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K9 C Class > Glossary > Flashcards

Glossary Flashcards

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1
Q

(#) forced-choice task:

A

also known as #AFC (2AFC, 3AFC, 6AFC, etc) or a lineup. The
dog checks a set number of items and selects one.

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2
Q

What is Accuracy?

A

how close or far off a given set of measurements (observations or
readings) are to their true value.

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3
Q

What is Adsorption?

A

The adhesion of atoms, ions, or molecules from a gas, liquid, or dissolved solid to a surface.

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4
Q

What is Air Scenting?

A

The dog is sniffing air currents and odor dispersal via wind, as opposed to tracking or trailing odor on the ground.

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5
Q

What does Alert mean in dog behavior?

A

A behavior that the dog consistently performs at the completion of their search to ‘report’ finding odor. This can be natural OR trained and generally is at source, at the highest concentration of odor, or as close to either as the dog can get.

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6
Q

What is Artificial/synthetic odor?

A

Odor that is manufactured to represent, mimic, or replicate a target odor. Not commonly seen in conservation.

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7
Q

What is a Behavior Chain?

A

A group of behaviors performed in sequence.

For example: sniff the air, move towards odor when encountered, alert.

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8
Q

What is Behaviorism?

A

A school of thought pioneered by B. F. Skinner that is based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning, and conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment.

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9
Q

What does Bias refer to?

A

Disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing. This can cause human searchers to target an area due to prior beliefs or influence their dogs to do the same.

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10
Q

What is a Blank/empty search?

A

A search or search area that does not have any target odor present.

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11
Q

What is Blind Area Search?

A

A search where the handler is unaware of the location of the target.

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12
Q

What does Brachycephalic refer to?

A

Dogs with short faces, such as pugs, boxers, and French bulldogs.

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13
Q

What is Bracketing in the context of search?

A

Moving back and forth, usually from edge to edge of an odor cone.

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14
Q

What is a Buried Hide or Source?

A

A target, hide, or source that is underground.

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15
Q

What does Casting describe?

A

The dog’s movement as the dog searches for and/or follows the concentration of target odor.

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16
Q

What is Change of Behavior (COB)?

A

Behaviors exhibited by a dog as they encounter target odor and move from seeking to sourcing. Examples often include: change in tail carriage, increase in wagging, change in speed, change in direction, circling, crabbing, bracketing, increase in sniffing frequency.

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17
Q

What is Channeling?

A

The effect of airflow, and odor with it, to concentrate and flow through constrictions such as cracks or alleys.

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18
Q

What is the Chimney Effect?

A

The effect of airflow, and odor with it, to draw up the side of tall objects like trees or telephone poles, leading to strong concentrations of odor away from the target/source location.

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19
Q

What is a Clear Area?

A

An area that has no target odor as determined by the dog-handler team.

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20
Q

What is Clever Hans?

A

An important phenomenon where the behavior or movement of a handler influences the animal’s behavior, producing results that make it appear that the animal possesses skills or knowledge it does not possess. In the original example, a horse (Clever Hans) could supposedly ‘do math’ by pawing the ground. It was eventually discovered that Clever Hans was actually very skilled at reading his owner’s body language and would stop pawing when the owner dipped his chin slightly. This underlines the importance of careful blind trials.

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21
Q

What is a Conditioned Reinforcer?

A

A stimulus, such as a sound or visual stimulus, that is originally neutral to a dog. By pairing it with an unconditioned stimulus or primary reinforcer, a trainer can link the two and expedite training.

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22
Q

What is Contamination in the context of odor detection?

A

Any odor not ordinarily part of a target odor signature or not part of the search area.

Example: skin/sweat odor from handling a source with bare hands.

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23
Q

What is Convection?

A

The movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, resulting in a transfer of heat.

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24
Q

What does Conservative mean in dog behavior?

A

A dog who is more likely to make errors of omission due to their tendency to only respond when they are sure they are correct.

