The GOOD CALL - Calling The Hide: Training Vs Trial

THE GOOD CALL- or is it ? AI offered various titles to our October podcast- MY ALL TIME FAVORITE: My Dog Said Trash Can : The Judge Said No ! If you’ve ever called “alert” on a hot object only to hear “no,” this conversation is your map back to clarity. We unpack the gap between a fair training call and a fair trial call, and show how to build a dog that presses all the way to source—even when the environment throws pooling, trapping, and convergence into the mix.We start at the foundation: imprinting, odor importance, and the nose-on-source "good habits" that help keep our reward standards tight at ORT and NW1 on up to Summit. From there, we layer timing and reward strategy—when to mark effort, when to wait for more, when to expect contact, and how to use remote rewards without teaching self-release. You’ll hear practical frameworks for accessible versus inaccessible hides, two-step reinforcement that opens the door and still pays at source, and why revisiting “easy” anchor hides is essential insurance against fringing.Then we climb into advanced odor problems. Elevated hides get a stepwise progression that favors safety and intellect over flashy stretching dogs, using channeling surfaces so dogs can solve "source is up"  cleanly. We dissect Summit-style puzzles where odor pools on trash cans and chair racks, and explain how judges decide consistency and when stretch calls make sense. Along the way, we focus on handler craft: reading behavior instead of forcing a final response, trusting the dog after a no, and managing the clock so you search effectively instead of bailing early.If you want sharper calls, steadier performance, and a dog that knows the difference between hot air and true source, this episode gives you the blueprint—tight training standards, smart setups, and resilient trial habits. Subscribe, share with your training group, and leave a review with your biggest “aha” from today’s search talk.Send us Fan Mail