Detection training simplified is broken into 3 categories, hunting, odor imprinting, and indication. In the last article I talked about hunting, now let's dive into the topic of odor imprinting. Imprinting is the process of teaching the dog what it is we want them to find. For American Schutzhund the odor used in trial is gunpowder. There are many ways to imprint an odor to a dog. The different styles of odor imprinting fall into two categories. Operantly conditioning the odor or classically conditioning the odor. A common practice that can be done easily while training alone is to use a marker system to create a positive desire for the dog to hold its nose on the target. This is commonly done using scent elbows, scent walls, a dopamine box, or can be done with the AS2 detection setup of cinder blocks and scent containers. Whichever apparatus is used to contain the odor is not that significant; what is required is a strong terminal marker and good timing. Commonly you would start with just one scent tube containing the target odor and nothing else out for the dog. The dog can be lured to investigate the scent the first few times or you can do it in a very sterile environment and wait for the dog to naturally investigate it. When the dog gets its nose to the hole containing the target odor you will mark that behavior and reward it with food or possibly a toy. Food is recommended to start so you can get a higher frequency of quality reps without the dog fatiguing. What we are trying to shape here is the dog holding its nose into the apparatus with the target odor. Once the dog is taking its reward and then quickly returning to the odor, you want to add other containers that look identical to the one with the target odor. The difference being that these other containers are going to either contain no odors (blanks) or contain another scent that is not the target odor (distractors). A big piece of imprinting the odor to the dog is showing them all kinds of other odors will not be productive for them. Without that step you will have an increased risk that the dog understands this process as holding my nose close to ANY odor may produce the reward. This is a common practice of operantly imprinting target odor to the dog. Teaching them which odors produce rewards and which odors do not.
In the last article I outlined how to develop the dogs hunting instinct, my prefered method of odor imprinting is a more classically conditioned one that continues to work the dogs hunt. This process involves taking a 1in diameter PVC pipe about 10 inches long and drilling holes in it, the target odor will go in a ziploc bag inside the pipe and 1 in. expandable freeze plugs will be used to stopper the ends of the pipe. This is the toy that the dog is going to search for in its hunting drills I outlined in the last article. It may take a few reps of just tossing the pipe in the open and retrieving it for the dog to get used to the texture but very few dog with the drive are unwilling to pick up and play with this when you make it a fun game. Utilize the help of a second person to tease the dog with the pipe and toss it into grass and hide it in rooms and on vehicles, as the dog does more reps with this pvc pipe with odor inside it they will develop a strong classical association with the scent you are imprinting. You will be able to see changes of behavior as the dog nears the area of the pipe, these are signs that the imprinting is working. I do this until I see strong changes of behavior when the dog nears the pipe and am seeing commitment to those changes. Once the dog starts coming into the odor I dont want to see them leave that odor. This is the difference between a dog only a few sessions in and a dog that has 10 or more imprinting sessions under their belt. The nice thing about this system is I can start the odor imprinting the day I start developing the dogs hunt. I am knocking out two areas of the dogs' detection training from the beginning. When doing this I can put other odors or distractors into the search area as well so the dog learns to ignore anything but the odor associated with their reward. A huge benefit of this style of imprinting is the dog spends more time hunting realistic search areas instead of an area limited to 4 or 5 holes with odor. After all, the hunt is the most important piece of the puzzle.
In the next issue I will cover the topic of indication training.
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