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25
What is Converging Odor?
An effect when the odor cones from two sources overlap, which can confuse the dog and lead to potential misses or frustration.
26
What is a Correct Rejection?
In a lineup or search, the dog does not respond to a sample that is not their target.
27
What is a Corridor (Transect)?
A straight line or narrow section through an object or natural feature or across the earth's surface, along which the handler or team walks for a search.
28
What does 'Crittering' refer to in dog behavior?
A change in the dog’s behavior where the dog becomes distracted by animal odor or some other animal distracter.
29
What is a Cue in dog training?
A word, hand signal, or other stimuli that instructs the dog how to behave in order to acquire reinforcement (or avoid punishment).
30
What is Cueing in the context of dog training?
A handler inadvertently or intentionally guiding the dog towards odor or source, which can create a dog that looks to the handler for guidance instead of searching independently.
31
What is Detailing in dog searches?
When a dog searches intensively in one area, often characterized by bringing their nose very close to the surface and moving along edges, corners, and sides.
32
What is Detection Distance?
The distance at which the dog shows a change of behavior indicating that they have encountered odor.
33
What is Detection Threshold?
The concentration (PPM) at which a dog is able to respond to an olfactory stimulus.
34
What is Diffusion in the context of odor movement?
The spreading of odor molecules due to the natural movement of particles, which is rarely a factor in detection.
35
What is Discrimination in dog training?
When a dog is asked to decide between two or more stimuli, generally important when two stimuli are potentially similar.
36
What are Distant Alerts?
When a dog alerts far from the source, generally alerting where the odor concentration is highest if access to the source is blocked.
37
What are distractors?
Stimuli in the environment that take the dog's attention away from the task at hand. Examples include food, toys, people, squirrels, cars.
38
What is a Double Blind?
When the handler does not know the location of the target AND the observer does not know the location of the target.
39
What is a Down Slope?
The lower point of a hill, rise, bump, ravine, etc.
40
What is a Down Valley?
The lower point of a valley, both in relation to the ridges and hills above the valley and from the top to bottom of the valley floor.
41
What does Downwind mean?
Situated at or moving in the direction that the wind is blowing.
42
What is Drive in dogs?
A dog's willingness to work for a given reinforcer or perform a given action. Often considered an intrinsic trait of a dog. ## Footnote Examples: food drive, hunt drive, toy drive, prey drive.
43
What are Eddies?
A circular current of air, generally found on the lee side of a solid object. Can hold scent along the downwind edge of trees, buildings, etc.
44
What is an Elevated Hide?
A target that is hidden above the dog's nose height, such as on top of a counter or partway up a tree.
45
What is a False Alert?
When a dog performs their alert at a site that does not contain the source or the highest concentration of odor.
46
What is a False Negative?
When a dog misses a hide or dismisses a target in a lineup. To be a true false negative and not a miss, the dog must have encountered odor and dismissed it.
47
What is a False Positive?
When a dog performs their alert at a site that does not contain their target odor.
48
What is a Fanning Plume?
When odor disperses in a wide, flat, fan shape away from source. This can create wide scent cones.
49
What are the Five Freedoms?
An ethical framework created for livestock and adapted for shelters. Freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain/injury/disease, freedom to express normal behavior, and freedom from fear and distress.
50
What is Fluency in dogs?
A dog's ability to perform a given behavior consistently, quickly, and on cue in a variety of environments and around a variety of distractors.
51
What are Fringe Alerts?
When a dog performs their alert as soon as encountering odor or at the edge of an odor plume rather than following it to source.
52
What does Fumigating refer to?
Odor is churning as the air heats (usually at sunrise), hanging around the source and making pinpointing difficult.
53
What is Generalization of odor into categories?
A dog's tendency or ability to learn to lump odors into a category. This can be desirable or problematic.
