To Pattern or not to Pattern?

What is a pattern for nosework? Do you constantly required you dog to follow a structured pattern? Should you require your dog to follow a pattern? These are all good questions, and many of us ask ourselves these questions – often after reading comments on our scoresheets or after a trial briefing. This is the one and only time I’m going to answer the question simply with one word, but first I need a few 100 to set the stage.

What is a pattern? A quick search in the googles (the source of all human knowledge) and we have any number of definitions, we could use some or all of these to help us define what a “pattern” in nosework should be.

Google definition of “Pattern in math”. Things that are arranged following a rule or rules. Example: these tiles are arranged in a pattern. Another Example: there is a pattern in these numbers: 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, they follow a rule "start at 2 and add 5 each time"
Google definition of “Pattern in Art” is an underlying structure that organizes surfaces or structures in a consistent, regular manner. Pattern can be described as a repeating unit of shape or form, but it can also be thought of as the "skeleton" that organizes the parts of a composition.
Google definition of “Pattern in Geography” A spatial pattern is a perceptual structure, placement, or arrangement of objects on Earth. It also includes the space in between those objects. Patterns may be recognized because of their arrangement; maybe in a line or by a clustering of points.

But aren’t these patterns defined by the handler or maybe by our perceptions of the search environment? We either train it, direct it or choice it when we search. We believe it is efficient, so often times we choose to use a pattern. Whether it is or isn’t the most efficient for that particular search is left to be determined by the outcome.


To quote one of my favorite nosework philosophers let us, “ask the dog”. I’ve added 3 videos below of the same dog, which of these searches would have benefited from a more regular pattern, structure, consistent handling manner to make the search more efficient.

Lexi – NW1 – Oklahoma https://youtu.be/MaSLcp3ua1E

Well this is NW1 so 1 hide – it’s hard for me to see a pattern that would have altered the outcome in a more efficient way. But each dog doesn’t work the same in each search so we need to allow for the possibility that we might need to implement a pattern, right? I’ve had this at NW3 too but alas it was prior to being able to get trial video.

Lexi – NW3 North Carolina https://youtu.be/lYzgtBeB_bc

When I watch this video I see a very particular environmental challenge, large open room with lots of windows and a smooth tile floor. This makes me imagine that the odor has the potential to move, bounce and skid all over the place. It was also the last search of the day and all kinds of mind games were happening for me based on how other searches had gone. Would a pattern have helped us not miss one of the hides? Maybe, but if the dog likes to chase the odor then maybe letting this occur to a point would have helped her more. Or maybe just a bit more confidence to call what clearly was odor behavior - always much clearer when watching the video after the fact.

Lexi – NW3 Colorado https://youtu.be/pDIG3v_bCrE

It looks like I had a pattern in mind, did I deviate from that pattern. Again another particular environmental challenge – as I recall many teams missed the hide in the black/white box. If you didn’t pattern then you missed, I don’t know.

If the choice to add a pattern provides more success then it must be the most efficient right? Or does it provide just a reinforcement to our bias that we covered the area in the most efficient way. Both of these are possible, in one search a pattern may be the most efficient way to cover the search and if your dog thrives on this structure or as in the professional world – your job depends on a clear structure defined by the duties of the job then I would say a pattern is quite beneficial. However if you have limited time, limited experience with particular environmental factors working on the odor and your dog either hasn’t been exposed to a defined pattern or your dog has a tendency to chase, play and work to solve the puzzle at hand, then the pattern may not be the best choice.

Another of my favorite nosework philosophers once said in a trial briefing (paraphrasing) “I can’t tell you if you should work or pattern or not, but I can tell you, you should find a way to map your search that helps your team be successful”. A handler pattern choice is a tool and we should be able to use that tool, we should also be able to adapt and still find our way without a definitive map. Can you let go of the pattern once you employed it, and you change during the search and pattern an area to find success. If success is being fastest – then for some searches a dog choosing to work it their way, can not only be the most efficient but also the fastest that day. If you were to choose to pattern in a search such as this it would undoubtedly make you not efficient. What about off leash? Or not container searches? Can we say the same, is it harder to implement or abandon a pattern search?

So back to our question at hand, to pattern or not to pattern – answer is “Yes”, however and there is always a however. The real question is “when should you choice to implement a pattern and which pattern should you use and when do you break from the pattern?”


PS – For those of you that say I just follow my dog, what happens when the environment forces you to work a pattern, a no return search, small areas or limited time where you only have time for one pass of the search area? Can your dog cope with the direction from the handler? Can you? To an extent, I’d be right there with you with one of my dogs – and it is excruciating for me to just stand there in the search with the time floating away when my dog is working a problem of his choosing, but sometimes I can see the desire, fun and determination in my dog to get that hide and to step in and direct him away is like taking ice cream away from a child.

