Septmeber 3, 2008 - From Pee to Yippee!

Mika reached a new level in her narcotics training. She found a tiny drug scented sponge the size of a thumb nail hidden away inside a rock wall at school. This was particularly exciting because we weren't planning on searching. She happened to stop and potty in front of the rock wall while some students were getting ready to send their dogs on a search of the wall. She went straight from peeing to indicating drugs. What makes this exciting is that it's the first time she did a secondary reward search.

Up till now she's been search for her own reward, ie a drug scented ball. Once she finds it she gets to have it to chase and hold. This is called a primary reward. Today she scented an item that she couldn't directly have as a reward so I had to be ready with a ball in my pocket to toss to her as a secondary reward. We will begin to transition her to secondary rewards only because in the case of actual drugs, you never want them to ingest the drugs so naturally they need to learn not to mouth the source of the odor.