Corners and Edges

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

So what’s the big deal about Corners and Edges? Why should they matter to you or your dog?

Think about how odor moves. Think about where it blows to, bounces from and collects. All of this is important to your dog so they can find the source. But what is a Corner? And what is considered an Edge?

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Terry Wright and KaiParticipant]

To me an Edge would be where two walls meet making the outside joint.

And

Where a sidewalk meets grass. The Edge of a table. A rim, a lip. A boundary line of a surface.

Yes I looked it up 🙂

Terry Wright

[Carolyn MurrayParticipant]

A lot of dogs naturally avoid corners. However, corners often collect odor and could provide an opportunity for a dog to work back to source.

Odor can run along an edge and provide another way for the dog to work to source.

[Susanne HowarthParticipant]

I would define a corner as any place where two walls (barriers?) meet at more or less a 90 degree angle. I’d also say those can be inner or outer corners, and both offer challenges. It’s easy for the dog to cut around those inner corners — e.g., to fail to push back into the corner of a room, and miss a hide back there. For the outer corners, the odor could channel along either side of the corner, making it more difficult to know exactly where source is.

Edges can be a lot of different things: the border between two different types of surface, the edge of a counter or wall, the edge of an object in the search area, the edge of a door or drawer. Odor may channel along an edge, or may fall to only one side of that edge, resulting in a confusing picture for the dog.

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

What I was getting at when I talk about “Corners” and “Edges” are all those structural places of a search area where odor can drift over to, move around OR collect.

So, for an example, in a room there are often LOTS of CORNERS. I include all the niches and inset places where odor can trap AND all the outside corners where the odor stream is broken. For EDGES I generally think of the perimeter of your search area that lead in/to a corner (or niche). This would be similar for an Exterior search.

In a large open space with a search in the middle (or for Containers/Vehicles) you don’t have the same defined perimeter or edges so you can sort of consider the outside of all the objects to be your edges and the ones in the corners to be, well, your corners. 😉

Bottom line is those are productive areas that should not be missed.

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Carolyn MurrayParticipant]

Great visual! Thank you!

[Donna EwingParticipant]

Love the examples and descriptions. I watched an Elite video that was in a gym – mostly the ‘edges’ of the gym. BUT – there were occasionally objects around the edges such as a chair, broom, trash can, etc. I guess each of these objects could force a corner. That had to be really difficult as odor had to travel a lot – possibly bouncing off all of these manmade corners – especially in a big open gym.

[Terry Wright and KaiParticipant]

Thanks love it! Never thought about the boxes/containers having corners and edges… makes sense tho.

Terry Wright

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

Donna, I would consider those objects have created “surfaces” more than edges. Much like edges, tho, they are places where odor might drift to. The difference is that they are like sticks in the stream instead of the banks on the sides.

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Susanne HowarthParticipant]

I love the drawing and the visual of sticks in a stream!

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

🙂

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

🙂

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Terry Wright and KaiParticipant]

I’m reading the lesson for Corners and Edges, at the top it says… *DO NOT PLACE MORE THAN ONE HIDE AT ONE TIME!*

So, I go out an place one hide, what some time then go out and search that one. I do that four different times? BURRRRR LOL

Terry Wright

[Susanne HowarthParticipant]

OR, you find a place that has multiple walls, adequately separated so as to count them as separate search areas. For instance, we went to the local Rec Center, which has several different buildings. We did the first search on the southwest wall of one of those buildings and the second one on the northeast corner of that same building. Hides 3 and 4 were on the southeast side of a different building and on the southwest side of that same building (more on the west side than the south). We did them two and two, but could have done all four at the same time.

[Terry Wright and KaiParticipant]

Susanne, thanks! I think I have a couple of ideas.

Terry Wright

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

Really, I just want to see the dog work one problem at a time. If they catch scent of another hide it will change the picture. You need to know that your dog can work out those simple problems and USE the edges and corners effectively. 🙂

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Kathryn DobynsParticipant]

So, I was at a class today with mixed levels of dogs. There was a LOT of birch odor floating around by the time Hunter came in to run the container problem, but the container search set up for him had only anise and clove hides. I happened to run this search off leash – Hunter found the clove hide, found but did not alert on the anise hide and then left the search area to find the birch hide that had been removed from the search area and was sitting along the wall in another part of the room. Definitely changed the picture!

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

Interesting problem – good boy, Hunter! Thank you for sharing this. There are times when it is unavoidable to have two searches set up that may conflict. It happens and the dogs learn to work the area they’re in. But for this class exercise I am hoping we can keep things more simple for the dogs.

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

[Linda BathParticipant]

Kim I have a lot of cement walls on the street with corners created by doors or gates. The gates are usually metal, either solid or slated. Would those be used as corners? The doors are inset from the edges with as much as three to four feet. There is another area that has a rounded edge into a corner. Lots of ideas, just want to make sure I am understanding the directions and not being too literal.

[Kimberly BuchananKeymaster]

Sure! Why not try it and see how it works! 🙂

Kimberly Buchanan
Joyride K9 Dog Training

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