I’m sure we all have been ignored when someone is engrossed in a film! But did you know this is actually a phenomenon called “inattentional deafness”. 👂
Studies on humans revealed that concentration on visual tasks will render you temporarily deaf to normal sounds.
🧠 Brain scans have showed that people do not purposely ignore known sounds, but that they actually aren’t hearing them in the first place!
The findings support a shared audio-visual centre, which, when depleted under load, leads to failures of sensory perception and awareness.
Example:
You turn down the music in your car so you can see better? Especially when we want to focus on reading the street names.
🐕 So how does this relate to dogs?
The thalamus is the area of the brain that’s is responsible for relaying sensory information such as hearing, sight, touch and pain. It also enables the dog to concentrate on one thing at a time.
So just like your partner watching a film, when your dog is sniffing the ‘pee mail’ and all the wonderful smells on his walk, they will very likely not hear you and why should they? It’s their walk after all!
Wait for your dog to finish “reading” then call him back!

It’s been a busy morning!
I needed a pee at 06:00! as my humans only give me a treat and a dance when I make my waterfalls outside, I decided it was best to wake them up, that wasn’t that easy! I had to shout as loud as I could, I didn’t give up and I was right, daddy took me out and I got some yummy treats.
Daddy was muttering something about 6 am on a bloomin Sunday I’m not sure what that means but he didn’t look his happy self so I cheered him up with a game a ‘shark attack’, I loves my needle teeths, so does daddy!! he makes funny noises when I try and pull the hairs off his legs with them!

Mummy’s been great fun this morning she hasn’t sat down for a minute, I found us a new amazing game, not sure what to call it yet, but boy it’s the best ever. I hunt around for things then start chewing them, and mummy has to chase me and get them out of my mouth before I swallow them. I think Mummy is winning but wow it’s such fun!

It sucks having to share the same water bowl as my older sister, she is smelly and so old, I think she puts cooties in the water!
I tried to explain this to mummy & daddy but they didn’t get it! I really had to think hard how I could get then to clean the cooties out!!
I tried barking at the bowl, bowing at it, zooming past it, sitting and staring at it, I even tried getting the cooties out with my paw, eventually I had no choice but to sit right in the middle of the water bowl and try and push them out with my bottom!! Yippee 🙌 it worked, fresh water, and a tickle with a towel, what fun!

I think I need a little nap now, then I’ll try the ‘I’m a parrot 🦜 game’
It’s a good job my claws are still so sharp otherwise I’d never be able to climb up mummy and daddy’s back to bite their hair!

The line we use is the way we communicate to our dogs while they are working: The length between you and your dog needs to be long enough to allow your dog to work to the edges of the scent with minimal hindrance from us. If it is too short (which we see all the time) the dog will not be able to naturally follow the scent and work uninfluenced, too long and you will spend your time untangling it and tripping up your dog.

The tension on the line is so super important, I really cant stress this enough, Lines that drop on the floor with no tension and aren’t looped up quick enough often result in the dog being jerked at a critical point, (most common is after casting at a junction, the dog makes the correct direction choice, heads off quickly full of enthusiasm, reaches the end of the line with a jerk and reads this as a correction or a negative communication, the motivation drops and some dogs who are eager to please their owners will even just head off in the direction the handler is facing whether it is correct or not!   

The line should NEVER be used to Influence your dog while they are working. Using the line to direct or guide your dog will simple teach them to rely on you and not their own abilities to follow the scent. Use your words to engage your dog to trail, and be patient, to quote Kevin Kocher  

“communicating with your dog through the lead is part of handling a dog. It is what separates a dog handler from a lead holder”.  

Don’t be a lead holder! your dog deserves more than that from you! 

