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She found all the hides in both searches.

It doesn't mean the dog needs to sit every time for me to recognize something is hot. Observing the dog's change of behavior (COB) should be enough to determine if there's a threat. However, having the dog sit is an extra precaution to ensure clarity and safety. extremely important to have the dogs finalize with a sit on explosive odors to provide a clear, consistent, and safe indication of a find. This ensures **Safety**: A sit indicates the presence of explosives without the dog disturbing the area, reducing the risk of detonation **Clarity**: A sit is an unambiguous signal that the dog has detected an odor, making it easier for handlers to recognize and respond appropriately **Consistency**: It standardizes the response, ensuring all handlers can accurately interpret the dog's behavior, regardless of the specific dog Just everything they taught in the Navy K9 handler program.! Fun fact-Military dogs used to be trained to lay down and stare focused and be obedient at an odor until given a release command. However in real-world scenarios, this often meant delays in getting the dog off the IED in a timely manner causing casualties.

We aren't training for explosives, we are training for fun, so yes, very different goals and requirements. And the dogs that don't have enough drive to be a professional detection dog much prefer and build lots more drive without being required to do human taught behaviors after doing the intrinsic behaviors. Although they almost always communicate the find with a non hunting behavior and that behavior ultimately gets rewarded, allowing the training to be choice based is powerful. When we spend more time observing dogs and less time training behaviors, we see LOTS of changes that show you the scent cone and know they are going to source even before they communicate. And in order to be successful at the highest levels in this sport, reading the dog well allows you to assist them in solving problems or clearing areas in the time allowed. You have to be able to read blank or not blank very quickly, and in odor and close to source, multiple hides in an area, elevated, low, etc. So it is a skill we teach from day one for all handlers. We don't have time for our dogs to detail the search areas, and the scent cones for our training aids (essential oils) are much larger than in most professional applications, so not needed ever.

A much better example of requirements are searches at the Elite, Summit or Detective level.

I'm also a very experienced handler so I do often call "Alert" before my dog has done any form of communication.

It is a handler skill that definitely requires practice!!

In case the floor is slippery. She can get going fast and make quick turns, and sliding is bad for their joints, ,and the sliding to halt or turn also makes solving hides more complicated.

Thank you! We recently had a hide hanging from a rope in training, and have been working a lot on elevated hides. Expectations are a huge part of the searches.

Such a great question. One of the handlers jobs is to become a skillful interpreter of their dog. A look (what most people are waiting for to know their dog "found it") can mean MANY things, as our dogs use this throughout their life as their main form of communication to get our attention. Relying on a specific trained behavior can lead to confusion between dog and handler. Instead, we want to use all the information the dogs give us that lead them up to whatever final communication behavior they give to verify that we KNOW what they are saying. For the buried container with the black thing (it was a cat toy distraction), her body language was not one of "ooh, I'm about to get a treat for finding it", but of curiosity. I notice her lower arousal level, position of tail, and the lack of tension in her body at the distraction. At the container that I called alert on (the odor container), there is higher arousal, tail up and wagging, more tension in her body, and a planting/positioning of her feet; all in anticipation of a reward from handler.