It's Working

Yesterday's training problem was a luggage search. It didn't start out very good. I thought Rogue was going to miss the first aid. He got to the bag (the next to the last bag in that row) and sniffed it but I didn't think he had a COB. We kept moving, got to the end of the row and then started on the next row. While searching the next row Rogue pulled back to the bag with the aid and then had a good COB. He just looked at me after he sniffed it. Once I asked him "Where is it?" he went back to source and responded. We did the same thin on the second aid but on the third aid he looked like a pro. Great COB, sniffed it and responded.

I hate searching luggage but we are so close to fixing this problem that I can't stop now. I'm going to be doing a couple of luggage problems a week for the next couple of weeks.

Cargo/Luggage

The first part of the training problem was cargo. No real problems here. Rogue had a some trouble finding one of the aids because of the wind. He knew it was in the area but he couldn't pinpoint it. When he responded he was about 20 feet from source. He was down wind of it but the odor was pooling up against a group of pallets. Little did I know that the aid was in the next group of pallets. He did good even though he wasn't on source. The next part of the problem was luggage. I hate searching luggage because it is Rogue's weak area. He found all three but didn't want to sit on any of them. After we searched all the bags we did it again (from a different statrting point) and this time he was assisted on the first two but by the third one he sat on his own. I think his light bulb came on and he relized what he should be doing. I will try luggage again next week and see if he remembers what to do. After we finished the problem I found that the aids we were using weren't ours. We were using aids from a local department. Some people says a dog will have trouble finding an aid he has never used before because is smells a little different than the aids he is use to. This wasn't the case here. Rogue had his normal problems but he had a great COB on all of the aids so I'm sure he will find anything that he should.

Blank Problem

Yesterday I get a call from my trainer and she tells me to go to certain building and search a certain room and that it was a self confirm problem. Rogue did the whole search off leash and was doing pretty good. He got to a desk, had his COB but looked a little confused. He responded on the desk after showing high once or twice. This normally happens when the aid is high and he can't get to it. I was thinking that the aid was over his head but the odor was dropping onto that desk. So I sent a text message to my trainer and she told me that there was nothing near that desk. We left that area and continued on with the search. When we got into the next office Rogue was all over the west wall. (The office and the desk Rouge responded on were about 20 feet apart.) He was jumping as high as he could and then responding. By now I am sure that the aid is in the ceiling. This would explain why he is showing high and if the odor was in the ceiling then it could very easily have been going across the ceiling and dropping onto the desk Rogue responded on. Again I sent a text to my trainer and again she told me there was nothing there. This office was the end of our search so I told her we where done. That is when I found out it was a blank problem. Since I didn't expect this type of problem I liked it. The only thing I didn't like was that she did this training in a building that we always use for training. I am now thinking that the reason Rogue had the two false responses was because he was in a building that he also finds something in so he was expecting to find something. We searched for about 20 minutes before Rogue had his first false response. Since we have done longer blank problems than this I don't think the time was a factor. I will have to start doing blank problem in all of our normal training areas to fix this.

Long Time

I know it has been a long time since my last post. Sorry. We didn't do any training yesterday but I did get Rogue to jump into the back of a truck with a running start. The bad news is that I couldn't get him to do it again. We will be back on the obstacle course today.

The funniest thing that happen during last weeks training has nothing to do with Rogue. I was setting up training for another handler and found a nice hiding spot inside a cabinet. I hide a very large aid in the cabinet. While I had the cabinet open I found the keys to the cabinet tapped to the inside of the door. I thought "Great I can lock the aid in here and not have to worry about it". Everything was great until it came time to pick up the aid. I had lost the key. Murphy was with me on that day. I looked for that key for about 30 minutes with no luck. Between me and the other handler we were able to get the door off of it's hinge and save the aid.

During one of the training problems last week my trainer had one of the aids hidden in the middle of a small puddle. Rogue wasn't bothered with the water until he had to sit. It was a hot day so I was sure that he would do it but I was wrong. Once he got to source he just stood there and looked at me. It took a minute or two but he finally sat in the water and was rewarded.

What Were You Thinking?

I already posted about yesterday's training but after I did that I went back and looked at the notes that were put on the training sheet for yesterday. The third training problem of the day was run by another handler and not the trainer. This problem was a dirt road going through the woods and was about 150 yards maybe 200 yards long. We were to search from tree line to tree line but didn't have to go into the woods. Because the wind was blowing from west to east I started my search on the east (left) side of the road. After we had been searching for a minute or two I noticed that the wind had changed and was now blowing south to north. The other handler also made a comment about it. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days when the wind changes directions every couple of minutes. Since I can't keep changing my search pattern I decided to work the entire left side of the road and then work back on the right side of the road. While we were working back down the right side of the road Rogue had a COB and worked the odor to the middle of the dirt road (the area between the tire tracks) and responded. I thought everything was cool but when I looked at the training sheet I found out the other handler gave me a handler miss for this aid. When I asked him about it he said it was because my dog didn't find it when we went down the left side of the road and I didn't present the aid. I tried to tell him that you can't give someone a handler miss if their dogs finds the aid. I could tell the fight was about to start but our trainer stepped in and told him almost the same thing I did. He could see her point but not mine. Sometimes I have to wonder what people are thinking.

Open Area

Yesterday we did three training problems, they were all open areas. The first training problem was a self confirm problem and Rogue did perfect. He had his COB from 15-20 feet away and did a great job working the odor to source. The second problem was a little different. We weren’t given any search parameters. We were told to start walking down a very wide path. We did miss the second aid. It was hanging in a tree at about 5. My trainer believes that because I had Rogue on a 6 foot leash I might have gotten in his way. She suggested that when doing a big area like this that I either do it off leash or use a 360 leash. I don’t trust Rogue yet while off leash and in a large area, he likes to chase small animals. I will work on doing searches off leash. The last aid of this problem had been out for a long time and the area was saturated with odor. Rogue had it narrowed down to a 30 foot radius but couldn’t pinpoint it. He worked it for 5-10 minutes before he stepped on it and found it. There was a miss in the third problem. I don’t know if he was exhaling when he walked past it or what but on the second pass he had no problems finding it. It was in a tree at about 4 feet high. Rogue was standing on his hind legs trying to get closer to source.