And finally never underestimate how your position behind your dog can unintentionally influence them on a trail. A line to short and a handler stood or facing to the left in a junction can and often and does encourage the dog to head off in that direction. Patience is the key, always, and I really do mean ALWAYS try to stay directly behind your dog at safe but non hindering distance. Some handlers have a right or left bias, meaning they naturally walk slightly to one side or another, at a greater distance behind your trailing dog this may not be problem, but closer, maybe in a busy town or next to traffic when the line needs to be shorter for safety reasons, this slight bias may make for bad decisions on your dogs part. Dogs are clever at reading us, and taking situational cues we don’t even realize we are showing, this is true in trailing too, as instructors we are very careful not to influence your dogs as we invariably know where the trails go and are very aware that some dogs will pick up on us standing still at a missed turn or moving over to one side or  another when a turn approaches.  

For the more advanced trailing teams we follow you when you make mistakes and encourage you to ‘have a plan’ and assist you in helping your dog make the right decision.  

 

Some dogs are quick we know this and their directional changes are equally as rapid which will mean the line will end up on the floor, we understand this and totally sympathize with the difficulty as one of our dogs is just the same. The skill you have to practice is a little like cowboy rodeo training, gathering the line in a tidy loop at the same time as staying behind and facing the dog! I’m dizzy just typing this, but it can and must be done to ensure our dogs progress without influence or hindering, so grab your Stetson and get practicing!

How Scent and Airflow Works.

 rattlerjen9 years ago

How do those dogs find missing people?

Remember PigPen from Charlie Brown?  He always appeared to have clouds of dust coming off of him wherever he went.  This is not far from the truth.

You have thousands of tiny pieces of your body leaving you every minute; 40,000 pieces to be exact.  These tiny cornflake like bits are called rafts.

They are made up of skin cells, hygiene products, bacteria, fungus, parasites, sweat, hormones, and enzymes. They are unique to each individual human.  Even skin rafts from identical twins are different.  These are what dogs smell.

Some skin rafts are lighter in air, easily carried by air currents.  Others are heavier than air,  alighting on vegetation or falling to the ground.

Dog Handlers pay attention to air currents.

Skin rafts are carried along currents of air like millions of fluffy dandelion seeds.

We pay attention to physics.  Warm Air rises

and Cool air sinks.  Cold and moisture make air heavier. Your skin rafts first leave your body at about 2mph up in the air traveling along the current of air your 98.6 degree F produces.

Without any air movement

scent diffuses evenly

Diffusion

But of course, there is always something making air move.

When things are perfect, scent moves predictably like this:

Laminar Flow

Objects and other factors often cause air to move like this:

Turbulent Air Flow

Turbulent air flow causes handlers and their canines to mutter choice words under their breaths.

Different Types of Airflow

Normal Daytime Air

When the ground heats up during the day time, air begins to rise.

Normal Nighttime Air

When the ground begins to cool, air cools and begins to fall. It flows downhill like water.

Coning Plumes

• movement of scent from subject downwind in the shape of a cone
• during cloud covered days or nights
• travels long distances
• ideal for dogs

A dog will run perpendicular to the flow of the scent crossing in and out of the scent cone zeroing in to its source.

Fumigating Scent

• occurs in the morning before sunup
• scents travel down valleys like water
• subjects on a hill can be detected by dog down below
• It is good to get dogs out before sunrise

Lofting Scent

• Occurs after sun sets
• The ground is cooling but aloft air is still warm
• usually occurs in valleys first then other areas later on
• Work dogs on the high ground in the evening

Fanning Plumes

• at night in stable air
• scent holds at the same elevation level without falling or rising
• dog may alert across a drainage or canyon at the same level, but can’t find a person
• Be sure to report your alerts as scent can carry

Pooling Scent

• collects in an area like a pool of water
• usually occurs in a low area
• Occurs where there is little dispersal of scent by the wind
• It hard for dog to follow a scent pool to the subject

Eddying Scent

• circular air forms behind an object (turbulence)
• prevents scent from traveling along prevailing wind
• example: eddies form at a line of trees next to an open field

Looping Plumes

• Occurs in clear sky or with high clouds
• Occurs at midday, a high convection situation
• scent rises, cools, falls, heats up, rises, cools, falls, etc.
• Dog will alert by putting his head up, but will lose the scent.

