The Dog Coach

Patrick Curran and I have been working toward a shared goal: making Scrabble a truly reliable cadaver dog.

We’ve been taking this step by step, piecing everything together in a way that creates clarity — not just for us as handlers, but for Scrabble as well. Lately our focus has been on building duration and separating behaviors, so each cue has a clear meaning and purpose.

We’ve been reinforcing the difference between “good” and “yes.”
Good means continue — stay on task, build duration, remain engaged.
Yes means the task is complete.

That distinction has made a big difference in Scrabble’s understanding and confidence on odor.

Last week, we introduced a speak-for-reward, and that behavior will now be layered onto a sit or down at odor as we move forward with our TFR (final response). Every piece is intentional, and we’re seeing it come together in a really strong way. Ingram Fire Department