Dumpster drills

Question from a K9 Nose Work student:

Hi Gail,

I am in WI and not familiar with your Dumpster Diving Drill. Could you please explain this to me? Many thanks!

Gail’s response:

To build drive and focus – and also to help educate the dog that there is always “another hide to find” —  I will often place 4-5 hides in a row at nose height along an outside wall of, say, a building with steel walls so that my magnetic tins stick well. The hides need to be placed far enough apart so that there is no overlapping scent plumes. The back of strip malls work great for this as there are often multiple recycling dumpsters in the back and you can attach the magnetic tins on multiple dumpsters — just don’t stick them on food containing dumpsters! 🙁  This is what I call my “Dumpster Drills.”  Send your dog out to search for the first hide with your normal search cue but for the next hides, come up with a slightly different “search litany” that communicates to your dog that there is a new hide to search for.  I use the cue, “Another!  Find it.” I emphasize the word “another” and, in time, my dog knows that there will a second hide to find when I use the word “another.”  Over the years when I really geared up in my training, I have 3-4 of these such locations and my dogs definitely get excited when we go to train in one of these areas.  This is an outdoor version of the box drill, just bigger and with multiple hides.  And because it is bigger and I usually work them in only one direction, the dog learns to leave one hide and go to another without ever going back on an earlier hide.

Well, I hope this helps.

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