Today BB got to start out with about a 16-hour aged, mile-long wilderness trail. He ran it around 0830 while the temperature was about 68 degrees. We had nice humidity around 54% and overcast skies. His start wasn’t great. He clearly needs to work aged starts. He found the direction of travel fine, but didn’t look very motivated or focused at the start. I was holding the scent article in a bag and will throw it out onto the ground so he can approach it visually next time. I expect this will work well with him… build his excitement on the approach to the scent article.
Once we got going he was great on most of the track (depicted in green in the picture below; trail intersections are yellow). We worked along a tree line and corn field edge initially. BB startled two deer — one from the edge of the wood and shortly thereafter at our first trail intersection. Deer locations are numbered 1&2 in the picture below. I was very pleased.. the deer darted off to the trail to the right while his track was to the left. He took the turn and ignored the deer. Shortly after that turn he drove me into the woods. Then I spied a flag in the woods and was again very pleased.
He did a nice job working the track through the woods. This is clearly what he does best. I let him drag the lead behind him since he was working so well and it was much easier to move quickly this way. Often near flags, I’d see him lift his head and start air scenting. He moved like someone in pitch black feeling around for something. He was alerting on the flags and indicated on them when he found them. This was motivating for him… since flags, left by the subject, are scent articles. I re-inforced his interest on the articles with food. We had only one problem on this track. This was a turn out of the woods at the second trail intersection that we hit. The turn to the left was up a hill but his interest was more directed through the woods at about a 45 degree angle off the trail (shading depicts scent interest). I worked him around this intersection several times. The flags at the trail intersection were a beacon of scent for him. I suspect he has a harder time with tracks on trails then through woods. Ultimately, I circled him around enough that he picked up scent off to the sides of the trail. Once we got to other trail intersections closer the end of the track, he had no trouble tracking the scent on the trail. I’m not sure why this one section of trail was so challenging. We will continue to work tracking on hardpack trails. I hadn’t yet experienced this on an aged trail since we’ve worked so few to this point.
In case you’re interested, the depiction was drawn on an overlay of satellite imagery on a 1:24K USGS topographic map.
Never underestimate the value of good training logs. Not just meticulous ones but accurate ones — those that mention the bad with the good. I admit to sporadic logging when BB was training air scent, but for cadaver and trailing, it’s critical. We train hard, but logs take time and effort to maintain. Another important element of appearing in court is some minimal training of how to behave in court. It’s best to be brief without offering information. Unfortunately, the dog handler in the Peterson cased was picked apart pretty well.
Here is the an article from SFGate.com: Peterson defense picks apart dog’s search skills. Perhaps the best approach is to let other’s interpret the value of the evidence… no animal and no human is perfect in training or in practice. Some aspects of scent work are explained well by science and some only by intuition. As a volunteer SAR dog handler, I will definitely think twice or three times before working a search that is better suited to law enforcement!