NW190: Training a Thinking Nosework Dog using a Cognitive Approach

What do we mean by searching “in balance”?

When we train a scenting dog using a cognitive approach, we are increasing search efficiency and effectiveness by bringing the dog into balance.  What do we mean by that?

If we think about the four powerful aspects that heavily influence how a dog searches (Memory, Spatial Processing, Sensory Processing, and Contextual Processing), we can start to understand how a dog problem solves.  When a dog is highly effective, all of these aspects work together harmoniously…. Carefully balanced.

Have you ever played the game “Battleship”?  Battleship is a strategy type guessing game for two players. It is played on ruled grids on which each player's fleet of ships are marked. The locations of the fleets are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling "shots" at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player's fleet.  In case you aren’t familiar, I found a video that will explain!

Now think about the senses that YOU might use playing this game…

Memory… well, in this case you are able to mark your “shots” so that you know which are hits and which are misses.  Spatial Processing… in this case you need to know how long each ship is and you can infer from hits and misses, which direction your opponents ships are facing.  Sensory Processing… you have to be able to listen and process the coordinates that your opponent tells you.  Contextual Processing… you can problem solve (and infer) by knowing what types of ships your opponent has and that they can only face two directions.

Essentially, your dog does something very similar when searching for odor!

Why do we say that the dog needs to be “in balance”?

Let’s use Memory as an example….

In our example, there are two hides on two chairs…. For a dog to solve the puzzle, the dog needs to find one hide then understand that that hide is no longer in play in order to find the second hide.  A while back, I did this exercise with two of my dogs.  Brava very quickly, very efficiently found both hides.  She hadn’t searched much in that room prior.  She has an excellent memory and quickly solves this problem.

I also did the search with Judd.  Judd had been going through chemotherapy at the time and I was using hides and searching as a way to encourage him to eat when his stomach wasn’t feeling good.  As a result, he had done many, many searches in this small room.  When I asked him to do this search, he was feeling quite good at the time.  He easily finds the first hide.  Then he systematically checks places where he had found hides in the past.  He was using his memory for this task, rather than his nose!  Once he ruled out the old locations, he switched back to using his nose, dismissed the first hide location since he had already found it, and found the second hide.

In this example, both searches were lovely, efficient searches.  Both dogs were generally strong in memory.  The setup was more conducive for Brava because she had not experienced the prior search locations.  In fact, in order to make sure that she solves problems using her nose, it’s critical for me to train in many locations (thus helping her to stay “in balance”).

A dog who is strong in memory will be able to work a search area and remember all of the hides that he has found until the search is over.  Judd was uncanny at this and even after finding hide #5, he would remember and not return to hide #1.  A dog who is less strong in memory naturally, is liable to return to hides even with training.  So for a dog who is strong in memory, we want to vary the search environment.  For a dog who is weak in memory, we will want to try to structure our searches in order to help build in efficiency, perhaps using a slightly more structured pattern.  Knowing our dogs can help us to structure our training sessions more efficiently.

For our purposes in searching, we can enhance certain aspects of how a dog thinks through a search in order to help the search to be more efficient….  But knowing HOW our particular dog thinks can also help us to shape HOW we help the dog to enhance his natural capabilities.

For example, I use Concepts to help train nosework dogs advanced skills.  One of these advanced skills is working on elevated hides, or “high hides”.  I usually start the dog pretty early using a visible hide in order to teach the dog that what they are looking for can be found accurately above their heads.  With dogs stronger in memory, I have to be careful with how many of these visible hides are placed in similar areas.  Placing a hide in a same or similar location more than once can create unwanted behaviors!  With a dog weaker in memory, you may want to purposely repeat placements in order to create a stronger understanding.

When a dog searches efficiently, he is balancing his nose, eyes, beliefs, past experiences, and any information that the handler may be giving.  Too much emphasis in any one area will decrease the dog’s efficiency.  That’s what we mean by searching “in balance”!