Moment of Truth

Training Tuesday

You as a trainer must decide what to do in that space between the stimulus (odor/cue) and the response....

Today starts the Blue Line K9 Training Conference in PA. I'm teaching a class called Fine Tuning your Trained Final Response. This class is ALL about that space.

Ideally, in our world of K9 response to odor. THERE IS NO SPACE. The dogs finds strongest source of odor and completes the desired behavior.

By meaning there is NO SPACE, I'm talking there is no latency to respond.

The dog does not

- wait three seconds

- offer any other behavior

- look back to the handler

In our dogs, when it comes to odor, we don't want a space.

But, in responding to other stimuli, I want my dog to take that space. When is that?

When that squirrel runs across their path and they pause for a fraction of a second, THAT is my opportunity to cue up a game of 'chase me'.

My goal as a trainer is to alway have something ready for when that potential pause appears. My question is always, "How do I help my dog make the best decision".

I prefer to give them a suggestion as to what the right response is. Mainly because if it is the 'right' response, they I can reinforce it with a great game.

Do I miss my timing? Yes. Then we move into contingency plans.

But when training on odor. Typically I have planned out my training session in such a way the dog does not get a chance to even have an impure thought. Once the dog has that impure thought, OR has put that impure thought into the behavior chain and I reinforce it, I've reinforced that impure thought.

Thanks to fellow trainer Craig Schultz for the concept of 'don't let the dog have an impure thought'.

How are you setting up your training to decrease the space between stimulus and response?

Make sure to join the K9Sensus Trainer's FB group!