This may not be the right place for this question, but I have a question about training proximity. I’ve been training my Pitbull/TWC service dog on psuedo-scents for six months more for fun than anything. The training issue I am having is she can narrow a search field to 8-10 feet fairly quickly, often quicker than I can catch up to her off leash. 50% of the time I would say she indicates strongly enough for me to say exactly where the scent is, but the other 50% she narrows the field and turns circles for a couple minutes before indicating in the center of the field. Is there a way to train a best guess or get her to narrow the search further? The other issue I am having which may be related is I sometimes have to reuse the same training area more than once and the scent seems to linger for 48 hrs because she will indicate on hides up to two days old. I would love to certify her locally as a detector dog, but right now I wouldn’t trust her indication in a blind test.

Unless there is a lot of environmental stuff going on a dog that knows to go to source(strongest odor) is going to be right on top of it.

I would guess that she hasn't learned to closely associate the source of the odor as the source of her reward. Once they make that connection you would have a hard time dragging some dogs away from source. They will also tend to do all the bracketing themselves.

How are you training right now? Food or toy? How do you reward your dog?

Dogs have to learn how to work around residual scent. The easiest way is to do something Andrew Ramsey does and open up the place the odor was previously hidden in so that the dog can stick their head in and realize that their reward is not there.

I would get her on a leash and get a solid alert at the source before she is running a field scent.

No corrections and no guiding but no mark and reward till the dog is indicating right at top the source.

I don't think her indication is the problem because like I said normally once she is close she can stick her nose right in it. On a good quick indication I know within inches where the scent is even if she can't see it. When she turns circles she knows that it's there but can't seem to get closer and gets frustrated. I'm likely to believe enviromental because it tends to be windy days when the hide is overhead on a building or fence where she can't physically reach.
I can work her on leash more, but it's a struggle for me. Like alot of coonhounds she goes deaf while she is working and adding a leash to the mix she takes any tension as an indicator you are trying to get her attention and stops working to listen. Also, when I have worked her on leash I find myself leading, which defeats the training.
My training basically just progressed from hiding hunting scented tennis balls to replacing the tennis balls with a scentlogix aid. I am using audible and clicker reward in the field followed by food reward once we finish a search session. She won't take a toy, and local regulation say no food rewards during testing so I was limited on what I could train. She is more motivated by the work and praise. She kinda of self rewards everytime she finds the aid.
Maybe I should pick up some more training material on this particular discipline and see if I can formulate a better system for training her that is more inline with common practices.

I don't reward the frustrated behavior, normally I just call it a "no find" and we move on to the next aid. If she indicates on all the other aids I will bring her back once more to search that aid and sometimes she gets it the second time, but often it's the same circling behavior.

Have you tried teaching a sit or down at the target scent for her indication?

That would keep her from turning around or moving away from the target scent.

Her indication is a sit, The problem is not her going to the scent. She knows the scent well and will go straight to it when she can find it. The problem comes when she gets to close proximity and the scent is bouncing off more than one surface and she can't narrow down which surface to indicate on. If it's up on say a fence post, she will keep going back to that post and sniffing it, but she will also check the posts on either side, and the bush next to it. She will focus most of her attention to the right area, but when it comes to indicating she just gets frustrated and slowly sits central to all the posts. Contrary to a strong indication where she sits strongly and quickly and maintains a upright proud position, this is just more of a "I give up" slow sit with a slouch.

Can you work her in buildings where you will be able to gradually raise the scent article?

During training my dog had trouble locating a person hidden in a tree.

After he did finally find and alert up a tree it carried over for a couple of training searches to where he walked around constantly looking in the trees.
I think it just made that much of an impression on him but all we did was keep him working that first day till he made the find.

I can't say this will work for your dog because mine was obsessed with search work and never got frustrated with not making a find or not going right up to source.

Do you detail the area with her? Or just let her work it out on her own?

I usually let her work the area by herself, and narrow the field with hand signals or directional whistles in series of three. I have detailed the area with her a few times when she gets a little wylie and I need to reign her in, but I have to be careful how I indicate where to search, as she cues off of hand signals for most commands.

I have not really had a chance to work too many buildings except my house, I should call the county and get permission to use a couple of abandoned buildings as long as they are safe, or maybe ask one of the schools or offices if I could come in on a weekend and work her. I'm just getting comfortable with her ignoring distractions and staying at work.

She is not the best candidate for a working dog, but she loves doing it so at the very least the scent aids give her some satisfaction even if she never makes money doing it. Her biggest obstacles are she LOVES people, and she has always had a hip issue that can hinder her. If you don't know about it, her energy level will fool you, but, at 26 months, a couple times a week she gets to the point she can't stand on her back legs to reach up or jump into the car.

"she has always had a hip issue"

This "issue" can be a key to a lot of your training problems.

I doubt you could get her certified with hip issues but you having fun with her so keep things low and don't worry about height.

Her sometimes sit could be an indicator that her hips are bothering her so sitting and going high can create issues of pain or discomfort.

The circling away could very well be an indication of he being uncomfortable in trying to sit every time.

Enjoy your dog and do fun things that she can accomplish easily.