Inaccessible hides require the handler and dog to demonstrate increased trust and communication in order to call alert confidently. Being sure enough to call Alert gets more and more challenging the deeper or the higher the hide is. Imagine being confident enough to KNOW where the hide is located! This class will build on the dog's sourcing and communication skills and will give the handler the confidence in reading the dog and calling Alert for all types of Inaccessible hide.
This class is built on a foundation of sourcing and driving to source. The first few weeks reinforce the dog's belief that all hides can be sourced if they work hard enough. At the same time, we will work on the handler timing of the marker (which coincides with the timing of the Alert call) so that the dog is encouraged to continue to drive in rather than pull away from the hide.
The last few weeks of class will be focused on working the 3 types of inaccessible hides (reach, elevation, and containment). We will discuss air flow considerations specific to each type of inaccessible hide and will set up varying challenges that leverage both thermal and air pressure changes that can makes these sorts of hide particularly challenging.
The premise of this class is a strong foundation in driving into source and the subsequent application to inaccessible hides that makes inaccessible hides easy to read and call.
Teaching Approach
Each week a series of lectures will be released (usually 3 to 5). The lectures will be a combination of supporting theory and setup examples. As is typical with Nosework, the student may need to apply consideration as to how to adapt the setup examples to their situation. The instruction will be written with short videos of example searches. The student may need to adapt the example to their own situation. Lecture videos may run from 1 to 4 minutes long, with the average between 1-2 minutes. The lectures are designed to help a student understand the purpose of the topic and how its application might vary by dog. Care is taken so that learners who learn by both watching and reading will be successful.
This class will have a Teaching Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook discussion group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining can be found in the classsroom after you register.
Stacy Barnett is a top nosework competitor and trainer, with many Summit Level titles in the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW), (Judd SMTx3, Brava SMTx5, Powder SMTx3). She is also a Wilderness SAR K9 handler with her certified dog, K9 Prize. Stacy has been a faculty member at FDSA since 2015 (Click here for full bio and to view Stacy's upcoming courses)
Gold Level students will be most successful if the are working at least at the Intermediate level in the sport. This class will necessitate working in a variety of novel areas so the dogs will need to be fluent in searching new places. This class is appropriate for both dogs just learning inaccessible hides as well as very advanced teams who are looking to build stronger capability with deep inaccessible or high hides.
In Week 1 we will cover basic concepts that will carry us throughout the course. These concepts will give you a foundation to work on as we explore all of the types of Inaccessible Hides.
First of all, did you know that there are three types of Inaccessible Hides? There are! In this class we will cover all of them. Each on is challenging in its own right. With each one, we will explore how to introduce the concept, how to set hides, read our dog and call alert at the right time. This is basically the “guts” of being successful with Inaccessible Hides.
The three types of Inaccessible Hides are:
Inaccessible Due to Reach
Inaccessible Due to Containment
Inaccessible Due to Elevation
Up until now, you have probably sourced mostly “Accessible Hides”. Perhaps this is your first foray into Inaccessible Hides? Perhaps you have experience but you might lack the confidence to call an Inaccessible hide in competition? We will take care of all of you!
In order to start, we need to talk about what makes a hide “Inaccessible”. An Inaccessible Hide is basically a hide that where your dog can’t get to or put his nose on the highest concentration of odor. The highest concentration of odor occurs very near source.
But what is “concentration of odor”?
When a hide is placed, the odor which has been infused on a Qtip, escapes into the air. This is a process called “Diffusion”. When odor molecules are released into the air, they immediately start traveling as far as possible from the source of the odor (the Qtip in this case). As they disperse, they get farther and farther apart from each other. When the odor molecules are initially released into the air, they are bunched as close as possible to the Qtip. Odor molecules are extremely dense near the source of the odor. It’s this high concentration that our dogs seek to find. The closer we are to the source of the odor, the higher the concentration.
When hides are “Inaccessible”, the dog simply can’t get to the proximity of the hide where the odor molecules are most dense. This could be for a variety of reasons.
One of these reasons can be because of REACH.
In this clip, the hide is located deep inside of the soda machine. Brava sticks her head inside of the opening in the front, trying to reach source. She tries but can’t quite get close enough. This is Inaccessible Due to Reach.
What you are going to find with this type of Inaccessible Hide is that sometimes, these hides are accessible for some dogs and not for others! In this video, Judd is stretching to get closer to a hide in the bathtub. Many dogs would just jump into the bathtub but that’s not comfortable for him…. So for him, it is Inaccessible Due to Reach.