54
What is Generalization in training?
A dog's ability to perform a given behavior in novel situations or around novel stimuli.
55
What is a Go/No-go task?
A procedure where you reinforce the dogs for both true positives and true negatives. This results in the dogs being able to 'check' a stimulus and give a response as to whether it's a target or not.
56
What is a Green Dog?
A novice or untrained dog.
57
What is a Grid Search?
A search where you walk straight lines at 90-degree angles to each other, creating a 'grid' pattern of lines on your GPS.
58
What is a Head Snap?
A change of behavior where the dog's head (and nose) turns, generally upwind and towards odor.
59
What is a Hot Block/Container?
The block or container that contains the target odor or source material.
60
What is Imprinting?
The process of teaching a dog a new target odor. Often used for introducing a dog to a target odor.
61
What is Indication?
A behavior that a dog performs at the source of their target odor. This can either be trained or a natural behavior that the dog consistently offers.
62
What is Intensity of stimuli?
A gradient where a stimulus becomes more or less salient; such as volume, concentration, brightness, etc.
63
What is Inversion?
A reversal of the typical decrease of temperature, where it's hotter higher in elevation with a sharp dividing line between the two temperatures.
64
What is Lane Width/Transect Width?
The spacing between the lines you walk on a search.
65
What does L.E.G.S stand for?
A framework to understand animal behavior, standing for Learning Environment Genetics Self.
66
What is a Liberal dog?
A dog who is more likely to make errors of commission (false positives, false alerts) and generalizes easily.
67
What is a Line-up?
A row of boxes, containers, or other objects. Often used in an AFC, an ORT, or for scientific studies.
68
What are Linear Searches?
A search along a single line, generally perpendicular to the wind.
69
What is Lofting?
Odor is rising, and may fan out above the dog's head. Often happens at night as the ground cools but the air is still warm.
70
What is Looping?
When odor rises and falls to create vertical curves of odor. This can result in the dog encountering odor far from source but losing odor again as they move closer to source.
71
What is Match to sample?
A procedure where the dog learns to sniff a given target, then seek that target's match in the environment.
72
What is a Miss?
When a dog misses a target in a search. This generally means a dog does not encounter odor but is also used synonymously with a false negative or an error of omission.
73
What is a Natural Alert?
The behavior a dog performs naturally - without training - at source.
74
What is Negative Reinforcement?
Removing a stimulus that a dog finds unpleasant in order to reinforce a behavior that you like.
75
What is Negative Punishment?
Removing a stimulus that your dog likes in order to punish a behavior you do not like.
76
What is Operant Conditioning?
Teaching an animal to perform a response in order to obtain a reward or avoid a punisher.
77
What is an ORT?
An odor recognition test, generally where a dog is expected to search an area, a lineup, or an AFC with both target and non-target odor to confirm that the dog alerts to the target and not non-target.
78
What is a Passive Alert?
An alert such as a sit, down, or stand-stare where the dog is not interacting with the target.
79
What is Permeability?
A characteristic of a material describing how easily odor and air can move through the material.
80
What is Persistence?
Firm or obstinate continuation in a course of action despite obstacles or difficulty.
81
What is Personal Play?
Play between a dog and a person without the use of a toy.
82
What is Ponding?
When odor sinks, often into a depression in the ground. Can create a pool of odor away from the source.
83
What is Porosity?
The fraction of volume that is taken up by space that air, water, and odor can move through.
84
What is Positive Punishment?
Adding an unwelcome stimulus to the environment to reduce unwanted behavior.
85
What is Positive Reinforcement?
Adding a pleasant stimulus to the environment to increase a desirable behavior.
86
What is Precision?
How close or dispersed the measurements are to each other.
87
What is a Primary Reinforcer?
Something your dog finds intrinsically rewarding, such as food or play.
88
What is Psychophysics?
The branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical stimuli and mental phenomena.
89
What is Quartering?
Moving back and forth across the wind to facilitate odor acquisition.
