Stay Curious

Stay Curious (Leah Gangelhoff was the one that coined this term and got it stuck in my head)

One of my favorite lessons from a recent NW3 Interior search with Jelly had very little to do with finding odor.

It was about not knowing.

See the short video clip attached.

Jelly entered the search and showed significant interest around a rectangular table surrounded by chairs. Watching her work, I could easily construct a reasonable explanation: perhaps this was an inaccessible hide underneath the table and this was as close as she could get.

That hypothesis wasn't unreasonable. But it was still only a hypothesis. So I observed and stayed curious.

I stayed curious/engaged with what Jelly was doing without needing to immediately decide what it meant.

As she continued to work, she eventually peeled away from the table and located source nearby. What had looked so compelling initially was pooled or trapped odor—not the final answer.

I keep thinking about the distinction between observing behavior and interpreting behavior.

Our dogs are constantly giving us information. But handlers are remarkably good at taking one piece of information, creating a story around it, and then becoming attached to that story.

I don't want to stop forming hypotheses. That's part of handling.

I want to become better at holding those hypotheses without making hasty decision!

Maybe it's inaccessible. Maybe odor is pooling here. Maybe she's working toward something nearby. Maybe I simply don't know yet.

Then I can keep watching and allow the dog's next decision to give me more information.

Perhaps that's one of the hardest handling skills of all:

Stay curious/engaged without jumping to conclusion!