Scent Discrimination: Nosework Camp part II

Kenzo sniffing apples

One of the topics of last week's Nosework camp was scent discrimination.

We could chose an item we would like Kenzo to search for by scent. Either an apple, a tea-blend, coffee, or something like money. Searching for money could quickly become expensive. You need bills with different amounts. New bills, old bills, etc. And as we already can search for marihuana, adding money to our curriculum could also give some the wrong impression. So we went for the apple.

To train scent discrimination you need a couple of tall glasses or cans. One of the glasses contains the apple, the others contain something that looks like an apple - sort of - like plums or oranges.

You might wonder why the tall glass? Simply because we don't want them to think it is an exercise "how to get the apple out of there and eat it".

What we want to achieve is to present the glasses in a row to our dog and have them indicate to us which one contains the apple. You can train this with a clicker - not necessarily though - but I will use the clicker in the examples.

Step 1. Put nose in glass

Introduce the apple in a glass. When your dog puts the tip of his nose in the glass, you click. Some dogs already got this in the first session. Others had some difficulty finding out what was expected. As an example, I took a video of the first session I did with Viva when we got home again. You can see she has no clue what I expect of her. When she shows stress by scratching herself I stop the session.

We only click when they put their nose down in the glass. If we would click on licking or tipping the glass over, we might create the wrong behavior.

Step 2. Chose the apple

After step 1, your dog probably thinks this is the "put nose down in glass excercise", so we have to introduce scent into the equation. Now you use two glasses, one with the apple and one with a plum or an orange. They will put their nose down in both of them. You click when they are down in the glass with the apple. This will teach them it is all about the apple. Here a video with Kenzo I took on return from camp. He is still with this step. Can you see where my clicker timing is wrong? I was not a big help in this session for Kenzo.

The last choices Kenzo made were very good!

Step 3. Indicate the apple

To rule out they chose by exclusion we delay the click. We now first click if we can see they stay with the apple, and they are telling us deliberately "it is this one!". First then we are sure they understood it is about the apple, not the glass or anything else they might think of. In the next video you can see Kiwi, she reached far and made it to this step already during the sessions on the nosework camp.

There are three more steps to go through: 4. distractions, 5. mark and 6. cue - and we tell more and show video's with Kenzo and Viva when we get that far!

It was very interesting to see all the dogs evolve through the steps. Kiwi made it to a first session into step 4. And one dog was able to demonstrate step 4 in its fullest. All dogs were able to leave the camp in step 2. That in itself is a very good result when you think the camp only took 3 days. It was awesome to see the differences in style between the dogs. Like Kenzo, who was carefully choosing his moves what to do, was in sharp contrast with Kiwi's high speed learning style.

It is important not to go forward too fast. First when they got it right 8 out of 10 times they are ready for the next step. It is also best to start each session with a short repetition of the steps you already master. Like a short rehearsal. If they show any confusion, it is probably best to move a step back or start from the beginning again.

Nosework tires. A session should preferably only take a couple of minutes, and they need a short break between each session. It depends on the indivudual dog, but with Kenzo and Viva I train this never longer than 15 minutes in all per day.

As you know, Kenzo can already search for marihuana. We trained this in a different way, but as our trainer pointed out the method we used didn't address searching by exclusion. And there was a risk Kenzo used exclusion instead of scent. Terminally worried I used the first available break to hide some pieces of cloth in the stone wall at the entrance of the camp. Some with and some without marihuana scent. I was relieved when Kenzo quickly found the marihuana and ignored the other pieces. Now when I think of it, I left the pieces in the stone wall ... oh my. Searching for apples has its advantages.

Hovawarts and socialization

Kenzo in puppy days

It is always nice when you know your blog is being read. Even better - for us - when we hear it is actually used by visitors to form an opinion on Hovawarts.

Kenzo is Back on Track: Nosework Camp part I

Kenzo and Viva happily united again

Yesterday Kenzo and me returned from nosework camp. After three days of scent feast, my head is still spinning with all the info and advice we brought with us home. But more important, Kenzo is back on track!