90
What is Refind?
When a dog returns to a target that they have already located. This can be trained or done naturally.
91
What is Residual odor?
Odor left over after the physical source has been removed.
92
What is a Reward Hierarchy?
The order of reinforcers that your dog prefers, such as preferring cheese over milk bones.
93
What are Scent collectors?
Objects in the environment that entrap odor due to their porosity, eddies, or other microclimate conditions.
94
What is a Scent Cone?
Odor molecules that are moving with the wind in a V-shape away from the source.
95
What is a Scent Pool?
An area where odor has collected in a higher concentration. May or may not cause an alert and may or may not be at the source.
96
What is a Scent Tube?
Training device used for scent discrimination. Often PVC tubes that can conceal visual cues while allowing odor out.
97
What is a Scent wall?
Training device used for scent discrimination. A wall containing holes, often including scent tubes, that conceal visual cues.
98
What is a Search Pattern/Strategy?
A method or pattern to decrease omissions or increase accuracy or coverage.
99
What is Seeking?
When the dog is attempting to find an odor.
100
What is Sensitivity?
Percentage of true positives. The proportion of people with a disease who will test positive.
101
What is Signal Detection Theory?
Measures the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information.
102
What does Single Blind mean?
Information that may bias the result during an experiment is concealed from either the tester or the subject.
103
What does Smell refer to?
To perceive an odor affecting the olfactory nerve.
104
What does Sniff mean?
To draw air in through the nose in order to detect a smell.
105
What is Sourcing?
When the dog has detected odor and follows the scent cone to its point of highest concentration.
106
What is Specificity?
Percentage of true negatives. The proportion of people without a disease who will test negative.
107
What is a Spiral Search?
Walking a circle from the outermost point of a perimeter to the center of the circle, or vice versa.
108
What is Stimulus Control?
Behavior appears in one way in the presence of a certain stimulus and another way in its absence.
109
What are Stimuli?
Things that evoke a specific reaction; antecedent.
110
What is a Stimulus gradient?
Variations in a stimulus along a given dimension.
111
What is a Surface Hide?
A target hidden on top of a surface, for example on the ground, not covered.
112
What is Surface roughness?
As the roughness of a surface increases, so does its ability to capture odor particles.
113
What is a Tail Flag?
Tail straight up, often waving back and forth.
114
What is a Target Odor?
The odor that the dog is trained to detect.
115
What is Thermal Convection?
Transfer of thermal energy through fluid, including air.
116
What is Thermal Turbulence?
Warm air rising and cold air sinking due to the sun heating the surface of the earth unevenly.
117
What is Thermal Uplift?
Rising columns of warm air.
118
What is Threshold (Behavioral)?
The point at which a stimulus is intense enough to begin to produce an effect.
119
What is Threshold (perceptual)?
The minimum intensity of a stimulus at which its presence is perceived.
120
What is Tracking/Trailing?
Dog follows ground disturbance or odor. Generally, in tracking, the dog finds a human scent. In trailing, the dog finds a specific person.
121
What is a Trained Final Response (TFR)?
A trained behavior that the dog uses to indicate that they have found the highest concentration of odor.
122
What is a Training Aid?
Any device, material, tool, etc. that increases the effectiveness of training.
123
What are Training Containers?
Containers that hold a scent article, including target scent or a distractor odor.
124
What does Turbulence refer to?
Changes or unsteady movement of air.
125
What is Upslope?
The higher point of a hill, rise, bump, ravine, etc.
126
What does Up valley mean?
Higher point of a valley.
127
What does Up-Wind mean?
Moving in the opposite direction that the wind is blowing, or in the direction from which it is blowing.
128
What is Vapor Pressure?
The pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases (solid or liquid) at a given temperature in a closed system. It is an indication of a liquid's evaporation rate.
129
What are VOCs?
Volatile organic compounds are emitted as gases and have high vapor pressure at room temperature.
130
What is Volatilization?
The conversion of a chemical into vapor.

K9 C Class (1 decks)

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