Chimney Effect

• Happens when air currents move straight up an object
• alerts may occur nearby   -but-
• scent may come down as much as several hundred meters away from the subject
• This makes it nearly impossible for the dog to find the subject
• You should check around tall objects in the area

Thermoclines

• caused by significant temperature and humidity differences in short distances
• changes in elevation
• drastic changes in shade and sunny spots
• creates a wall like barrier of scent

Owning a nervous dog can be hard work. It can not only be distressing, but also isolating for you and your dog. The opportunity to join in with classes or meet other dog owners can be difficult. When building confidence in your dog we want to create positive experiences for them, and encourage them to want to investigate new things. These are built into the very essence of mantrailing.

Mantrailing is teaching your dog to find a specific person’s scent. All dogs are born being able to use their nose so what we’re teaching them isn’t anything new to them. But instead we are just directing their natural talent into a confidence building game using the power of scent, which allows your dog to work naturally in a fun way.

The olfactory bulb in your dogs brain, which processes scents takes up 1/8th of the dogs whole brain. This is why the dogs sense of smell is the their most prominent sense. The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system which is the part of the brain which deals with emotions, memory and behaviour. Scent passes through this when being processed by the brain, it also travels to the cortex which deals with conscious thought.

Positive associations with scent allow the brain to release endorphins and serotonin. These hormones allow the dog to feel good about what they are doing, and these positive memories are brought to the forethought as they work on the scent again. The scent informs the dogs about the good things, but it also forewarns about the bad. Smells last for a lifetime in the memory of dogs and if we can build positive associations with a specific scent there is a huge foundation to work with.

Dogs can even distinguish the direction of travel of the scent, as well as time passed and the individual’s scent.

Another way mantrailing helps your dog become more confident and overcome their fears, is there always an exciting reward waiting at the end of the trail. This reward and its presentation is individual to each dog. They are able to work as an individual and make choices about how close they want to approach the person or not, we don’t want to create a conflict in the dog about going over to the person.

On introduction courses we can use people the dogs know as their trail layer for the first trail, and then from there we transition onto unknown trail layers when the dog is comfortable and knows the game. These unknown trailer layer do not have to interact with the dog at all and just become the scent to follow in order to get to the prize at the end, be that the food, or a toy. Surprisingly many dogs that initially show avoidance towards the trail layer will start warming up to them after a few trails, and want to investigate them as they have a positive experience with them and are not put into a contradictive situation.

As mantrailing is a dog sport where dogs are worked one at a time, it is ideal for those dogs who are worried about other dogs. Once they get into the task, they often become oblivious to the things around them and they can start to ignore other dogs, or things that would normally frighten or distract them. It can help them get past some fears by indirectly exposing the dog to them. Mantrailing helps create a shift in priorities for your dog from looking for danger, to following the scent. They are less likely to react to things that may trigger them normally.

If we use a toy as a reward, we have to make sure that we choose and instruct a trail layer that is capable of presenting or playing with the toy to ensure that we have the best reward possible for the dog. The sheer existence of the toy is often not enough for the dog, it needs to be interactive in a way that is positive for the dog.

If we use food as our reward, we want it to be licked out of the pot. Licking for dogs has been scientifically proven to release endorphins, the hormone linked to the feeling of happiness in dogs.

Article from Mantrailing uk

Let’s talk about separation anxiety for a moment!
A label I hate, and a condition I personally find frustrating.
It’s often misused as a blanket term without understanding the actual cause.
Some dogs are just bored when they are left alone, some not trained to be alone, others left in a state of arousal.
Ask yourself does your dog stress because:
(Separation anxiety)- there are no humans with them?
(Separation frustration) (fomo! More frustration than anxiety.) – something is going on that they are not included in.
(Barrier frustration) – when there is a gate or blockage between you?
(Isolation distress) – They are alone completely isolated?
(Hyper- attachment) – they cannot cope without their primary care giver.

