Work that nose!

Today we worked on "elements" in training, which means we focused on parts of the big picture instead of full searches. Tonight focused on scent articles, both collection and use.

After about maybe 45 minutes of discussion about scent articles, teams were assigned to one of two groups to go work in various areas of the warehouse we held practice at. Z and I worked with our training director along with two other teams so that he could help us out with this new task. Ziva was the last to run in our group since D wanted to set a few things up for us a bit differently than the other two, more experienced, teams.

C was our victim, so I collected a scent article (leather wallet) before gearing Z up. When collecting a scent article you have to be aware of a ton of factors: who's used the item (ideal is just the person you're looking for), how can you collect it with the minimum transfer of your scent, and how do you preserve other potential items for future use by you or another K9 team to name just a few.

I gloved up, grabbed a ziplock bag and looked around C's car. We found the wallet in her purse and it's highly likely she's the only one who handles it so it was a good choice. Being leather was a bonus as leather apparently holds scent very well. I used the baggie to scoop up the wallet, carefully avoiding breathing on it or rubbing it against my clothes or other parts of the car, closed it with a bit of air inside, and voila!, ready to use.

Once Z was "dressed" (in her new Ruffwear Web Master harness even!), we proceeded to the starting point. C had already walked away w/o Z watching, starting at that point and touching each support post she passed (one every 20 feet or so), about nose height from the ground. C hid about 60 feet away on this first trial. I put Z in a sit (fun considering we hadn't practiced with the new harness yet. :P), and offered the baggie, opened, at her nose. I cued "check" and waited until she took a good wiff of the item inside before sending her to "go search".

We were instructed to mark any straying from the track with a "No!" and reward on target work with "Good Dog!". Z was very hesitant and confused, but she did do some sniffing near each pole. She was definitely using her nose - she walked right by C's hiding spot initially! When she did connect up with C, she got heavily rewarded and we didn't ask for a refind since she was on lead and I was 10 feet behind her.

Round 2 had us repeating the scenario from our first trial with C hiding about 4 posts, or 80 feet, away. Z did better - more animated and on target - and did not blow by C this time like she did before. I felt like I was getting the pattern a bit better as well.

Our third and final trial went very well. C repeated the steps from prior trials, hiding about 100 feet away, and I scented Z as before. This time however, we were working in an area with lots of items on one side of the track, allowing for more scent being trapped as C passed by according to D. Z was MUCH more focused, appeared very solid on the track, getting good negatives when off, and beelined to C at a good pace. It was a VERY different picture from our first two tries. A very nice note to end on for sure. :)

After our runs, I was the victim for another team (K and C) and got to learn even more seeing the process from another angle. Learning new things in SAR can be a bit overwhelming, but once you get the idea it seems to progress quickly to proficiency. Pretty nifty if a bit daunting at times.