There are many different drives to build on in a dog.  In this discussions I will mention only one, "hunt", yet I use a "prey" drive exercise in order to build the hunt drive. I use this technique with narcotics dogs and the result is two fold. It increases the dog's desire to hunt and therefore increases the amount of time they will search before getting tired.  It also increases the concentration or quality of the dog's search.

When I was in Wyoming conducting a training seminar, we had an old barn type structure that was perfect for the training technique I am going to describe. To set this up you will need fishing line, depending upon the tugging strength of your dog. So if it is a 40 pound Spaniel you would use 8-10 pound test. If it is a GSD you can go up to 25-30 pound test. The barn we used had an open rafter system similar to a pole barn. We hid the training aid in a canvas bag meant for this type of work and tied fishing line to it. We threw the bag over the beam so the line could be worked from behind the beam. We tied a stick on the end of the line to serve as a handle and set the bag up high and out in the open (window sill, on top of a counter, on a shelf). When the dog was commanded to search, he began a search mode, detected the scent, move toward it, and then pinpointed the location of the scent source.  At just that moment when he made his "find" the hide, we pulled the line. The hide turned into a rabbit and started swinging and bouncing mysteriously in the air and the dog began to chase it. The line tender is an important part of this training problem because you don't want to make it so difficult the dog gives up, but at the same time you don't want to make it so easy that it is not a challenge. 

This exercise increases the quality and the quantity of the search behavior that the dog exhibits. 

Now, a variation of this exercise will build the dog's enthusiasm and intensity to get at the scent.  You will also find that this exercise is instrumental in building the dog's alert.  We set this exercise up the same way as before, but this time we ran the line through a milk crate or a small enclosed chicken coup, if you are from Wyoming.  When the dog gets the scent, the hide begins to bounce like crazy in the crate or coup and the dog circles trying to figure out how to get in.  You may get a bark, scratch, dig or other type of behavior from the dog.  This is a frustration building exercise, which at the same time will build the dog's alert.  We did the same exercise with SAR dogs using their favorite toy. It's motivational, it's fun and presents a new problem solving dilemma for the dog to work out.

The next motivational example I am going to discuss, goes further into my philosophy on human involvement in dog behavior.  For this example, enters, Jeb, a coon hound.  I was exposed to coon dog training and had the opportunity to spend two weekends with a man by the name of Jerry Schaeffer in Charleston, West, by God, Virginia. And I'm going to tell you right now, that the way he trains his dog is through operant conditioning. The same thing we do when training service dogs.  He has even trained raccoons to help him train his dogs - absolutely amazing!  Anyway,  having been exposed to Blue Tick Hounds, Redbones and Walkers and having hunted with coon dogs myself for fun, I knew that God, the man upstairs, had given Jeb his instructions for life.  We just needed to let Jeb know how that natural wiring would help him to help us find lost people.

Everybody knows, coon dogs tree coons. It's one of those God directed talents that we have to deal with in our training process. Just like bird dogs finally wake up one day and look up and figure out what their purpose in life is. So, my belief is, if we teach the dog to do the behavior for human scent, we will have less of a problem during training with the dog wanting to exhibit the natural behavior on critters. So, we put a human in a tree and taught Jeb how to stand a tree and bay at the human. Every time he would bay, hotdogs would be dropped in his mouth. If his feet came off the tree, we withheld the food until his feet were on the tree and he bayed. He learned very quickly what we wanted. 

Now, how did this help us in the end? One of the things trailing dogs do is trail to structures. For instance, a lost person ends up behind a closed door somewhere. Jeb ran a trail to the old training building where the victim hid inside.  As soon as Jeb got to the building he jumped on the building and bayed, letting us know the victim was inside. He continued to tree and when he hit the door he was able to gain entry and find his quarry. We used hunt drive and the natural instinctual behavior that God provided to teach the dog how to alert on a structure.

Jonni Joyce