***Disclaimer – This post was written a while ago. I’m currently using the term “human” or “search partner” rather than “handler” to describe any human partnering with a searching dog. This is partly because handler seems to give a person authority that has not originated from and grown through an understanding of the dog. Also, “The Handler” is the title of a 2021 movie which looks to be an attempt to make the worst version of a Steven Segal action flick ever made. Not a good look for the term handler!***
No one says, “At 32 years old, I’m just a natural at walking!” Or, “Gosh, she just woke up one day and was speaking 40 different languages! She’s a natural.” In general, all humans learn to walk and become competent walkers, but no humans walk right out of the womb (save for Will Ferrel on an SNL sketch, youtube it). Similarly, most humans learn to speak a language, but almost no humans become magically proficient at scores of languages (polyglots are rare and there is no record of a person speaking fluently in more than 30-40 different languages). It’s easy to confuse genetically predetermined skill acquisition (like walking and talking) with intentional skill acquisition, like, yoyo tricks. It could be that we’re all supposed to be yoyo masters, but judging from my daily interactions with other humans , it ain’t walk, talk and yoyo. While we humans love to romanticize the natural pairing of dog and person, or rationalize it using thousands of years of historical evidence of cohabitation, the truth is that you have to intend to become appealing to dogs and you have to intend to learn enough about dogs to find them appealing. We humans don’t develop predetermined “walking & talking” dog relationship skills. Similarly, even if we intend to partner with a dog, our intent alone cannot will the necessary skills into existence. Nor do those skills just appear because someone stuck a dog in your orbit from birth to age 12.
Accidental Genius
The toughest pill to swallow when it comes to intentional skill acquisition is that you need to be literate before you can be intelligent. Sure, you can have experiences where you appear to be – and feel like you are – a genius at yoyoing, but if you have no history of acquired skill for yoyoing, your flash of genius is probably a happy accident. What a life you could live if happy accidents happened frequently enough to keep you in a state of ignorant, yoyoing bliss. But we all know that’s not going to happen. Just as we all know that truly skilled partnership with your dog in scent work requires intentional skill building.
Before you rise up on the skill ladder of handling intelligence, you need to expand your handling literacy. If learning to walk weren’t a natural skill acquisition process, we’d experience it as going through hell to learn to walk. Skill acquisition can be a long process, fraught with pain and suffering, but it leads to freedom and joy – to the high of learning a skill to the point that it feels as natural as walking & talking (or sleeping, if you need to lower the bar).
What is Handler Literacy?
My answer to this question is relationship based and does not focus on the choices a handler could make from power or control using arbitrary knowledge that is not arising from the dog’s behavior. Handler Literacy (HL) is about understanding patterns of behavior. Broadly, it can relate to patterns of behavior you observe in your dog’s daily life. Specifically, it can refer to patterns of behavior relevant to the seeking out and locating of odor sources.
I Can’t Read… My Dog
As is often the case, it’s easier to explain what an illiterate handler is than to define the literate one. An illiterate handler (ILL Handler) is capable of recognizing a trained response in the dog (maybe a sit or a “lock on odor”), and that is the extent of it. An ILL Handler prefers known hide locations and clear search boundaries so he can ensure his dog is “successful”. The ILL Handler may also believe he can tell the difference between his dog working/searching for scent and his dog in a distracted state. A common tell of the ILL Handler is to observe him searching with his dog in an area where the source is hidden in an unexpected way (maybe in what looks like trash – discarded clothing, empty chips bag, etc.) and to watch his assessment of the setup totally override the behavior of his dog. Don’t get me wrong, a very experienced handler can make a similar mistake, but for the ILL Handler this would be the rule, not the exception. An ILL Handler may also make frequent intrusions upon the dog regarding where to search, how long to search and how to search (forcing the dog to climb up and check high or to search this specific corner of this vehicle). The crowning trait of an ILL Handler is to repeatedly refuse to trust the dog’s behaviors and decisions during a search until it appears that no other choice remains.