Another reason why a hide may be inaccessible is due to CONTAINMENT. In this case, the hide is contained in such a way that the odor has to escape through natural cracks and crevices…. this occurs with hides placed in drawers or cabinets.
Here’s a quick clip of Brava finding a hide in a desk drawer. The drawer is completely closed. In this case, it’s not necessary for her to alert on any specific location on the drawer.
The final reason why a hide may be inaccessible is due to ELEVATION. Basically the hide is located above where the dog can reach! It’s not necessary in this case for the dog to put his feet up to alert (although many do!)
Here’s a quick clip of Brava finding a hide under a light fixture. You can see how far that odor traveled!!
One of the main differences between the types of inaccessible hides is the size of the scent cone that they generate. In sport detection, the substances that we look for generally naturally have large scent cones. The hides are set in a way that the odor is intended to be available to the dog so that the hide is actually findable. In many countries, we use essential oil which has a very high vapor pressure. This means that the scent molecules disperse into the air readily. Our dogs don't need to get super close to the hide in order to get "in odor". In some countries or in some applications, the odor source is less volatile... meaning that the scent molecules don't escape into the atmosphere as easily. Dogs searching for less volatile substances need to have a lower odor threshold (lower concentration of odor that the dog will respond to in the environment) and may need to actually get closer to source in order to detect a scent cone. Although the scent cone size might vary, the general concepts are all the same.
You will find that under similar environmental situations, inaccessible due to containment will have a smaller available scent cone than either inaccessible due to reach or elevation. Simply because the hide itself is not open to the environment when it is "contained". Inaccessible due to reach will generate the same sort of a scent cone as a standard accessible hide except that the highest concentration of the scent cone isn't reachable by the dog... but the odor is just as available. Inaccessible due to elevation however often generates very large scent cones by comparison. This is because by the time the odor physically reaches a location physical accessible to the dog, the scent cone is extremely developed. Of course these are all generalizations... and the actual scent cone size and shape is more determined by thermal and pressure influences.
The other thing to remember is that scent cones are wider farther way from actual source than they are closer to the source. And if the dog can't actually reach the hide either due to depth or height, the dog really can't pinpoint exactly where the hide is located. At best, the dog can deduce and "guess" where the hide is located. By working on SOURCING and DRIVE TO SOURCE skills, we can develop the desire for the dog to continually problem solve the hide. The result of this is an easy to read and interpret body language that helps US to deduce where the hide is in a way to confidently call Alert.
That is the basis of this class... we start with Sourcing in a way that encourages the dog to work and drive to source and then we increase distance and reinforce "reaching" to the hide. Ultimately, we develop a dog with a true understanding of working all sorts of inaccessible hides.
Although it IS important to also do tons of accessible hides, you will find that with this approach, there is little danger in creating fringing (alerting away from source) problems because we do NOT ask for a finished behavior with either inaccessible due to reach or elevation hides. Actually, instead of saying that you need to do a certain amount of accessible vs inaccessible, it might make sense to instead emphasize the need to balance how much reach is necesssary.
In the first few weeks, we are going to lay a bulletproof foundation. For those who are already working inaccessible hides, this foundation will help your overall sourcing and odor obedience. We are going to teach your dog to assume that ALL hides can be reached somehow! So although your dogs may already "know" inaccessible hides, you will find that the dog's communication and problem solving will improve. For those of you who haven't started inaccessible hides yet... we will lay a SUPER foundation!
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
Stacy broke down the concepts of the elusive 'inaccessible hide' into clearly defined terms and gave us achievable steps to train and prepare for them in trial. Can't wait to incorporate all these valuable exercises into our training! I'm sure they'll give us that competitive edge that ALL of Stacy's classes provide!
I found the class to be exactly right for where we are at. We are prepping for the move from NW3 to the more challenging hides of Elite. Inaccessible hides aren't always taught much in group in-person classes, so this was a superb deep dive. Stacy organized the material well, with a clear progression building the dogs skills.
I got a lot out of this class for both my more experienced and beginner dog. Thank you.
Stacy's lectures and videos are excellent. The assignments are fun and perfect for working skills in searching for inaccessible hides. Stacy's comments to the Gold students are helpful to other students as well. The TA has been wonderful giving help in the Facebook Group to Bronze and Silver students. It's been a great course.
Registration
Next session starts: February 1, 2025Registration starts: January 22, 2025Registration ends: February 15, 2025
Instructor: Stacy Barnett
