Video from Nose Work Classes

Harley looking in a boxK-9 Nose Work continues to be one of my two main focuses. (The other is the Karen Pryor course. More about that next week.) I am running nose work classes in Maywood and Jersey City, and have one scheduled to start in NYC in February.

I try to get video of every search and then post the videos for the students to see before the next class. This gives the people are chance to see their dogs and themselves in action. In addition to being a lot of fun, it’s also a great way to familiarize the people with their dog’s “body language” during searches.

A few weeks ago I blogged about Harley, a fearful dog that has benefitted from Nose Work. Here’s Harley latest class. I introduced what we (quite logically) call elevation: boxes are now off the floor and the dog has to learn to search both on the floor and on top of other things. For Harley this represented something new, and as a result, initially was a little scary. Watch how being rewarded for searching helps her work this problem out on her own with very little human intervention.

Shadow, however, is ready to interact with her environment any way she can. This video shows a few searches (it’s a little long, but worth watching all the way through) including some slo-mo of her literally following her nose, and ending with a rather funny pair of finds.

Last, here is a video from a “Intermediate Odor” class with dogs that are searching for odor paired with food. Muneca is doing multiple hides in the reception area of the Maywood Vet Clinic.

For information on Nose Work classes in my area see my classes page. For a trainer near you, see the Nose Work Association web site.

Clicker Training: Capturing a Behavior and Putting It on Cue

clicker training with cockatiel

Spike gets a treat

There are big changes afoot for me this year, and one of the biggest is more focus on both clicker training and nose work. I’ve posted a few times about nose work over the holidays. (There is more coming.) Here is the first in a series of posts about clicker training.

In November I enrolled in the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Program. Karen Pryor and her students are best known for clicker training. This is a departure for me. I’ll get into what lead me to this decision in a later post. Today I’d like to share some of the fun homework I had over the holidays.

Capturing a Behavior

Capturing is exactly when it sounds like: catching the dog (or other animal) doing the behaviors we’re looking for!

The first step is to figure out what you want to train. This is best done not by deciding what you want and then training the dog, but observing what he does and then decided what we want to work with. What does your dog do on his own, with no encouragement from you? Does he sit? Lie down? Lift a paw? Tilt his head? Any behavior you see can be captured.

Once you have selected the behavior you want, get your clicker, a bunch of treats, a timer, and a pad and paper. If you have not worked with your dog before with a clicker, take some time to click-and-treat, click-and-treat etc., for a few minutes to make sure he understands that a click means a treat is coming.

Now watch your dog. Every time he does what you want click and treat. Here I am starting to capture Buddha’s paw lift:

You want to click *as the dog performs the behavior* not afterwards. It takes some time to get the timing right. I chose a nice "big" behavior to capture with Buddha so I had room to be sloppy.

It’s important to break up your training sessions into 2 or 3 minute chunks – don’t work for so long that you or your dog get tired or discouraged. You can mix in some play in between, and this training may take a few days. Remember, it’s supposed to be fun!

Putting it On Cue

After a while your dog will start to offer the behavior more often. He will start to expect the click when he does what your looking for, and you will start to anticipate when he will do it. Now it is time to start counting.

Set your timer and keep count of how many times you click. (If you can get someone to help you, they can keep count.) When you can get to 10 or more clicks a minute, it’s time for the cue! A cue can be anything that your dog can see, hear, feel or smell. (Detection dogs use the smell of drugs as a cue.)

When you see your dog is about to perform the behavior, give the cue and then click and treat when he does it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

After some time you will see that your dog is waiting to hear (or see) the cue. Continue to click and treat when you ask for it, but do not reward him for doing it on his own. Buddha was having problems with this in the video above. This will teach your dog that when you’re working together, he should perform the behavior only when asked. At the same time don’t reward him for doing something else when you give the cue. Make sure he understands the relationship between the cue and the behavior.

The dog training program is a comprehensive course. So comprehensive that after I was done capturing behaviors with a dog, I was required to work with another species!

I am working on getting Spike to peck his mirror on cue. It’s a very different game, but I am having a great time with it!

I have started a Youtube playlist right here. It has a few more videos on it, and I will be adding more as I go.

Jim Sak and Snickers Reunited

pit bull service dog

Not Snickers.

As you may have already read, a judge has ruled in Jim Sak’s favor and by now Snickers is home, where he belongs.

Is is over? Maybe not, apparently Aurelia can still counter-sue and since they refuse to make anything more than cursory statements about how they are/were violating federal law and lovin’ it, we don’t know yet. Hopefully after the New Year they will announce that they have come to their senses and leave Mr. Saks and his family in peace. Or nothing will happen at the next council meeting and we can assume it is over.

Rather than end the ChipIn on the right I have “rebranded” it to Animal Farm Foundation. Let’s wait and see what happens with Aurelia in the next few weeks. Boarding Snickers must have cost them a few hundred dollars at least, so if you are so inclined, please give.

Great Video: Dogs In Cars

Keith Hopkin sent me a fun video of dogs in cars titled, unsurprisingly, “Dogs In Cars.” It’s beautifully done with some great music by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. (The link from their site to the iTunes store is broken, but if you search for them they are there or you can try this.)

Here’s the video. You can click here for a larger, more beautiful, version.

Dogs in Cars from keith on Vimeo.

And for those of you ready to scold about dogs riding loose in cars, two things: if you watch you’ll see leashes, and get over it and enjoy the video. Just this once.

Update on Jim Sak and Snickers

Clearly a deadly creature

Last week I posted twice about Jim Sak and Snickers, his service dog that happens to be pit-bull-shaped.

Aurelia IA has a breed ban and ordered Snickers out of town, literally under pain of death. This is, of course, in direct conflict with federal law with regards to service animals and despite the fact that Mr. Sak has had Snicker for more than 5 trouble-free years. Snickers is pit-bull shaped, and no amount of common sense, evidence or facts is going to get in the way of Aurelia Iowa’s city government.

For example, here’s a very revealing quote from a story on MSNBC.

City Council member Jeff Bowen refused to answer questions about whether he thought the City was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities act. “Well I guess the attorneys will have to figure that out” Bowen told us, “I don’t have any comment.”

Wow. Nothing like standing up for yourself and your opinion. (Really. It’s nothing like it at all.)

See an update here:



Tomorrow there will be a hearing in Sioux City (which also has a failed breed ban of its own, BTW.) It’s possible that this hearing will result in Mr. Sak having his service dog returned immediately. It’s also possible that it will result in more delays or just a temporary decision.

Aurelia’s city government has refused to respond to request for comment, so there’s no reason to believe that they will go down without a fight.

Until this is resolved I am going to continue my fundraiser. While Mr. Sak’s legal representation is being supplied pro bono, Animal Farm Foundation has already provided housing and care for Snickers for over a week, and they still are a worthy beneficiary of our donations anyway.

Please chip in!