A common thread among struggling teams are dogs that are slow to source. This issue can show up in several different ways: fringe alerts, getting stuck working pooling odor, difficulty pushing through complicated odor pictures, lack of desire to stick all the way to source, and dogs whose sourcing behavior in training doesn’t consistently carry over to the trial environment.
Many times, the problem comes back to one thing: how the dog is being rewarded.
Reward is much more than simply giving the dog food or a toy after a successful search. The timing of the reward, where it occurs, what happens immediately before the reward, and how the handler delivers it all influence what the dog learns is important.
In this webinar, Tony will break down the principles of conditioning that go hand-in-hand with rewarding and demonstrate how handlers can unintentionally reinforce something other than actually getting to source.
A major focus of this webinar will be the relationship between classical conditioning and operant conditioning within Nose Work. Tony will explain how each influences the dog's expectations and why understanding the difference can dramatically change the dog's desire to work odor all the way to its origin.
Tony will also explore why a dog may look strong and confident in familiar training sessions but show a very different sourcing picture when placed under the pressures and challenges of a trial environment.
The goal is to make one thing unmistakably valuable to the dog: getting to source.
