K9 Detection Collaborative

This post contains affiliate links. What to listen for: Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss why the words you choose when training your dog are so important to your success as a handler. Words matter not only to encourage the behaviors that you want your dog to display, but also to eliminate scope creep in training. Additionally, the length of the word or phrase matters, particularly when the...

( Check out the web post for links to all the gear mentioned in this episode! ) What to listen for: Are you ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday? We shared an extra-long episode with an extensive list of toys, clothing and detection supplies to check out! From odors and poop bags, to training gear and car covers, all the way to baby monitors and dog Crocs, you won’t...

What to listen for: Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal go into the benefits of cross-training. To them, the more we can do with our dogs, the better we get as trainers in every sense—and we end up with a more well-rounded dog in the process. From the importance of keeping training fun, to the subtle differences between various tracking sports, all the way to defining your why in this profession, our...

What to Listen For: Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal explore a bit of a different—but no less important—topic: practicing self-care and chasing your dreams! Building a successful career or business doesn’t have to come at the expense of your physical and mental well-being. The key to achieving so-called “work-life integration?” Setting boundaries. As our hosts discuss, anybody can create the life...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal unpack another five listener questions and scenarios that were originally sent in on Ask A Stupid Question Day back in September. Key Topics: “How do you work an area with residual odor?” (01:41) “My dog is a field-trained spaniel and is very good at nosework (lavender, eucalyptus, and anise) for Danish competition standards. Now we are following another program pa...

Today, our hosts reflect on their recent conversation with competitive tracking extraordinaire Emily Lawrence! They talk about the importance of regularly going through tracking reinforcement strategies such as article work as well as training obedience in IGP. Robin defines tracking (which includes IGP or sport tracking) as “footstep-by-footstep,” with a combination of not only human odor, but al...

Today, we continue our conversation with competitive tracking extraordinaire Emily Lawrence! When it comes down to it, “tracking is the great equalizer.” Emily teaches us that the key to building skill and confidence in our dog is going to be a slow, baby-step process for trackers of any level. She reminds us that frustrating training sessions are all part of the package. It’s okay that our dog st...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal sit down with competitive tracking extraordinaire Emily Lawrence! Having gotten her start in the sport in 1989 at the tender age of 11, Emily has had many years to hone her craft. Listen in as she shares her training strategies, with a particular focus on the unique challenges in training her Border Collie compared to your traditional German Shepherd. She discusses...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal talk all things odor hygiene. A critical factor in ensuring that your dog is well-trained, odor hygiene includes knowing where and how to store your odor and how to keep your training aids as pristine as possible. Our hosts give their best advice on avoiding cross-contamination between odors in your containers, as well as between odors external to your training aid...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal answer ten listener questions for “Stupid Question Day,” though they clarify that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Key Topics: “What is the most random breed you’ve seen doing search & rescue, nosework, or bite sports?” (02:37) “For people who train nosework, are there things that we need to practice or be aware of before trialing?” (06:39) “What wou...

Today’s episode is the last in a four-part series featuring animal behavior specialist and dog trainer Jo-Rosie Haffenden. While Jo-Rosie believes in having a “pyramid of learning” when it comes to working with any dog, and that it should all start with positive reinforcement, she warns against putting too much focus on one training method or philosophy at the expense of others. She says that conf...

Today’s episode is the third in a four-part series featuring animal behavior specialist and dog trainer Jo-Rosie Haffenden. She discusses selective drive, a concept that explores the modification of behaviors closely linked to the predatory action sequence, which itself is a group of behaviors with roots in food acquisition. “The predatory action sequence is the house that dogs are built on,” says...

Today, we continue our conversation with animal behavior specialist and dog trainer Jo-Rosie Haffenden. She breaks down her current favorite area of research, incentive salience models, defining the concept simply as the theory that dopamine creates needs rather than likes . That is, it aims to explore what causes drive or arousal and, by extension, how incentives may best be crafted to stimulate...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal are joined by animal behavior specialist and dog trainer Jo-Rosie Haffenden all the way from Spain. With a university degree in psychology and a post-grad degree in animal behavior, Jo-Rosie spent her early career working at a rescue center before becoming an expert witness. Later on, she was on Channel 4’s Rescue Dog to Super Dog, ITV’s Teach My Pet to Do That, an...

Coming off three weeks of teaching, training, and certifications, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss training your dog with a purpose, emphasizing the importance of advocating for your dog and knowing when to stop pushing. Crystal talks about how because different breeds work differently, some people have preconceived ideas about how a dog should work that won’t apply universally.  They introduce t...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal sit down to reflect on their five-day experience teaching at Distraction Camp 2022. Describing the camp as an opportunity to learn how to train your dog, they break down the various lessons taught over the course of five days. These include the strategy of sculpting your dog’s behavior via odor and hide placement, and introducing new aspects of play to enhance how...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal continue to answer questions from their roundtable. They begin responding to the question, Does everybody have to say ‘alert’ in nosework? While there are some variations, Stacy explains, most do use the word. It becomes a conditioned reinforcer. With markers like this, trainers need to be careful not to train additional behaviors. This prompts a discussion around...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss questions from their roundtable that they were unable to answer. They begin comparing their dogs’ workdays with their rest days, sharing anecdotes around what their dogs’ days off look like. This leads to a discussion around time management. Robin mentions that a dog’s training hours can be dependent on weather and climate. Search and rescue work, Crystal e...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal sit down to share their personal stories about their dogs. Sometimes, our dogs can surprise us with what they are capable of doing, sometimes even before we’ve trained them to do it! Our hosts kick off the conversation sharing the moment they felt most proud of their dogs, followed by those surprising moments where their dogs showed remarkable intelligence in the f...

Today, Robin, Stacy and Crystal discuss how to use blank sessions to your advantage. Blank areas, while they can be anxiety-inducing, can be a way for handlers to evaluate their dog’s behavior, and in the process build their stamina, attention, and trust. “We should really start redefining how we think of blank areas: Blank areas are an opportunity for us to work on nose time with the dog. We call...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss what changes to expect as your puppy enters adolescence. Lasting between the ages of 18 months and two years, dogs in their “teenage” years will seem to forget everything they’ve been taught up to that point. Listen in as our hosts share how to instill focus and impulse control in your puppy as early as possible in order to minimize the challenges trainers...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal reflect on the reality that, as K9 handlers, our expectations don’t often play out in the long term quite as we expect them to. Listen in as our hosts talk about the awkwardness of receiving unsolicited advice for simply sharing their interesting training experiences with their neurodivergent dogs, and how to move forward regardless in your quest to hone your skill...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss how to set your dog up for success by becoming their advocate. Listen in as our hosts explain how to see consistent growth in your training—pushing your dog while ensuring that you only put them in situations that they can handle. To them, a key factor to building your dog’s confidence in this way is by assuring them that they always have a choice during yo...

Today, Stacy, Robin, and Crystal discuss how to find a mentor or a community that fits your goals in the K9 world, their advice rooted in the belief that, “If you want your dog’s behavior to change, you have to change yours first.” Listen in as our hosts break down the benefits (and limitations) of using social media and video content to attract the right people to you, the value of openness and c...

Today, Crystal, Stacy, and Robin discuss how they use speed drills, or speed games in their training. They chat about the value of speed games as a teaching tool, how they allow for efficient training, and the ways in which they make training fun for the dogs. Crystal leads an effort to rebrand speed drills as speed games , to drive an emphasis on the point that they are not just for training, but...