You are building a puzzle. You do not have all the puzzle pieces when you begin. The puzzle cannot be completed without the slow process, taking over a year’s time, as development gives you more pieces to continue building the puzzle. Trying to train a puppy as if it were an adult dog is like […]

https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/fact-sheet/fact-sheet-national-canine-division https://youtu.be/Sz2gTaLFD2o At an EU/US working group meeting I recently attended, there was much reference to the national odor recognition test that was established by the ATF. The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), DOS (Department of State), and FPS (Federal Protective Service) all mentioned the use of the preliminary test for their certification/validation […]

[accordion] [accordion_panel title="2020"] March About the nose January National Odor Recognition Test [/accordion_panel] [/accordion] [accordion] [accordion_panel title="2019"] August Content versus Context Raising criteria in odor recognition Working with a source odor February The importance of the dog using their nose [/accordion_panel] [/accordion]

[accordion] [accordion_panel title="2020"] April Training Plans and Development Overview How training frequency impacts learning [/accordion_panel] [/accordion] [accordion] [accordion_panel title="2019"] October Picking a puppy (a conversation) Resilience and Core Affect Space June Ten easy steps for program participants January End Goals and Building Behavior Patterns [/accordion_panel] [/accordion]

Consider a dog needed at a major airport- https://youtu.be/pD__EDBizj4 As the dog walks through the airport, every kiosk, vending machine, trash can, water fountain, piece of luggage, and person is a target to search for odor. As the dog searches they encounter every variety of flooring to walk on, constant distractions of overhead announcements, the […]

When I first started this journey in the production of purpose raised puppies, the holy grail was to find a test for a 8 week old puppy that will predict success. I have bred and raised well over 600 dogs and the grail still evades me. I had a long conversation with a program participant […]

I was fortunate enough to meet Dr Jaak Panksepp at the Art and Science of Animal Training Conference in March 2014. His basic view of behavior before considering the primitive emotional states is that all behavior is built upon a very simple thought. Most animals generate behavior on a single axis (valence) that avoids fear/stress/pain […]

The chart above shows a guide for developing training plans. There are seven categories of exercises, listed on the left: Environmental Stability, Socialization, Reward Object Engagement, Olfactory Acuity, Search, Physical Exercise, and Play. The arrows in the center describe the relative emphasis of each category throughout the dog’s development. Environmental Stability gets heavy emphasis** during […]

Scott loves to say, “don’t confuse process with progress.” But what does that mean?? Today I read an interesting study that illustrates this point perfectly. Here’s their conclusion: “For dogs learning a given skill, weekly training results in better learning performance than training five times a week, when performance is measured in the number of […]

This video pops up frequently in social media. What I like about it: -Time saving exercise with low requirement on the training knowledge of the care giver -Great use of social learning within the litter What I don’t like, based on my experience: – Difficult to capture performance data on the individuals in the litter […]