Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association

Glossary of terms used on this site

Term	Definition
Change of Behavior	Glossaries: K9 SAR Glossary Change of Behavior (COB): A characteristic pattern of behaviors, as interpreted by the handler, that occurs when the dog detects a trained odor. Author: Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal detector Guidelines (SWGDOG)
Chimney	Glossaries: K9 SAR Glossary Chimney Effect: Warm air rises from the source, cools, then drops a distance away from the source.

Scent Cones
Scent Cones: movement of scent away from subject/source -in the shape of a cone.
Stimulus
Stimulus: A change in the environment. Dog Training focuses on discriminative stimuli, which causes a change of state in the dog, causing it to perform a specific behavior.
Shaping
Shaping: Building new behavior by selectively reinforcing variations in existing behavior, during the action rather than after completion, to increase or strengthen the behavior in a specific manner o