One of the main reasons we went on camp was because we made no more progress with tracking. Just recently, Kenzo missed his tracking exam as a result of that. And despite the advice we got from our trainers, we didn't improve.

When we started on camp, I made a whole list of things that needed some work. And when Vibeke Gyldenkærne, the tracking trainer, started out by asking what issues we encounter on the track I spilled out my wish list. Without blinking an eye - to what for me felt like overambitious and mission impossible for just 3 days - she simply replied: "Lets solve that than...".

Let me explain that Vibeke Gyldenkærne is one of the few - and maybe the only one - in Denmark that trains tracking solely based on positive reinforcement. And she has proved it works, as a multiple Danish Champion in tracking. In a world dominated - excusé le mot - by old school police K9 training, training with Vibeke is refreshing and inspiring.

I noted that for each solution she offered for our issues, her advice was many times contradicting what our regular trainers advised in the past. But she was always spot on. She quickly find out what Kenzo needed and got him tracking again in no time. I am so thrilled. At one point, when Kenzo had to find a track, I thought he followed a wrong track and stood still. But Kenzo insisted! He didn't let go and was determined to follow the track. Vibeke was very pleased to see that. For me, it was awesome.

But more about tracking soon. We also trained scent discrimination together with Charlotte Lyngholm - the organizer of the event as well. Like Vibeke, Charlotte has an impressive resume in dog training. In a country without certificates, Charlotte sets her own standards and studied behavioral psychology, is attending seminars and academy's in the US and Holland. In short, a lady with high standards.

We should chose an item we would like Kenzo to recognize by scent. Either an apple, a tea-blend, coffee, or something like money, we could make our pick. Kenzo already knows how to search for marihuana, so we chose the apple. I was looking forward to see if we could make it in only 3 days. Marihuana took us a lot longer. If we made it, and how to start on scent discrimination with your own dog, is going to be part of the next installment, hang around!

Kenzo & Viva got doggiestylished!

The breed ban series we are running on our blog touched a lot of hearts. So many people voted - today we have more than 1100 votes, woohoo! And votes keep on pouring in. Many also blogged about and shared the petition. Some show their appreciation with other gestures, like Karen Friesecke from DoggieStylish.com. Look what we got in the mail today:

Kenzo (aka Bronco Billie) & Viva (aka Calamity Jane)

How cool is that!? Awesome new leather collars, with matching leashes for the finishing touch. Ooh-la-la! Kenzo is going to be a show off on the upcoming dog show in September. It can be me, but I already notice his ego boost starting to erupt in the picture.

Thank you Karen! You are so generous and kind. We dedicate the collars to the Danish fight against BSL, and will donate the value to the association Fair Dog in your name.

My first beauty contest

We are up-hill, what more do you need?

Do our dogs move boundaries? Since I have attended my first ever beauty contest today and I actually enjoyed it, I would say yes.

After deciding that Kenzo needs to be either showed, neutered - or probably both, we visited our very first Hovawart show today, to "sniff" out the atmosphere in preparation of Kenzo's first appearance in September's show.

And we have no regrets. Wonderful dogs of course. But we also met a lot of interesting people. A lot of breeders actually. We talked with some of them and they had so much passion. One talked about his latest litter. Deciding to hold on to his last two puppies that didn't find a home before the end of their socialisation window. Now that's responsible breeding. As it should be.

I was actually most worried about the parking lot, having heard dogs were left in hot cars during shows. But how differently that turned out. Yes, there were dogs left in cars. But they were placed in the shade of trees, with an open hood pointing away of the road - where the dogs enjoyed a good afternoon nap confined in the car. Alright, they were Hovawarts, so I admit we were accompanied by a barking orchestra guiding our way through the parking lot.

I was also impressed with some of the alterations people made to their cars to act as a "Hovie" vehicle. One even showed an SUV with a garden-like interior, complete with garden fences. Travelling safe can be fun too!

Today's winner passing by: Hertos !

