My GSD has a great ball drive and knows several odors, Marj, cocaine and heroin. Mostimes my Gsd will search dilligently in cars and buildings. Other times he doesn't want to work. Am I doing something wrong or do detector dogs have off days sometimes. Is there something I can do to fire up his motivation for searching? Please help.
Thanks

Highlander,

It's difficult to diagnose a problem without watching the dog. Some pointers that might help in the search are; In training, concentrate on some longer searches. It's all part of the variable reward. The dog learns that at some point it will get rewarded, it just doesn't know when. Often times when conducting training, handlers get into a routine of planting targets, conducting short searches, trying to get as many hits as possible in their allotted training time. Like a long distance runner, dogs have to train for the long run as well as the short ones. This of course is relative to the tasking you have in actual situations. For example, with our explosives detectors it is not uncommon to conduct searches of 50 to 75 vehicles with, at most, two targets, during a single training exercise. Of course we didnt start with that many vehicles but we worked our way up to it. We also conduct training doing blank searches. Where no target is hidden at all. That is always followed up however by a search where something will be found. When discussing timing with a dog, it does not only mean "timing" in relation to praising or correcting a behavior, but also relates to the internal clock a dog can develop over training periods. If the dog is conditioned to expect to find something within a period of time, and that doesn't happen, it can affect the motivation. To prevent that, simply set up problems that alter that time.

DFrost

Is a lack of interest being mistaken for confusion? as DFrost pointed out, the variable game might be at hand. What about heat, humididty and convection? Just a thought. Kevin, Josh; a little help, please.