the canine will learn for a faster reward. Once again, he must maintain
obedience to odor, not to doors.
Over time he should start to diminish frustration bites on objects. It
would still be wise to control the
environment by eliminating the
chance for failure by biting an unwanted item. You get the message.
As you progress, you can mix up
the scenario a bit to enhance this
needed behavior (pinpointing scent
source). Place a civil decoy hide
(decoy with no equipment) in a secreted position. Begin the search
and have the canine locate the scent
source. Once he locates, you can still
reward without the bite. This can be
done with decoy confirmation once
the canine has indicated by barking.
Leash the canine and pull him back
just far enough so he sees the decoy
show himself while motivating and
firing up the canine with verbal
praise. As the decoy shows himself,
continue to fire the dog up as you
praise him hard — this is not a bite
but it is a reward that the canine
will remember and still work for.
One more thing: if the canine is
really having problems sticking with
scent source, stop recalling him back
to your side and drop some of the
control. This will allow the dog to
win in a more dramatic fashion.
Once this problem is solved, then
bring your control back in slowly
and fairly, while balancing him out.
n Above: If the canine is really having problems sticking with scent source, stop
recalling him back to your side and drop some of the control.
Steve Dean answers: This is
one of those questions where it is
difficult to answer with any degree
of accuracy without actually seeing
what is taking place during training and how the dog is deployed
on the street.
The problem I have is that in my
experience, real suspects tend to be
rather a mixed bag. Some are in an
extremely anxious or emotional
state, maybe pushing out adrenaline,
sweating, and even hyperventilating.
However, others are calm, focused, or
almost comatose, especially if under
the influence of drugs or alcohol. If
your dog is reacting on every opera-
tional deployment in the same man-
ner — displaying the same behavior
and showing a high level of aggres-
sion — I would start to look at some-
thing a little closer to home.