The show itself was very interesting as well. The judge gave her verdicts out loud which was very informative. What I loved was that she not only talked colors and looks, but also took stamina and temperament into the equation. Learning her background was equally impressive, as she had a Master's degree and worked with the institute of Genetics, at the University of Bern (Switzerland).

The winner of today's show - Hertos - was an awesome dog. Beautiful and with a lot of temperament. Almost as beautiful as Kenzo of course.

A day with good info, and enough for us to start prepping Kenzo for his first show in September this year - we were too late to register for this one. He will do great on all obedience-related stuff, like standing still and running through the ring without jumping. But we have to work with Kenzo keeping his cool on the touch of strange people. Yet some of our new Hovawart friends got us worried and thought Kenzo could have too much "over-bite" and risks disqualifying. We'll see. Doing the show is the goal, and after all neutering Kenzo is the inevitable result whatever the outcome. So let's enjoy the ride.

Today we also met a "Blau schein" Hovawart. A Hovawart with a special blue-ish glow over his coat. He was not judged as it not an official color, but boy what a good looking fellow he was and with an awesome temperament. He was pretty popular with the ladies too. Which leaves me with the only down-side of today, it is difficult to walk away from utter in- and outside beauty, just because it is against a general definition.

Travel concerns

Does this looks like vacation to you?

Kenzo is alright with traveling. He endures being on the road as long as we end up somewhere close to a beach. The reward of the destination outweighs the temporary discomfort from being confined inside a car. With Viva it is another story. Viva is nervous about change. Traveling a long time by car, exploring new places, and the possibility to meet new dogs is just a bridge too far.

We always take extra good care of Viva and make sure she is as comfortable as possible. Yet, a typical 600 mile trip by car would look like this:

• The first hour of the trip she is sitting up-right and pants mildly trying to make up her mind what is happening
• On a break, she has to decide between to evils. Stay in the car? Or go out into this new scary place I don't know?
• Toilet-breaks for her human company adds to the anxiety as she suspects we might not return
• She whines over the mere sight of another dog
• The last hours of the trip she spends sitting up-right, panting nervously

Is traveling with Viva a good idea? Leaving her home in good care without her family seems not a valid alternative due to her separation anxiety. We could cut down on our vacation trips, but we have to travel for our business. There seems no way around it.

Could D.A.P. help?

Trying to find ways to deal with this, medication is an option. But I have been avoiding it, weary about anything that has to do with drugs. Then Jana from dawgbusiness - who else - recommended Dog Appeasing Pheromone, or D.A.P., as an option. The scent of pheromone is used by a dog mother to calm her litter of puppies. I asked around on Twitter and the feedback was mixed. But I thought it was worth giving it a try, although I didn't had my hopes up.

Yesterday we traveled 600 miles by car from Copenhagen (Denmark) to The Hague (Holland) for a one week business trip. This time we used D.A.P. I sprayed the rear-area of the car several times during the trip. It worked. It just did. Viva laid down after 10 minutes. She has never done that before. She has only been sporadically sitting up-right, and when she did, her panting was not as nervous as before. The last hours of the trip she remained in a laid down position. There was no change in her reluctance to leave the car and explore a new place. And she still whined when another dog was in sight. But D.A.P. made her time spend inside the car a lot more comfortable.

Should we travel at all?

There was an excellent discussion last week on Edie Jarolim's blog "Do Our Pets Really Want to Travel With Us" asking the question if traveling with our pets makes sense at all. Do we do it for ourselves? Wouldn't it be better for our pets to leave them in their well-known environments? This got me thinking. I spent a night away from home the other week on a business trip for the first time since we have Viva. The anticipated state of panic didn't happen. Of course my wife takes excellent care of her. But both of us expected a different turn-out.

This leaves me with lots of things to think about. We travel regularly for our business. And I take the whole family with me as I think they would benefit more from being together, then from being apart. But I find myself changing my mind on this. At least with D.A.P. car travel became a little more pleasant. And bought me some time to give this more thought.

What a nose boot camp, dog shows, and neutering have in common

I am excited too!

