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Detection training essentials: part 3

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The indication.


Detection training simplified is broken into three categories: hunting, odor imprinting, and indication. In the last article I talked about odor imprinting now let’s get into the details of indication training.

The indication is simply the behavior demonstrated when the dog finds odor, most detection dogs these days have a passive indication as opposed to an aggressive or active indication. American Schutzhund requires a passive response of either a sit, down, or stand. When you imprint with a direct reward of the pvc pipe, the indication becomes a capping exercise. The dog will already have an excited driven response to odor and now needs to learn how to sit.


You can go about this several ways, my preferred method is to use BSD boxes (behavior shaping device). These boxes contain the odor so it comes out a hole in the top, inside it contains a mechanical device that loads a ball reward. The dog can be directed to the box to sniff the odor and the ball then shaped into a sit using a combination of verbal commands and leash pressure. I have no problem using a verbal cue in the beginning while the dog learns the expectation, but this will eventually need to be faded out. When the dog gets into the sit position the ball can be launched out of the box using a remote. This diminishes any amount of handler cueing and keeps a strong focus toward the source of the odor. I will do the first couple sessions using just the one box with odor to teach the dog the expectations of the indication. When the sit is happening automatically without help from the handler I will now put out four of the boxes in a line so the dog will first have to identify the correct box (one with the odor) and then sit. Like before the ball is popped out for the dog to access their reward.

When the dog is proficient here we need to beginning a level of proofing, both proofing the dog to the handler moving around and proofing the indication to the target odor. That means I’m going to pull the ball out of the box and make sure the dog still responds to the box with target odor, now when the dog performs the indication I’ll reward with the ball by tossing it over their head or marking the behavior and letting them come take the ball from me. Last thing I’m going to do is put toys into the blank boxes (boxes with no target odor) and proof the dog from alerting to those distractions, inevitably the dog will make a mistake and try to alert to the wrong box. When this happens I can wait until the dog gives up and searches on to another option (negative punishment) or I can apply small pops on the leash or e-collar until the dog searches on to the correct option  (negative reinforcement).

Now these box sets are the most expensive part of detection training. If you just have one dog to train and it’s not quite worth the investment you can build something similar out of wood and 3 inch pvc pipes and simply tip the box to let the ball roll out. I have also used 3 inch pvc tubes just lined up on a table/counter and put the odor and a ball inside so I can shape the indication and then tip the tube to roll a ball out.

Again this is how I prefer to teach detection, it’s a direct reward pairing system with the real wars and odor and then a capping exercise for the indication. You can also go the route of marker training the indication and slowly shaping toward your final indication criteria.

Through these three articles I’ve tried to outline the three phases of detection training: hunting, odor recognition, and indication. Now that you understand what’s involved have fun playing around with the three phases and figure out what works best to teach your dog detection!


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Detection essentials part 2

Detection training simplified is broken into 3 categories, hunting, odor imprinting, and indication. In the last article I talked about...

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