5 Day Trained Final Response Challenge
Day 4: DURATION

Picture this. You are searching a house, your dog ducks into a bedroom out of site. By the silence, you can tell your dog has stopped moving but before you can get back there to see if they are performing their sit trained final response, they pop out and head off to another room. Were they sniffing a distraction of some sort then chose to move on? Or did they have target odor and just didn’t wait for you?

Or imagine this, you are called to search a 3-story mall after an EF5 tornado hit. The parking lot is packed with cars, so you know there were people inside. You and your dog are searching through towers of I-beams, concrete slabs and racks of clothes. Your dog gives a head snap and dives deeper into the rubble. You hear them barking, their trained final response. You move towards the sound but before you get there your dog reappears. In this mess of rubble there is no way for you to know where your dog was just alerting. Where is the person?

Search dogs are selected in part for their confidence to independently work in any environment. They boldly explore buildings and challenging terrain in search of their target odor, even when their handler is not by their side. This is a good thing! However, we need to teach our dogs to perform their trained final response until we acknowledge and release them so that we can precisely identify the location and clearly communicate their findings to the rest of the search team.

In Day 4 we are going to show you how to systematically increase the duration of your dog’s trained final response. This training will make your dog highly motivated to stay right at target odor and continue to sit or bark (or whatever their TFR is) until you release and reward them.

Increase One Criteria, Lower The Others

To improve your success in building your trained final response, we always recommend working on one aspect, one “D”, at a time. Yesterday we drilled on specific nuances of your trained final response including speed and body position. Today, as we begin to challenge your dog’s threshold for duration, remember to lower your expectations of performance in other areas. When you are ready to certify and respond to callouts your dog should be performing their trained final response as you defined on Day 1 with great proficiency. Trust us, the fastest way to get there though, is training one piece at a time and only combining them once each are solid.

Intentionally Random

It may sound counterintuitive to you, but one critical tip for maintaining your dog’s motivation to perform their TFR for long durations is to not just keep making them do it longer. Once you push their duration a time or two, back off and reward them for a short quality TFR. This variable reward schedule keeps your dog always anticipating (and excited) to figure out when their reward is coming.

There is an easy way to tell if you are doing this correctly:

  • If your dog’s enthusiasm increases with each run, you have the right mix of challenging and motivational durations.
  • If you dog’s enthusiasm decreases with each run, you are pushing too hard and need to incorporate more motivational runs in between.


TIP: Download a random number app to your phone. There are a ton of free ones. You enter the time range you are working on (say 2-30 barks) then press the button. It will randomly give you a number ensuring that your unintentional patterns or desired outcome do not get in the way of maintaining your dog’s motivation.

Setup Instructions

Today's drill again only requires one prop. Prop durability is especially important today. As your dog learns that you just want them to perform the same behavior longer, they may try other behaviors to get their reward like pawing or nudging source. Make sure and use prop that will not allow your dog to access source. You may consider a cinder block, wooden box or weighted ammo can. Lightweight plastic cones or cardboard boxes are not ideal.

Using one durable prop, set out target odor in an open distraction-free area. We are only working on duration today so you don't need them to go far from you (we'll cover that tomorrow). 

Troubleshooting

Part of a good training plan is to always have a Plan B so that you are prepared to immediately act when things don't go as you expected. Here's a few of the most common issues that occur during duration training and some tips for how to address them.

  1. Your dog stops performing their trained final response but doesn't leave the proximity of target odor.

    Whether your dog stops barking or stands up from a sit—just WAIT. This is a great opportunity for learning. Your dog is trying to figure out why they didn’t get rewarded. As long as they are near target odor, wait for them to try their TFR behavior one more time. When they do, mark and reward immediately. Your dog will learn that they had it right from the start, they just needed to stick it out a little longer.

  2. Your dog stops performing their trained final response and walks away from target odor.

    Don’t holler, don’t get mad, quietly gather up your dog and reset. Your dog is simply telling you they don’t yet have the confidence or motivation to perform their TFR as long as you asked. When you send them the next time, make sure and significantly lower your duration criteria. Spend a few runs doing short motivational TFRs. When you see their enthusiasm on the rise, you can begin to slowly start increasing the duration.

  3. Your dog starts attempting to access source by digging/pawing/nudging the prop.

    You have a couple of options here. With good prop durability, as long as they are not in danger of hurting themselves, you can wait them out and let your dog discover that nothing but their TFR behavior earns them their reward. As soon as they stop the unwanted behavior and go back to their TFR, reward them immediately. Make sure and decrease the duration requested on the next few runs to build their motivation. (You can learn more about this in our free Stopping Unwanted Behaviors at Source training.)

    Some unwanted behaviors are self-reinforcing (inherently rewarding to the dog) so your dog may be less likely to stop on their own. You can prompt the TFR behavior then reward the instant they perform it. Make sure your next run is short and motivational, then very slowly increase your duration making sure to minimize the repetitions your dog gets of doing the unwanted behavior.


No matter what issue you encounter during your duration training, remember that they all are just a way of your dog communicating that they do not yet have enough motivation and history of reward for the level of duration you are asking for. Take a few steps back. Make sure you have that solid foundation before moving on.

Puppies & Young Dogs

When working a puppy or young dog it is especially important to always be aware of their level of enthusiasm so you make sure and build a history of the work being fun. You see in this video that Indy is first provided a motivational run (1 bark). He is then challenged with a series of increasing durations (5 barks, then 10 barks). To preserve the enthusiasm he demonstrated after 10 barks, Deana drops back and again only asks for one bark. This added step to ensure his motivation stays high pays dividends when you see his enthusiasm and performance on the next run where she again asks for 10 barks.

 

Experienced Dogs

This systematic approach to building duration works for both passive and active trained final responses. You can see that with each subsequence run, Tempe's enthusiasm grows with faster speed back to target odor and very quick sits. 


Sunny doesn't lack for motivation and you see her intensity increase with each run. So much so that she even starts barking in anticipation before she gets to target odor.