K-9 Scent Discrimination Training

In this video, Truman is a 3-month-old bloodhound puppy, 4 days into human scent discrimination training. In order to learn discrimination he must poke his nose in the mouth of the jars, each jar containing a different human scent. When Truman pokes his nose in the jar designated positive (S+) the response is always followed with a click and food. A nose poke to the negative (S-) jar is never followed with a click or food. The jars are switched from the left and right hand in a random order so the position of the jars cannot be used to predict reward. With this training, Truman is learning that the S+ predicts reward and the S- predicts no reward. More importantly however, because both scents predict an important outcome, while the incidental surroundings do not, Truman is learning the significance of human scent and attention to it is therefore increased.

After Truman learns that his job involves discrimination between human scents, from discrimination training between many pairs of human scents, his attention to human scent is increased. He will then be taught to play the matching game. The matching game involves a scent article used as a conditional cue for finding a matching scent in a line up or on a trail. Because the matching game is a more difficult game to learn, the basic discrimination training shown in this video is a good preliminary training procedure. This basic discrimination training method is used to enhance subsequent learning because he learns his job involves discrimination between human scents. In addition, because attention to human scent is increased with this training, learning to solve more complex problems is enhanced.

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• K-9
• Scent
• Discrimination
• Training

[clavekar]

nice technique.would like to see more on scent training.all the best