Lesson Learned AGAIN

Rule #2 of K-9 training. TRUST YOUR DOG!

The only training we did today was planting some drop aids while doing a vehicle search. Every now and then when I put Rogue into the back of a van he won't go to the front of the van and search it. This doesn't happen often enough for me to worry about it but when I get a chance to work on it I do. So I asked the handler that was with me to put an aid behind the driver's seat. The plan was for me to put Rogue into the back of the van and he would find the aid near the front reinforcing this behavior.

The back of the van had several boxes in and the other handler put the aid between two of them as close to the driver's seat as he could. I put Rogue into the van and he searched it with no change of behavior. The other handler pointed out where the aid was and made him search it again. At this point I should have trusted my dog and what he was telling me. He was telling me there was no odor in the van. Did I listen? NO, and I made him search it again. Rogue did as he was told and still couldn't find the aid.

I got him out of the back and kept searching the van because I needed a minute to figure out what the problem was. As we made our way around the front of the van and got to the open driver's door Rogue started to put his whole head under the driver's seat. That is when I realized what was going on. The wind was pushing the air from the back of the van into the front. Rogue didn't have a change of behavior in the back of the van because all the odor was in the front of it. Rogue pulled his head out from under the seat and tried to stick it between the seat and door frame. I'll give him good marks for trying to fit that big skull of his into such a small whole but it just wouldn't go so he looked into the back of the van and responded.

I felt better knowing that he hadn't missed an aid but felt like a rookie because I had to learn lesson #2 again.