N120J: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Hide Placement

In Nosework, you will hear terms Accessible and Inaccessible.  These terms are often misunderstood.  All too often new handlers will confuse “visible” to be “accessible” and “hidden” to be “inaccessible”. 

In NW1, all of your hides will be “Accessible”.  This means that they will be sourceable by the dog…  or rather that your dog will be able to access the highest concentration of odor coming from the hide (from within 1-1.5 inches away).  It doesn’t actually mean that your dog will be able to get his actual mouth on the hide.  The hide will be hidden from view and you will need to time your Alert call on the dog’s indication that he is at source. You will NEVER see a hide at a trial.

"Inaccessible" simply means that the highest concentration of odor is not available to a dog.  Picture a drawer with a hide in it.  As the hide is aged, odor concentration will build up inside the drawer.  This is where the concentration is the highest.  Odor will also seep through the cracks to the outside of the cabinet.  The concentration of odor will be less at the point of seepage than it will be inside the drawer.  During the search, the dog can only get his nose to the cracks where odor is seeping and therefore cannot access the point at which odor is most highly concentration.  That means that this example of a hide is Inaccessible. A hide placed 4 or 6 feet high, will be inaccessible for most dogs and moreso for small dogs! There are varying degrees of "inaccessibles". Some inaccessibles, my dog will alert just like an accessible if it's placed in a locker or cabinet. She'll source it to the closest she can get and keep her nose there. If the hide is elevated above her head she can only bracket and not be able to get at source. However, if we were to place a straw with a Qtip in the seam of the drawer, the area of highest concentration of odor will be at that seam and will be accessible by the dog.  Also, that drawer seam hide will indeed be hidden from view.

Using my definition of an accessible hide, a box could be considered a lesser degree of an “inaccessible” hide. Your dog cannot get to within 1-1.5" of the source, but the entire container is hot and has odor and can be accessed on all sides so your dog can indicate anywhere on the container. But not everyone considers boxes to be inaccessible hides. Non-box containers used in NW2/3 like bags, purses, suitcases, the odor can be on the "outside" in a pocket, wheel, or handle so those would be "accessible". Other non-box containers will have enough venting so that the odor is not so "contained".

Your dog’s indication in a non-container search will likely be different than in a container search.  Their indication will develop over time and your job as a handler is to recognize A CHANGE OF BEHAVIOR when at source. You will learn and are ALWAYS learning to read your dog’s body language so that you can identify when your dog has reached source.  You won’t be able to rely on seeing a tin or a straw.  Your dog might nose the area strongly or perhaps touch the area with a nose or paw and then look at you, or your dog may do something else entirely.  Every dog is different!

Here’s a video of some dogs with different alerts.

In this class we will be dealing exclusively with accessible hides during our searches.  As your dog starts to learn and you start to place hides, you need to make sure that the hides are accessible.  Accessible hides build confidence because the dog builds a strong belief that he can get to source.  Inaccessible hides won’t be introduced until NW130 and then will be worked on extensively in NW230. It is VERY important that your hide placements at this point in your training are NOT inaccessible.

Here are some examples of accessible hides.  Notice that these hides are also hidden!  When placed well, these hides will also not be retrievable.

Something to note… in NW1, you can have hides up to 4 feet high.  If you have a little dog, these hides will automatically be inaccessible to your dog.  We will work on elevated hides in NW130.

Notice how in this picture, this hide is accessible to a small dog:

However, this hide is inaccessible to a small dog:

When you start training, make sure that your hide is within an elevation accessible to your dog.  In the beginning, the dog should not have to put his paws up on anything to get to source. Also, make sure your dog can access all sides of the item where the hide is placed. This allows the dog to work source from all angles since airflow could affect where the scent cone is and how the dog can more easily work it to source.

HOMEWORK:

Take 5 pictures of Accessible hide locations and post on your Gold thread with a description of the hide.

When you add your images to your post, you select the Add file button and then you need to select insert to add it to the post!