ILL Handlers are not evil, abusive or distrustful by nature – or intentionally. These handlers often desire nothing more than to experience a positive partnership with their dogs and to avoid being incorrect. They frequently disassociate from their bodies and witness their atrocious actions in horror, utterly shocked that they could have handled so inappropriately. ILL Handlers have a self-image of competency and have often experienced some competitive success. They are often quick to blame themselves for failure and quick to point out that they knew exactly what went wrong and exactly how to have done it correctly and that they obviously could have done it correctly. ILL Handlers have a thousand “but what ifs” and “won’t thats” when you suggest they refocus on building handling literacy rather than trying to teach their dogs to be faster, more direct, more indication-focused.
The ABC’s of Handler Literacy
If allowed, your dog can communicate with you during a search for odor using both simple, obvious behaviors, and combinations of subtle behaviors. The result is like a person speaking kindergarten level language all the way up to graduate student philosophizing. Your dog has no problem with language skills. He’s a natural. If you think of your dog’s communication in terms of words, sentences, paragraphs and stories, it becomes easier to make meaning from the behaviors you observe during a search. Here are some of the “words” he uses to string behaviors together into meaningful sentences, paragraphs and stories:
Pace Change – neutral, slow, fast all mean something distinct. Neutral is generally related to searching – maybe there’s presence of odor, maybe not. Fast (not necessarily running, just faster than neutral) usually means moving towards or with odor information. Slow often means moving away from stronger concentration of odor, or lacking directional confidence, or thinking.
Head Movement – steady/neutral, low, skimming, high, tilted, swimming, swishing, bobbling, dancing, snapping, twirling, swirling, darting, striving, fixating, vibrating, cork-screwing, frozen, tracing. Starting to feel a little illiterate? We won’t detail each of these behaviors, but oh man, they speak volumes. If you can’t see your dog’s head, video tape from an angle that reveals it, and then try to get better at recognizing the various movements of the head from your handling vantage point – or take up a slightly offset – but behind your dog – position. Or, get a hairless dog! It’s usually the hair that obscures the head movements.
Body Movement – soft, high, stiff, low, straight, curvy, flat, still, springy, snaky, casting, zig-zagging, tense, frozen, sharp/tight curve/turn, arcing, small/large circles, stretching, soft/wide turn, ping-ponging, noodling, cutting, flopping, slamming, hugging, crab-walking. Body movements are generally whole body expressions, which make them easier to observe. The energy of the expression is also part of the dog’s language. There’s a certain energy to a dog with a soft high body, switching to a springy, casting body, then to a sharp turn, then to a zig-zagging movement, then to another sharp turn – those behaviors have the energy of pursuing a hide. The dog knows he’s onto a hide, he’s in the locating phase, close to the sourcing phase. Contrast that with soft, straight body, large circle, snaky body, stiff, low body, large circle, still body – those behaviors have the energy of uncertainty. Uncertain if there is a hide – and if there is, uncertain it can be sourced. If you can’t sense the energy coming through the dog’s behaviors, you can’t read much of what he’s trying to say.
Feet – light, prancing, heavy, plodding, skidding, slipping, planting, scratching, testing, galloping, lunging, racing, trotting, sure, climbing, leaping, careful, pushing, hopping. Whatever a dog is sensing in the environment through smell or sight or sound, you can often see his thoughts through his feet. Ever watch a dog suddenly pick up a foot and step carefully around something? He’s discovered a scent he doesn’t want to tread on. How about a dog who lightly scratches at the dirt, or a dog who vigorously digs. Watch a dog touch a surface carefully or pounce on it. Many dogs will “prance” or step lightly with their body carried high and their head tilted slightly up as they move away from a scent source. This communication is clear and usually predicts an attempt to stop and turn around – if the human understands what is being said.
