Rewarding the Substance Detector Dog

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I am in hopes that this clip raised some questions in your mind. Questions like:

Why did the dog not pay attention to the balls thrown at him?

Why did the dog not alert to the box containing the balls that he could both see and smell?

Why did the dog pay no attention to all the noise the reward made in the distraction box?

The remainder of this article will explain exactly how the behavior in that footage is possible. The fact that the dogs clearly ignored stimulus that would cause most dogs to exhibit alert behavior is no accident and carefully planed. Most of these ideas derived directly from ideas learned from certain aspects of protection training and are fairly easy for an open minded person to understand.

While attending a Police K-9 Seminar some years ago I observed a bite-work training session where a PSD was back tied while a trainer (agitator or decoy) attempted to cure this dog from being equipment oriented or what some would refer to as “sleeve happy”. I watched as more and more corrections and compulsion were used on this dog as the dog continued to go for the sleeve on the ground instead of the trainer/decoy. At the end of the session the dog was totally confused as to what to do and why he was being corrected. After all the dog was simply trying with all his power to perform a behavior he had been allowed to do over the past several months. The sleeve on the ground has always been a signpost and the SIGHT of the sleeve meant that this aggression game that the dog absolutely lived for was about to begin. The bite, the intensity, and all associated behavior were rewarded by using the sleeve or other equipment. When asked my opinion I replied by asking the trainer how he could possibly justify coming down so hard on this young dog for doing EXACTLY what the dog had been taught to do over the past several months. We as dog trainers seldom take into account that the dog uses every one of his senses to process information that will lead the dog to successfully obtaining his reward. Once we as trainers see fit to progress this dog on to the next level, we attempt to force the dog to disbelieve what he sees (the sleeve), hears, and feels. The handler corrected the dog for going for the dead sleeve in an attempt to teach the dog that he should go for the man (decoy) and not the equipment. The trainer attempted to undo with force what the dog had been initially taught through positive reinforcement and drive.

Traditional training tends to cause us to believe that behavior can be changed or learned through corrections and compulsion, the same way we might deal with another human that crossed us or a child who misbehaved. We forget sometimes that we are dealing with an animal and while these animals are capable of achieving amazing feats, they are still animals and these animals are never going to possess a comprehension of the English language or understand the emotion of our anger. We are never going to be able to explain to them in our English language why we just corrected them or acted out of unfairness in anger. We are never going to be able to tell them, “I’m sorry”. Once it’s done….its done….and they, as animals, are never going to forget it or the circumstances surrounding that incident.

Please review the next clip in which a dog with the same equipment fixation was taught a different path to correct behavior WITHIN his drive.

View Video 2 Rex