Research Journal

I have come to a stand still on more searches. I am currently in Las Vegas so next week I will have lots more to add. If they don't keep me to busy I may be able to update while I am here.

Articles and Databases

I found several articles that are going to be very helpful for my topic.

1-Gazit, Irit
-The role of context specifity in learning: the effects of training context on explosives detection in dogs.
-Animal Cognition
-Volume 8, issue 3
-July 2005
-Pages 143-150

2-Horvath, Zsuzsanna
-Three different Styles in police dogs exposed to short term challenge.
-Hormones and Behavior
-Volume 52, issue 5
- December 2007
-Pages 621-630

3-Moore, George
-Meteorological influence on the occurence of gastric dilation-volvulus in military working dogs in Texas
-Inernational Journal of Biometeorology
-Volume 52, issue 3
-January 2008
-Pages 219-222

4-Evans, Rebecca
-Causes for discharge of military working dogs from service: 268 cases (2000-2004)
-Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association
-Volume 231, issue 8
-October 15, 2007
-Pages 1215-1220

5-Gazit, Irit
-A simple system for the remote detection and analysis of sniffing in explosives detection dogs
-Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers
-Volume 35, Issue 1
-February 2003
-Pages 82-89

* I have a couple of authors in here that deal with expolsive sniffing dogs, but I went ahead and used the information because some of the techniques are the same.

I am having a very difficult time finding search engines that hit directly on the money. Because of the kind of tracking that my partnere and I do, the information I will need, will come from other K9 handlers or other agencies. Some of the places I have already begun to research is, the Larimer County Sherriffs Department K9 team, Loveland Police Department trainer Rod Bretches, and I will be attending a conference in Las Vegas next week.

I have found several books that will work great for my paper.
1. Sandy Bryson- Author
Police Dog Tactics
Actual book no volume used or name of series
Canada-Published
Detselig Enterprises LTD.- Pulisher
2000-copyright

2. Ed Presnall
Mastering Variable Surface Tracking: The Component Training Approach
Unkown last bit of info due to the book being temp. unavailable

I have several materials that are waiting for me at my conference that I will be attending next week. I am going to update my Blog again when I have more information.

Week 2 Discussion in Week 3

I did not get any feedback from other students on how I should or could narrow my topic. One fellow student asked if I would be speaking about multiple breeds and mainly I will only be talking about the Belgian Malinois because that is the dog I work with. I don't think I could narrow my topic down even more, unless someone else has any suggestions!

Keywords

How can my K9 and I become a more consistently productive tracking team?

K9
Dog
Service Dog
Canidea
Partner

Consistently
Consistent
Systematically
In-consistent
Day to Day

Productivity
Successful
Originative
Creative
Fruitful
Generative
Good

Tracking
Trailing
Follow
Chase

Team
Squad
Partners
Group

During this exercise I first read on how to start with your original words and turn them into keywords. I did the exercise on the “Using my research question to generate search terms.” This exercise proved to be most helpful when it came to breaking down my question. Also this question made me realize that my original question wasn’t good enough and so I changed it. I used several of the listed websites, but mainly I used: Word Source and Think map Visual Thesaurus. These two websites were very easy to navigate. This assignment showed me how to use my words in different ways. I was finding that I was struggling on websites to find information, now I feel with these new “alternative” words I will be able to broaden my research. I also added some words that mean the opposite of what I am meaning in my question because some of the best articles you can find are the ones who oppose you.

My actual Research Question

My actual research question is: How can my K9 and I become a more consistently productive tracking team?

Chapter 3 tutorial

My research project-

1.
Could you use any dog to track?
How does a dog pick up a track?
Should people walk in the path of a possible track?
What kinds of tracks are there?
When would multiple K9's be called out for a track?
Where can a dog track,ie: water, or attics?
Who can K9's track?
Why would a K9 lose a track?
Would a K9 pick up the wrong scent?

2. All of my questions could relate well to a research paper, however I would choose the question-Where can a dog track, ie: water, or attics.

3. Although dogs have the ability to go virtually anywhere, we know that some areas may be deemed unsafe or unstable.

4. My research topic requires that I be open to all possibilities and so I may have to change directions at some point.

5. In my previous post I added some websites that have really good information on K9 tracking.

3.

Taggs

I have found several websites to tag, although mainly I am going to have get books on tracking and go from there.

http://www.nwk9.com/nwk9_bookstore_track.htm

http://www.workingdogs.com/doc0181.htm

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/CCAB/service_dogs.html

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/CCAB/police.html

So far these websites have been very helpful in learning more about dog tracking.