Yes vs Alert: Markers in Scent Detection

My preference is to teach dogs that they will be rewarded for finding and indicating on the designated scents, as opposed to starting searching for food or pairing with food because I know that food distractors will be a challenge in competition, and I don't want to have to turn around and discourage finding food if I'd previously encouraged it earlier in the learning process when another option exists.  This is not to say that it can't be successfully done, or that some dogs may benefit from pairing.  All dogs are individuals.

I also like to use a marker, either a word such as "yes" or a click noise, to identify when a dog is correct.  I find this extremely helpful because I can give my dog that information independently of what my body is doing, making it easier to teach my dog not to rely on my body position or movement to solve the scent problem.

I treat my marker as a terminal marker, so that once my dog hears it, they can stop the behaviour they are doing and come for their reward.  Up until they hear their marker, they should continue their behaviour whether it is sourcing or indicating.

When starting dogs, I like to use the marker to communicate that they have found the odour in searching games, and also when working on developing their nose freeze alert (their trained final response or alert) on single containers.  Once the dogs understand both of those skills, we can start combining them by having the dogs search, then wait for a bit of nose freeze before marking, gradually extending the time of the freeze again in the context of a search.

But just because the dog has learned a nose freeze in one situation, doesn't mean I'll always wait for it in others.  

If I'm presenting a searching challenge like an inaccessible hide, a high hide, or some other challenge that is new to my dog, or that my dog finds difficult, I will want to know where exactly the hide is, and mark my dog the moment they find it, without waiting for their nose freeze .  I want to reward early because I want to reward the finding, the searching, the solving of the puzzle.  Once I know my dog can solve these puzzles, then I can start waiting for the nose freeze again.

Once we start working unknown hides with our dogs, an additional step is required.  Once our dog indicates to us that they have found the hide, we need to call out "alert" to the person who knows where the hide is, in order to know if our dogs are correct.  Then we can mark and reward our dogs.  As you can imagine, once most dogs hear their handler say something, they stop freezing and turn to their handler.

This can be proofed against, by working first with a single object and saying random words while your dog continues to hold their nose freeze until they hear your marker, however, I haven't bothered to do it with my own dogs to date.

Instead, I find that working more known hides than unknown hides allows me to have minimal issues with the odd alert that is called when it isn't because when I know where the hide is, I can use my marker word to mark the behaviour I want to see from my dog whether it is sourcing or freezing.  I only ever say alert if I need to communicate with another person.

If you are finding that your dog is getting very excited by you calling an alert, and not wanting to go back to work if the call was incorrect, I highly recommending doing known hides and NOT saying alert.  The word alert is going to pick up some associations because the dogs often hear it prior to getting rewarded in blind searches or at trials.  The don't need any more exposure to that linkage when you know where the hide is.  If your marker word remains the most reliable indicator of their treat, then your dogs will put more stock in it, and less in alert.