Tail – neutral, soft, high, stiff, flagging, wagging, helicoptering, low swishy, low still, tucked, tick-tocking/metrinome, whapping/slapping. The tail is a bit easier for most folks to understand because they see tail-based communication in everyday life. Bottom line, if a dog has a positive imprint on odor, under most conditions, he’s gonna wag that tail somehow as he gets closer to finding source odor (although many dogs stop tail movement briefly as they source). A stiff tail is usually not odor (or not just odor) and usually reads as, “sorry humans, I can’t help but notice the presence of ______ here, either I’ll move on in a moment, or I’ll get majorly lost in this. I’ll let you know. If you talk tail, you can hang with most scent work dogs.
Ears – also a bit easier for most handlers to see. From a scent work perspective, the most useful ear behaviors come at times of deep thought. A dog can convey through ear movements that she is interested in handler feedback (this is not to be confused with a clueless dog asking for help). She might even convey her lack of willingness to more confidently pursue odor to source because of where she might have to put her head. These behaviors usually involve the ears up – sometimes rigid – and rotating a bit left to right.
Mouth/Nose – Closed, open, chuffing, huffing, rapid staccato breathing, slower rhythmic breathing, heavy exhale from mouth, mostly closed gum-flapping breaths, licking, smacking, heavy expelling of air from nose, sneezing, deep drawn out vacuum sniff, gentle sniff, nose twitch, nose press, gliding nose, glued nose, pin-point nose, quiet/still nose, noisy/vibrating nose. This is the hardest part of the dog to observe if you are directly behind the dog. It’s also got some of the clearest communication. For the sake of reading the dog, adjust your position slightly to be able to see the mouth/nose. If your dog has done little else but stopped it’s head at a particular place in a search area, the mouth and nose will help you to verify if the dog stopped because of source, or because of collecting scent, or because of some other odor, or some body language he read from you. It’s possible to know all these things. The dog’s behaviors are a reflection of the information present in the environment.
Blind searches, large areas, longer searches, dynamic environments, and hide placements that allow for more potential complexity are the conditions in which you best learn to read and understand your dog. Don’t expect to “speak the language” perfectly or much at all when you first start – language acquisition is challenging!
The Search For Searching Smarts
Just as we understand what literacy is by highlighting examples of illiteracy, we can identify handler ignorance and know what Handler Intelligence is.
Your dog is approaching the predetermined search area with his head tilted slightly skyward, subtly dancing back and forth. Do you, a) pull him along to continue on towards the judge’s steward or b) recognize his behavior as displaying presence of odor and show him deference in an effort to learn what it is he knows about the environment and the search? Maybe it’s neither, but the point here is that if you don’t know what you don’t know, you can’t begin to act as an intelligent handler.
Let’s say you are in the thick of it, searching with your dog across a large area with 6 minutes and an unknown number of hides. Two minutes into the search you have covered 1/5 of the area, seen a number of changes from your dog (pace change, direction change, methodical searching of an object), but they have all fizzled out with no interconnected storyline among the changes. Are you doing mental gymnastics, feverishly trying to connect these disparate dots of behavioral data? Or, are you recognizing the pattern at hand as likely telling you there are no problems to solve? No matter which reality you choose, what do you do about the remaining 4 minutes and 4/5 of the search area? Does your handling intelligence lead you to believe your dog can clear area without physically contacting it, or do you doubt the pattern of behavior? Do you assume control of your dog’s searching endeavor or do you enter into subtle conversation?
The Intelligent handler is most interested in making decisions that arise from the dog’s behavior as the dog experiences the environment. Some very specific patterns arise when a dog is in need of an active partner to make the next move. Only the most intelligent handlers correctly identify these patterns, and only a subset of these exceptional handlers know their options for responding.
Handler Intelligence is about learning principles and using those principles to create a practice that is adaptable to the dynamic and unpredictable world of scent work. You can’t just go to someone who teaches scent work and have them tell you what to do. It doesn’t work that way!
