#causing cross contamination issues for imprinting and causing people to expect the imprinting to be successful before that's feasible

[healingheartdogs]

NGL, it is very mindboggling to me as a person coming from a police and commercial detection dog training background that so many people who do nosework seem to struggle with imprinting? Like I see it brought up frequently as one of the most common challenges people have and want webinars or classes for, and I’m like... but that’s the easiest part of detection???

#which also seems to imply that nosework people aren't taking any pointers from actual detection dog training too which I find odd #because imprinting is a non-issue for working detection dog training #it's like the first easy step that you breeze past and is mostly done in the form of playing games #not even involving any sort of formal training setup or clicker or often even treats because the play is the training and the reward #unless you have a dog who is significantly more motivated by food than play in which case food rewards might be used #not to like downplay the struggle of people who are having issues with imprinting I'm just very curious *why* #like what is the piece that nosework trainers or classes are missing that is leading people to struggle with it so often? #is it the method they're using? the equipment? is it missing base knowledge on how scent works scientifically and how dogs imprint on scent #maybe I'll take some nosework classes one day to see more of what things look like on the sport side and why those issues keep popping up #my suspicion is that it is mostly method and equipment #causing cross contamination issues for imprinting and causing people to expect the imprinting to be successful before that's feasible #basically rushing it and not having enough direct in-nose-and-mouth target odor contact before moving on to searching and alert shaping #I'm just rambling because detection is a special interest of mine don't mind me #if you ever want me to talk forever and never shut up ask me about detection dog training lol #OH also trying to imprint multiple odors at the same time #i bet thats a part of the problem #i see posts with people talking about inteoducing 3 or 4 odors in one session sometimes and am like?????? #imprint one odor completely then start the next one or at least keep them confined to separate sessions