During last week's tracking class, Kenzo did his worst track ever. You couldn't even call it a track. I picked up Kenzo and our tracking backpack right after work. I noticed the sight of the backpack didn't arouse him like it used to. When we started tracking, he showed no interest. He put his nose down because I asked him, but the nose was quickly up in the air again. Sniffing frantically for something I could only guess what was.

What to do?

I was worried. Did I train him too hard or too much, trying to achieve more focus on the track? What did I do wrong? And more important, did I spoil Kenzo's fun in tracking, and should we give up tracking and look for another sport he would like to do? The trainer observing Kenzo's failed track was stunned and didn't know what to say. She was as sad as I was. I remembered our trainer went to a training school every summer to brush up her nose work knowledge and asked her if they would accept mere mortals like Kenzo and me at this school. She was worrying too much about Kenzo to note my clumsy and rude attempt for a second opinion. She scribbled the name of the school on a piece of paper and said I should try to contact them, although she didn't give us much chance.

Boot camp!

That's what I did when I came home. I wrote a long mail to the school why I thought Kenzo would qualify to join their ranks and the waiting for an answer started. We maybe didn't had much to show for in achievements but hopefully the passion for tracking touched the person on the other end. After a couple of days I got the answer. We were accepted! Kenzo was shocked with my impression of a happy dance. I also received the 3-day program with a lot of tracking and scent discrimination trained by - among others - the Danish Champion in Search & Rescue. I am thrilled to take part in this.

It is not just the nose

But lets return to the evening after the track went sour. The next morning on our walk Kenzo continued to act differently and I started to realize what actually was wrong. It wasn't Kenzo that was walking, but it was the nose. Or should I say hormones. When we came home and I gave him his breakfast, he didn't eat it. That was the final clue. Someone was in heat and Kenzo knew who it was. Later in the afternoon the black German Shepherd dog - one of Kenzo's sweethearts - and her owner passed by our house and they confirmed what I suspected. Kenzo's bark was high-pitched and frantic when he noticed them. Kenzo is in love, once again.

One more project

Kenzo's neutering has been postponed for too long. Some Hovawart experts were impressed with Kenzo's mental state - ok, he looks good too - and urged me to consider breeding with him. To do that correctly, it involves a lot of health- and mental tests, and also earning prizes on dog shows. A project that will easily take 6 months up to a whole year and I have been postponing it ever since. So we will set this in motion too. It will either work out or not, but we will close it off with Kenzo enjoying his retirement from the dating scene having him neutered.

Maybe I am in denial, my wife says it is my lame male subconscious that makes me postpone. She is probably right. What else can a nose boot camp, dog shows and neutering have in common? I therefore officially and publicly pledge that this is my last and final postponement attempt.

The 10 best pictures of Kenzo and Viva

If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook you know I almost daily upload new pictures of Kenzo and Viva to Twitpic. One of the fun things about Twitpic is that it shows how many times a picture is viewed. So which photo's did you like best? Here is a top 10 of the most viewed:

#1. Kenzo trying out his new Jesus shoes

#2. Kenzo: "Please?"

#3. Viva the Sofawart

#4. Kenzo the Wet Hovawart

#5. Viva: "What do you mean ... resource guarding?"

#6. Hovawart soccer world cup

#7. Kenzo Love

#8. Dancing with Hovawarts

#9. Kenzo the Dirty Hovawart

#10. Kenzo: "How do you mean ... outgrown?

Now if you like really original dog pictures, tune in to Karen Friesecke's Dog-a-Day project and subscribe to her blog. It will wake you up in the morning with a smile for the remainder of the year.

Embarrassment is not an option



Training class seems to be a gathering of people that all have embarrassing dogs.

Dogs that smell the opportunity to embarrass their owners and do so with every chance they get. Kenzo fits right in there, and does his out-most to make sure I get my weekly fix of embarrassment.

Our class mates discuss how embarrassing I must feel after the latest failure, and try to decide who has the most embarrassing dog. It is a harmless discussion fueled by a lot of humor, yet it shows the roots of a wrong mindset. Not everybody takes it well, some get embarrassed and never return. That is a waste.

