Patreon Q&A with Caisa Persson Werme

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla speaks with our patreon Caisa Persson Werme to answer questions about training and alerts.

Science Highlight: Back to the basics with conservation detection dogs: fundamentals for success

Questions asked: 

1. During the search he might stop after a while and look at me. If I don't acknowledge it in any way he takes off to search again with the same intensity as before. Is that the right approach on my part? Is he looking for guidance or just to check in/ see where I am? 
2. When the search happens to be too long he comes back to me and sort of stares at me,or jumps at me and isn't as excited if I tell him to keep searching for the toy. What should I do in those situations?
3. How much help can/should I give in the sense of walking closer to the toy, calling him to get closer or to stay at a closer distance to the toy, say if he's running in the opposite/wrong direction? But I feel like that might get him to think that I know where it is? 
4. How do you know/determine how long a search will be?
5. How do you determine which way the wind blows?
6. How do I know if something is too much for him?
7. I should probably start working with a long line, but I'm afraid that it might interfere with his searching. How do I best introduce it without causing frustration or a drop in motivation? 
8. How do you know it’s time for a break? Is it on cue?
9. I'm not confident that my rewards are good or exciting enough. Like he does seem to love it when I tell him to search and he has this look of anticipation when he hopes for it, but when he finds the toy he's more of like "yeah here it is..". We do play with it and he gets chicken or ham or similar and I mean we are improving when it comes to length of search and his enthusiasm is the same…but shouldn't he seem more excited to find the toy?
10. How do you go about placing the hide without making your trail/footsteps part of it?
11. When training an alert, how much should I care about the position like stand, sit or down?
12. How do I know if/when it's the right time to start to ask for a propper alert?
13. How do I go about incorporating the alert into the search?
14. I have not yet trained Kenai on any blank searches, which maybe I should have started with much earlier? So how do i go about it now?
15. Somewhat on the same topic, how would you handle the frustration that comes with ending a search session?
16. Any advice for a current or future trainee? 

Links Mentioned in the Episode: 

Choice VS Structure

K9 Talking Scents Episode

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