Searching is just a chain of behaviors. It’s just like anything else we ask our dogs to… and when training, paying attention to that behavior chain is how we build the habits and behaviors that we want.

I used to use different language and terms but in an effort to stay aligned with brilliant trainers who have been training dogs and people much longer than I have, I have since changed my vocabulary. I first heard the behavior chain terms of Search, Locate, Report from Robin Greubel who credits Steve White.

When we ask a dog to search for our chosen target odor… we are also asking them to work in a Focused and Engaged manner from the beginning of the behavior chain to the end. Basically that’s it. Search. Locate. Report. all while staying Focused and Engaged. Gosh it sounds way easier than it actually is! But if we think about it in this manner, troubleshooting and handling gets way, way easier.

But it also gets way more complicated because it means that YOU as a handler also need to observe, evaluate, and respond to your dog’s Focus and Engagement at all times in the search. And your response to the criteria both for focus and engagement AND to the alert behavior that you have trained (IF you have a TFR), can either result in a flawless search or basically building crap in that you don’t want. And once that crap is built in, you have to work hard to train it out!

In sport, I think so often, searching is trained as this mystical process that just kind of happens. And all too often I see handlers release their dogs into a search area and then simply accept loss of focus and engagement… the fear of pulling the dog off odor or interrupting the mystical process seems to terrify them.

And even handlers who have extensive backgrounds in other sports with very obvious behavior chains can get lost in the process of searching with their dogs. As a coach, as soon as I point out the behavior chain and the importance of the quality and criteria of each step, all of the sudden a lightbulb goes on and I hear “I GET IT!”

If you care for and attend to your dog’s Focus and Engagement… and you adjust accordingly… and if you pay attention to the criteria that you have trained, your search and training session will be MUCH more successful. This might mean restarting and engaging the dog. It might mean interrupting loss of focus to novel odor. It might mean NOT reinforcing the dog for an aggressive response (digging/biting) at target odor. YOU as a handler are responsible for the quality of the search.

(as an aside…. if you can’t maintain the quality then the search has been set to be too difficult or distracting for where your dog is currently… that is also information!!)

Build only the good stuff in…. at every point of the behavior chain.