This list is not entire but for now I’ll expand on the last.
Hyper dependancy or hyper attachment can be common with rescue dogs. It is easy to understand why, they have lost everything, sometimes more than once. Now they have everything, food, warm bed, toys, treats, someone to look after their every need, they will never be hungry or cold again. It is easy for them to attach to their new owners a little too much and you almost become an enabler for the anxiety!
In the firsts fees weeks/ months it’s a fine balance with emotionally scared dogs, they need to feel safe and grow confidence. This will only happen with a bond and knowing they are supporting. But a hyper attachment will hinder this growth as they will use you as a shield, and ultimately may even begin to guard you as a prized procession they will not be able to cope for a second without you. They may even begin to look for signs that you may leave, (picking keys up ect) Their lives will be full of stress even if it’s subtle it can still lead to massive problems.

Sign of stress
Barking / howling / whining
Only eating with you.
Following you everywhere
Escaping
Drooling
Panting
Yawning
Licking
Wide eyes
Nervous
Soiling
Scratching (themselves or objects)
Lip licking
Shadow chasing
Pacing
Staying at the last place you were
Watching doors window
Chewing your things

Again this list goes on…

Most things you’ll read about solving this will not be aimed at rescue dogs with emotional baggage. Tread carefully you could make matters worse.

My rescue street dog ‘Goose’ came to me from Cyprus aged six and half months old, for 3 days I allowed him to bond and get used to his new home. I let him follow me everywhere and spent every minute with him.
From day 4, I closed the gate to the kitchen whilst cooking, making lunch or a brew. To begin with he sat with his nose pushed through the gap watching my every move. If I went out of sight he whimpered. If he had been quiet for a few seconds I would go back to the gate and give hime a treat. We built the time between treats, as he began to relax and lay by the gate whithout making a sound when I was out of sight. We extended this to me leaving the kitchen (through the other door) just out and back in, to start with.
For the next 11 days this is all I did, tiny little steps of time or in new area. Goose now lays in his bed on the landing when I shower. Stays in the lounge when I use the loo. Even stays in the lounge when I make a cuppa.
Today I left him in the house without a human for the first time.
I prepped by leaving the tv on, put my boots on, picked up my keys, all low key, no big fuss, dropped some treats on the floor and walked out.
I left the doors open so he could come to the hall gate and see I wasn’t there, he walked back and forth a few times and gave a little whimper or two. But that was it. I was out for 8 minutes, and at this point that’s fine, I will now build this up in tiny steps.
He needs to be happy on his own. Taking the time to get this right now will make things so much easier later on. He is an amazing little dog and deserves everything I can give him to ensure his further happy and stress free.

A brilliant article by Julia Langland

http://www.balancebehaviour.org

A diet that is high in protein can certainly affect behaviour in some dogs. Dogs on a commercial complete diet containing too much protein can suffer from anxiety, aggression, restlessness, light sleep and depression. Too much protein in the diet can also exacerbate existing mental health/nervous system issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder. This is due to a lack of serotonin in the brain which regulates mood. Serotonin production relies heavily on the amino acid tryptophan which is found in many ingredients such as fish, eggs and chicken. Unfortunately in an excessively high protein diet this essential amino acid – tryptophan- has to compete with other amino acids also found in proteins. Competing in this way can result in low levels of tryptophan and therefore difficulty producing serotonin and in turn cause instability of mood. Most dogs are quite happy on a high protein diet, but some dogs may have insufficient serotonin production as a baseline and it is these individuals that may benefit from the trial of a lower protein diet.

