Quick note on snow

As most of you know, dogs track incredibly well in the snow. Is it because they can see it? Maybe….(not my usual answer). Some research done at the Duke Canine Cognition Center has found that puppies use their eyes first, and if their eyes don’t solve the problem, they use their noses. The research was done in their large Puppy Project, it’s unknown if this data can be applied to adult dogs learning to use their noses for a specific purpose.

OK, that was a rabbit hole, sorry. My point, is please use the snow to improve your ability to read your dog, or, use the snow to train something your dog finds difficult. Examples:

Melting snow is generally hard. So right now, Fletch has a track aging in the melting snow. I’ll run it at 90”. It’s an article track, so theoretically, it will have a very high rate of reinforcement—thus I am training his melting snow skill by trying to make sure the melting snow is easy and reinforcing (reinforcing=increase in behavior).

Are you struggling with turns? Well gosh, in the snow you can see them! Put in a stairstep, and OBSERVE. How far past the turn do you see LOS? How often do you see LOS on the straight legs? What does re-acquisition look like on turns or straight legs?

Are you one of those who thinks every time your dog goes off track its an animal cross track? Put your track across visible animal cross tracks and OBSERVE. Please don’t draw a conclusion from one cross track—cross as many as you can. Conclusions drawn from a single or a couple of data points are anecdotes, not actual data!

Conclusion: While it’s fun to track in the snow to see how awesome your dog is, it’s even better to use the snow to make your dog even more awesome! Go have some fun!