not against using training devices. I have used them, and I have developed some myself. I know the guys who have developed several of the commercially available devices and I think they are great.

They went outside the normally accepted methods formerly used, so I give them credit for being true pioneers and visionaries. So, when is the next visionary going to come about?

What I try to do is think outside the proverbial box, and I wish more people would.

That is the true mother of invention.

“The box, with its implications or rigidity and squareness, symbolizes unimaginative thinking and frustration. The solutions to most problems are often found outside the box.”

Dondi Hydrick has over 35 years of experience training dogs and handlers for SAR, police, and military special operations. He has conducted training both within the U.S. and several foreign countries. Dondi is a former sheriff’s deputy and was the Master K9 Trainer for 3/75th Ranger Battalion later becoming the Master K9 Trainer for 75th Ranger Regiment. Currently, he is the owner and chief trainer of K9 Dog Center USA located in Pine Mountain, GA. He conducts K9 training and seminars worldwide.

Email: oldk9man@gmail.com

March/April 2018 | 21

Guardian Point is dedicated to providing organizations with the highest quality working dog teams in the world, teams that can operate in any type of situation, in any environment, under any circumstances.

PERFORMANCE WHEN IT COUNTS

ADVANCED CANINE ATHLETIC PROGRAM TRAIN YOUR CANINE FOR PEAK FITNESS

When & Where It’s Convenient for You! From detection, to apprehension and patrolling, the success of the professional K9 rests on their nutrition and conditioning.

The Advanced Canine Athletic Program, or ACAP for short, focuses on improving the overall conditioning and effective working pace of the K9.

The ACAP was developed by veterinarians, K9 trainers and handlers from law enforcement and elite military special operations units. The ACAP app provides two (Basic and Premium) structured conditioning programs for both Patrol and Detection canines, complete with a daily schedule, videos, instructions, and educational content.

www.guardian-point.com

To support your canine in his training and in the field, we also offer a wide array of tactical and training equipment, accessories and gear.

Try the ACAP free for 7 days!

Just search “ACAP” in the App Store or on Google Play.

For more information about our equipment, ACAP or other training services, visit our website at guardian-point.com.