Reply To: Changing training practices mid-stream

[Kathryn DobynsParticipant]

Ah, well, the honest truth is that every search is different and there are many ways of achieving the same goal. I have two training partners I practice with routinely – one has a GSD who is very willing to pattern search and almost never passes a hide. The other has Viszlas that ping pong all over (quartering) and still almost always find everything in the search area. I put Hunter somewhere in between (I am the classic middle-of-the-road type!). I can pattern him to a point, but if he is chasing odor, I let him work the problem. If he moves on from a hide in an unexpected (or unplanned) direction, then it is my job to make sure we return to unsearched areas – a pattern just makes it easier to know where we have been and where we need to go!