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Talking Detection with Steve White Pt. 2




What to listen for:


“Search and rescue work is the volunteer profession that you pay to do and is one of the most stressful things you can ever do, because somebody else's life could depend on what you're doing.”


In part 2 of their conversation with Steve White, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett ask about the development of Hydrated Intensive Tracking (HIT), which evolved from experiments with scent-in-a-bottle methods.


Steve’s breakthrough came at a U.S. Police Canine Association seminar when handlers lacked marker training skills. By hybridizing traditional food-in-footstep methods with spray lines, Steve discovered that dogs crossing pavement with spray present kept their heads lower even after the spray evaporated. It’s classical conditioning at work!


Steve's training philosophy emphasizes creating calm, methodical working dogs rather than frantic high-energy animals. He seeks dogs with "conditioned emotional responses" of focused steadiness. He believes that clearheaded dogs perform better in difficult urban environments. This approach influenced his article training, where teaching dogs to find tiny objects like washers creates precision that makes finding larger targets effortless.


Robin and Stacy zero in on the importance of generalization and stimulus control. Dogs absolutely distinguish training from operations, requiring extensive work in operational environments. Steve advocates for the "Green Eggs and Ham" principle. That is, can your dog perform here, there, everywhere? Handlers often mistake lack of stimulus control for lack of behavior knowledge.


His current work with the United States Police Canine Association's Best Practices Working Group aims to preserve police canine programs by shifting focus toward the irreplaceable value of dogs' olfactory capabilities while promoting cooperation-based control methods over force-dependent approaches.


Key Topics:

  • Search Dogs vs. Examination Dogs (01:40)

  • Evolution of Hydrated Intensive Tracking (HIT) (12:09)

  • Classical Conditioning and Surface Work (17:47)

  • Generalization and Stimulus Control (26:48)

  • Training for Operational Environments (36:37)

  • Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts (45:23)

 

Resources:

You can find Steve White:

 

USPCA YouTube Channel: Where you can find Steve's three-part series on odor/scent fundamentals, a 1000-hour eyes presentation where he talks about the eight indicators of dogs being on odor, and Robin's presentations about the recipe for building a great training session.


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