Let's play small ball

When I seek out some training from someone I really appreciate the small, observant and constructive analysis of my own handling, how my dog worked and the juxtaposition of the how my handling and how my dog worked fits together. The nosework training process is many times about finding the things that you can improve on! We might think that is improving on our dog’s sourcing, dog’s communication or strengthening the dog’s stamina. This however is not always a clear path once you are working at an advanced trial level.

Being a bit contrarian I would suggest it is really about improving our skills and training. We need the best observation skills to read out dog’s body language. We need the best memory to remember if we have covered large complex search areas effectively and completely.  We need to become students of the wind, the dynamics of how odor moves in different environments and how to set out our training aids to help us learn more. We need to develop these skills dynamically over time for better abilities when we work a 2^nd, 3^rd or 10^th dog. We can learn how to work differently with that next dog all in an effort to become better. If you are teaching then being open minded to different ideas and seeking out others perspectives for improving our instructor skills. We need to never lose sight of making this fun for the dogs, but fun for us too. That doesn’t mean that there is no stress in competition but it’s about working hard to make our practice enjoyable and worth the time have invested – “if you are not having fun, stop, and change your tactics!”

One of the most often theme of questions I get; during, before and after trials is “could I have done something else to get that hide?”  I’ve asked myself that question too – the answer is always a complex dissection of the search; area missed, missed COB, dog blew by the hide, environment was difficult, dog was; tired, distracted, un-focused, to focused on handler, needed support, etc. The list goes on. But the questions is also framed by the test of day.

The test of trial day – each search has a time limit – that time limit is derived prior to each team setting out on the search, therefore in many cases it has very little to so with a team’s ability to find all the hides. Think of it as an average, on average most teams will find all the hides in a given time limit. Some teams will miss a hide, maybe not having enough time. Or a team will excel and get 1^st with plenty of time to spare. Or maybe the average was off and most teams end up missing 1-2 hides.

Instead of concentrating on the big picture of the trial let’s play some small ball. I’m a baseball fan – I watch the playoffs most years and I enjoy going to a game. I’m not a fanatic about sports (except nosework) but there are many things about baseball that speak to a proper perspective of competition. The long season creates a misconception of what are the fundamentals that are needed, the number of home-runs doesn’t mean much if don’t make it to the playoffs. We are a part of a team but rely on many individual achievements, there is a bigger perspective to concentration on, but the small skills make a big difference; fielding, throwing, catching and hitting are small skills but are critical to overall team performance. I’m also reminded of a traditional style difference between leagues, I didn’t even know how true it was; – the National League; hits more home runs, and American League steals more. The folk lore of baseball is more of a perception of the league differences (actually over the past hundred years it is pretty even and not really that much difference). I like the analog, regardless of its literal accuracy.

So let’s play some small ball, we focus on our “small” fundamental skills. I’m not meaning we stop having fun but mixed in we should be focusing on the handler skills to improve each search. We do this with our dog’s skills to by how we practice, to many inaccessible hides and we may end up skewing what our dog thinks is acceptable alert at source.

The HengTen of small ball –

1. Reward as close to source in your practice so that when you don’t, it doesn’t affect the dog’s perception of what is important. Or if you train to not reward as source – figure out the process required to strengthen the dog’s understanding of what is required to be successful.
2. Timing is a continual process of matching the dog’s arrival at source with your reward timing, sometimes it will be before, after or dead on – but the goal is to build the drive to work to source by achieving better reward timing overall. Sometimes throw the treat, or wait, or reward more. It’s all in an effort to not be like trial but to build timing skills.
3. Work on your leash skills to not impede the dog’s choices. It doesn’t mean you can’t run, stumble, use leash restraint, have a wad of leash in your hand, cue your dog through leash movements, etc. But you should work to do these things less that end up causing unintended learning for the dog.  
4. Work to understand our cues, not in an effort to become mind numb robots that don’t cue our dogs, but instead to build the understanding of these cues so that we recognize when were are doing them.
5. Be a student of our dog’s body language – not only when they are working odor, but a good understanding of that that body language is when they are working novel and everyday scents.
6. Look for opportunities to learn about how odor works in difference environments. Seek out opportunities even if it’s just watching the dog work a problem.
7. Learn how to manage our search time, work on our understanding of how long 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes feels like under trial pressure.
8. Be constructively critical of ourselves, when we make mistakes work to improve for the next time and the time after that. Don’t expect things to be the same all the time and learn to grow our skills.
9. Seek out others and choose to gain from their experiences, perspectives and knowledge. Use what can be valuable in that moment and save other skills for another time or for another dog.
10. Never doubt the capability of the dog but instead question what we may have contributed in that moment that led to the results. If you see a type of hide that a dog struggles with – find a way to alter your perceptive so the dog can solve a similar types of puzzles.

- When we hit a home-run – celebrate because it is a wonderful achievement. There is some learn in that too, but don’t forget to celebrate!