April 14, 2011

Explosives detection dog?

Since Dog Scouts of America just announced their Scent Detection competition program, I decided to step up the doodling I have been doing with Dazzle's identification of (the scent of) gun powder.  Just for fun, I got a photo of him doing his "point" behavior at my desk clock (I took it outside for better light and angle):

He did this behavior on his own (a sustained pointing) when he wanted a ball.  But I haven't yet been able to get it reliably on cue so I can use it as his alert behavior.  For the seminar this past weekend, I switched to a nose touch with duration of contact, but I still want to work on getting the "point" more reliable :-)