What is a principle of scent work? Who knows?! I have some thoughts… One principle of scent work might be:
When you partner with your dog to search, you have the mindset that you do not know anything other than what you learn from reading your dog’s behavior. If you believe in this principle, you will have a clear sense of if and how you take your dog to a search start line; how you reach an agreement to search; why you’d pay your dog even if someone said there was no hide where he sourced and indicated; how you reach an agreement to end a search and why; how you follow your dog beyond a search boundary and why, etc.
More importantly, if you believe in this principle you might prioritize foundational skills that include the establishment of clear roles for dog and handler; an imprint on odor that clearly connects searching for, locating and sourcing the odor using whatever methods and rewards you & your dog choose; a benchmark for reliability in the dog’s attempt to search for, locate, and source odor; persistence – both at source and in searches where the shift from searching to locating to sourcing is unclear or challenging; and a preference for blind searches and building trust in the communication flowing between the environment, odor and your dog, and your dog and you.
Hopefully, from this one principle you can see how it might be possible to form a mutually enriching partnership with your dog, and make choices that prioritize that partnership.
High in Trial Might Be The Wrong High…
It’s fun to find yourself at the top of a group of competitors – even more fun to be the lone victor on a challenging day – but all the ribbons in the world can’t accurately describe your Handler Literacy and Handler Intelligence. Only a thorough evaluation of a team’s performance can highlight the instances of Handler Intelligence or Handler Ignorance. A team could “succeed” in every search, but an evaluation of the handler could show multiple instances of Handler Ignorance. Similarly, a team could fail to complete every search, but be in a partnership displaying Handler Intelligence. A competition search can be arranged to favor the ignorant handler, and, in some cases, it can be set up such that the handler needs little to no information from the dog to make correct guesses as to where hides are hidden. Conversely, a search can be set up as to make it highly likely that only the teams with a strongly developed partnership and a rich lexicon of handler literacy along with a practiced application of handler intelligence will succeed.
Look at those trials where no one titles. It’s fascinating that across 4, 5, or 6 searches, one or more teams couldn’t get lucky and make no errors. Look closer, and it’s understandable. Most handlers are waffling back and forth between pure blind luck and over-trying. Most of their decisions arise from the outcome of the previous event (phew, I’m glad I didn’t call that alert in the blank container search!) and are not borne from intelligent handling, rather, they are the result of random success or failure. Basing your decisions on outcomes can be called “resulting”. Annie Duke covers the topic of decision making – including “resulting” – in her books, Thinking In Bets and How To Decide.
With the right framing, a trial experience can be fun and informative. Volunteering at trials allows you to enjoy your day and get a clear view of how large numbers of teams run their process (or not) across numerous searches. Entering FEO is a great way to learn how you and your dog react to the trial environment without adding the pressure of performing for ribbons. Hopefully, your time spent at trials can help you see that “results” – however you define them – have no meaning other than the meaning you give them.
H(el)L Yeah!
There is a path to Handler Intelligence and it goes through H(el)L.
The more time you spend listening to your dog during searches, the more you’ll come to enjoy just being with your dog. This enjoyment will open you up to new details in your dog’s patterns of behavior. As you give your attention to your dog, he will reveal to you his language of communication. You will receive his communication and take care not to force meaning, but to patiently keep acquiring his language until meaning is clear. This is Handler Literacy. It’s the good H(el)L.
Remember, where people go wrong in partnership with dogs is where people go wrong in partnership with other people: if you can’t put your needs aside long enough to understand the needs of your partner, you will both be locked in a battle to get your needs met. Learn your dogs language, then use that knowledge to understand what your dog needs each time he searches.
Once you are able to receive your dog’s communication in the language of the search, and to understand his needs, you will begin to find yourself in moments of conversation. Here is where your Handler Literacy will inform your choices. Here is where the magic is – where the real HI is.
Happy Sniffing!
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