For new individuals that come out to help me with training of the dogs I often explain it like this.  Image I go and set a trail for you to come find me.  Now our goal should be to get to me as quickly as possible.  But I do not expect you to use your nose like a dog would.  Nor do I really expect for you to track me like some special ops type of military person.  So I will walk off and take 100 - $1 bills.  I will randomly drop each one of these bills along the way and I will be at the end of the track.  Now we assume you have made your way to my location.  My question is how many of these $1 bills did you pick up along the way?  At this point most everyone says “all of them.” I then tell them, ok that’s fine.  The money of course has value to you so why would you not pick it up.  However with the goal to get to me being get here as quick as you could taking the time to pick up the money meant you really did not do the job to the best of your ability.  So now we will do this once again.  I will set a track dropping 100 - $1 bills and I will be at the end.  Only this time when you get to me I will have $10,000 for you.  BUT there is a time limit and I am not telling you just how long that is.  If you don’t get here in that time limit then no you do not get the $10,000.  Now let’s assume you got to my location and was able to find me. Now once again I am asking the question of how many of the $1 bills did you pick up?  At this point most people would say, “None.”  Witch I would reply, great here is the $10,000!  So what has happen is the reward at the end of this trail devalued the distractions along the trail.  You wanted to get to me and get that $10,000 more than stopping to pick up the $1.   This is how I want a dog to work.  I want the dog to move with purpose, to move with intent.  I need for this dog to have a very high value for the target person that is at the end of this trail. So to get this type of work ethic, at the end of our trails my target person needs to be rewarding the dog with $10,000 worth of play.   Notice I said play! Not praise.  Yes praise is a part of this reward, but not the only part.  If you watch a tracking dog that has been taught to bite at the end of a track. You may notice they move with a certain amount of adrenalin.  They have a, I want to get to the end and make this bite, type of work ethic.  Now of course my trailing dogs are not going to be bite dogs. However there is something to be taken away from these animals that do bite.  All of the best mantrailing dogs I have ever watched have a need to make the find and a want to get the play and praise from the person they search for.  I can never really be sure what it is the dog has value for so I need for my target person in a sense to be the trainer.  They have to move around giving the dog treats. They need to be talking in an upbeat voice.  They need to play with the dog, rubbing the dog on its shoulders and near the base of the tail!  Moving their feet and going from spot to spot, having the dog to repeatedly jump up and get the treat from them. Now food treats can be almost anything you feel the dog has a value for. I make out small hot dog bites and keep them frozen.  This works well and is not too messy for the target person to handle.  Beef livers, or other types of food treats can also work.  It is worth noting that some dogs the praise at the end is in fact enough.  I have find this to be truer with an older dog you work more than the puppy you develop.  But make no mistake each dog has sort of its own way of learning and what works for one may need a small bit of modification for another.  However, for some of the better working dogs it seems to me that the ones where the target person gives the reward and not the handler that action ends up making the better dog.  If you think about it if the handler is rewarding the dog what does the target person really have to offer?  Does the dog really have a need to make this find?  No for me a high driven dog that has sort of a cabin fever mentality and has not got rewards from the handler has more of a need to get to that target as they have what the dog really wants.  A truly motivated dog is one that is developed and not just trained.  If I start this process with a puppy, then this go get’em attitude becomes a part of their life, and not something I have to try to make happen when I want it.