Some dogs, like Viva, take it a lot further and embarrass us in daily life too. They lunge and bark, don't come on a recall, chase cyclists, and more. Do whatever needed to add further to the embarrassment. People send nasty looks, call each other names. Whisper among each other. The embarrassment can be overwhelming.

Embarrassment is just an emotional state we humans have imposed onto ourselves. It is not necessarily a bad thing. But when we overdo it, it prevents us to grow and learn. It blocks us from achieving things we might think could embarrass us. Embarrassment gets in between us and our dog's. Anticipating an embarrassing moment coming up will remove our focus from our dog to the moment itself. We are about to miss that valuable clue which is coming up. We send our feelings down the leash, making it difficult for our dog to judge a situation correctly. It prevents us from enjoying dog walks, or maybe even makes us drop walks as a whole. Embarrassment can put us in a vicious circle.

But I refuse to feel embarrassed. Dwelling in those kind of thoughts makes me miss out on what really transpired. Therefore I embrace them as little moments with valuable pieces of information. My dogs just showed me something I didn't anticipated. Something I didn't know about them. I just have got to know them a little better. Step by step. That makes me happy. Not embarrassed. As with many things, it is changing one's own perception of a situation which is the key.

If you are with me on this one, spread the word also in the real world. Getting rid of embarrassment is also not imposing it on others. Like the other day when a dog lunged at Viva. I send the owner a smile and said, "It could just as well have been my dog". Judging the expression on her face, it was not what she had expected me to say. Welcome to the club.

The Scent Box

Kenzo impatiently waiting for his turn to track

Kenzo joined his first tracking class for this season. We used the time between classes to reflect. What have we achieved so far and where do we want to get better? This season will therefore be all about improving focus and concentration on the track, and a proper marking of the objects Kenzo finds on the track.

The situation we find ourselves in is not uncommon. It happens to many trackers. We all rush ahead and experiment with new elements on the track. Turns, distractions, different types of vegetation, etc. Any issues, like in our case Kenzo's ability to keep his focus, regularly come back and hunt us. Things that have been simmering under the surface from the start and only seem to get worse over time.

The track itself as reinforcer

Those problems could all have been avoided with a proper start. Correcting unwanted behavior later on in tracking is very difficult. We cannot help by instructing or showing the dog what to do. Or reward them for everything they do correct. They will loose their ability to problem-solve independently and when they encouter an issue on the track look up at you, asking "ok, what now?". We cannot correct, in the punishing sense of the word, either. As that will spoil their interest in tracking as a whole. Why do something that is no fun? All the reinforcement should come from the track, not you. Therefore it requires a lot of planning and creativity to work on a problem. How to let the track itself teach your dog to track? A good start can prevent all these problems.

Starting tracking by not tracking at all

The newbie trackers in class have started with something new and very interesting. Actually they start with tracking by not going tracking at all. The only thing they do is something called The Scent Box. Any issues the dog (or the handler) might have will turn up in the Scent Box. And they first start tracking when those issues are solved.

In short, the Scent Box is a small trampled area with a lot of treats. In the box is your scent. Outside there is none. The treats attract the dog to the box. They quickly learn scent discrimination. The treats are where the scent is. No treats where there is no scent. This way they build up the necessary understanding and confidence before they start actual tracking. Here is a short video introducing the concept of the Scent Box (starting 1 minute into the video):



The Scent Box is "invented" by Joanne Fleming-Plumb, a dog trainer with a long and impressive resume in tracking, obedience and defense training.

It was very interesting to see the newbies in class start with the Scent Box. You could already see the issues from each dog appear. Some were too eager, some unfocused. Some could already move on to their first track after a couple of Scent Box sessions, others are still in the box. One thing they all had in common. They made some staggering progress. Their issues were addressed, and maybe even solved, before they started with actual tracking. I am expecting some serious competition from the newcomers. This is going to be a fun season.