The average protein content of a middle of the road ‘one size fits all’ dog food marketed as a maintenance food for an adult dog usually contains around 25% protein. An adult dog’s average protein requirement for weight maintenance is around 18%, most working dogs require around 25% and a racing sled dog during work requires around 35%. So for a dog in a pet home the maintenance diets available would appear to be only suitable to the athletic working dog due to the elevated protein content, or are they? Unfortunately manufacturers of pet foods are geared towards profit, to this end the ingredients list can be very misleading. There are vast differences in the qualities of different protein sources with some generically termed proteins being difficult or impossible for the dog to metabolise. Any protein termed as ‘animal’ ‘meat’ or ‘poultry’ is generally speaking likely to be of a very low quality, look instead for specifics such as ‘chicken’ ‘beef’ or ‘lamb’. Although the vast proportion of complete pet foods available appear to have too high a protein content this is not always the whole truth and they could actually be of a very low ‘useful-protein’ value contrary to the company marketing insinuations. Careful analysis of the labelling of a food is required to make sense of the confusing terms, unfortunately a full breakdown of ingredients is often not available on the packaging – however details are usually available on the manufacturer’s website or upon request.

There are a vast myriad of complete foods to choose from but there appears to be a huge gap in the market as I have found to my irritation. Most foods that contain high quality, easy to absorb protein tend to be very expensive and excessively high in protein making them only entirely suited to very active dogs in full time work, whereas the cheaper lower protein foods available, although initially appear ideal, are virtually all made up of exclusively low grade protein meaning that the already low protein content is very much lower than initial analysis would suggest. The only way I have found to comfortably match the protein requirements of my particular pack has been to find a 23% chicken protein food and to keep the dog’s exercise on the vigorous end of the scale! In summer when this level of exercise is not really practical due to the dog’s thick double coats I reduce the protein content by reverting to the same brand’s ‘mature’ food which is almost identical in every respect but includes less calories and only 19% chicken protein, in this way I allow for the more sedate period without changing the composition of the food too much. This works for me but finding a solution entailed a lot of research in order to cut through the different terms and marketing jargon.

As tryptophan is found in abundance in poultry and eggs a good way to ensure that your dog is getting enough is to feed a chicken based food of suitable overall protein content rather than one based on red meat, or to supplement a standard food with egg white. Egg white is an excellent source of protein and contains over 40 different proteins including all 20 proteogenic amino acids required for protein synthesis. It is the best ‘dog suitable’ source of tryptophan and as it has a low calorific content is a good solution for adjusting the intake of tryptophan and other amino acids without the need to adjust the calorie intake/amount food, this is a way of introducing a good balance of amino acids without increasing the calorie intake/exercise requirements.There are also some excellent supplements available that maximise serotonin production.

B6 is required for the conversion of tryptophan and supports the nervous system. Other B vitamins are required for the efficient absorption of B6 so the addition of a B vitamin complex to the diet can help where dog continues to exhibit symptoms despite appropriate adjustments to protein content in the diet. In addition to this some disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder can severely deplete levels of serotonin, put simply, due to the dogs elevated and frequent perceived need for a fight or flight response. In cases where dogs are experiencing anxiety to the level where the skin is dry and flaky (this can be a side effect of stress), a good alternative to/addition to albumen is oily fish such as sardines, these are good for replacing the oils in the coat and skin during periods of stress as well as being a good source of tryptophan, if sardines are tinned in oil and the oil is to be given too, the addition of sardines should be limited to once or twice a week to avoid digestive upsets.

It should be noted that very low protein diets may stunt growth in younger dogs and compromise the immune systems of all, a total of 22 essential amino acids are required for a healthy diet and reducing the protein content of the diet severely is not recommended, a diet with 18% being of a good quality protein is the ideal to trial if serotonin production is thought to be a factor, as a maintenance diet for an adult dog that is not in work.

Lowering protein in the diet is unlikely to eliminate aggressive or anxious behaviour entirely but in some cases will allow the dog to achieve the correct brain chemistry and enable a more successful outcome to any programme of behaviour modification.