NW420 Honing Your NW Handling

Week 1: Observation

- Nosework Gear
- Line Handling Mechanics
- Observation: The Dog’s Communication
- Observation: Air Flow
- Observation: The Search Area

Week 2: Understanding Your Impact

- Why is Independence Important?
- Understanding the Impact of Body Pressure
- Understanding what you are Communicating (Body and Voice)
- Marker Basics

Week 3: The Essential Balance between Dog and Handler

- Maintaining Independence without Abdicating your Role as Handler
- When and How to make careful suggestion
- Hunting Type Searches: Context Driven (Vehicles)
- Hunting Type Searches: Non-Context Driven Searches (Area Searches)
- Selection Type Searches (Containers)

Week 4: Impactful Pieces

- Verbal Cues: What, Why, When, How
- Transition Between Hides
- Multiple Modes of Reinforcement

Week 5: Support through Odor Challenges

- Tight Spaces
- Odor Pools
- Converging Odor
- Elevated Hides

Week 6: Strategy for Coverage

- Known, Range, or Unknown Number
- Time Pressure Challenges
- The Perimeter Search
- No Go Backs!

This is a partial lecture from Week 2 Materials:

Impact of Frontal Body Pressure

Have you ever felt like you've kept your dog in one area, possibly to the point of a false alert? If so, this was probably caused by frontal body pressure.

Frontal body pressure occurs when you face your dog squarely. This type of stance communicates to the dog to more thoroughly investigate the area. One of the best ways to talk a dog into a false alert or into fringing is to face the dog square on. It's even more ineffective if you couple that body language with mild crowding or verbal prompting.

It usually goes like this:

- The handler unconsciously applies frontal body pressure

- So the dog shows interest

- So the handler shows interest

- So the dog shows interest

- So the handler shows interest

- So the dog false alerts

RESOLUTION: The key to allowing your dog to work independently is to turn sideways (or at an angle) and step back if necessary. You can even just position one foot back and shift your weight back.

Impact of Body Pressure on the Start Line

So often I see people lean over their dog on the start line. Sometimes this is to kiss them on the head or to whisper something to them. This shifts the focus from the search onto the handler.

Here is a video that I made of Joey showing the difference in his release to search based on upper body pressure:

Certainly this is more challenging with a small dog... but it can still be done! If you have a small dog, just try STANDING TALLER.... Here is a video of Why's start line. Notice that although I release him from the harness (that helps when you want to have directional control of the releaase), I keep my upper body tall and I look ahead. When I release him, my first motion is to stand up... my SECOND motion is to follow him in. This minimizes upper body pressure and allows Why to focus on the search.

Releasing Pressure in order to let the dog source a challenging hide

Releasing pressure is your best friend when you are working challenging hides, ESPECIALLY elevated inaccessible hides. With elevated hides, odor spreads VERY VERY FAR. By increasing your distance from your dog and by releasing body pressure where you can, you can support the dog's effectiveness and independence in problem solving. When we step in, add pressure, or stand with our two feet parallel and straight at our dog, we take away their choice in problem solving... which can often lead to a "No".

You can see in this video of Powder solving a very difficult elevated hide (that is converging under the tables with all of the other hides in the room) how I open space... watch for weight shifts back, steps back, increasing distance and stepping away from the wall.