Introducing the Brick Wall for Small Target Searches
A step-by-step progression from whole Kong to 1 cm piece
Whether you’re training a professional Detection dog or a sport prospect, introducing a brick wall (sometimes called a focus wall) the right way gives you a versatile setup for your training in the long term.
Once the dog is familiar with brick wall searches, you can use this setup to boost motivation for the search, train systematic search patterns, work on distractions, build scent threshold, develop indication, start imprinting, or fix false alerts.
This one-page guide shows you how I start my dogs on the brick wall — from first Kong grabs to searching for 1 cm targets.
What you'll learn
- When to introduce wall searches
- How to set up your wall for easy grabs and clean progression
- When to use lead tension
- Why you don’t need an indication right away
- How to progress from whole Kong to tiny pieces.
Who it's for
- Working or sport dog handlers who have started Detection training and have a toy-motivated dog
- Trainers who haven’t used a brick wall before (or want to refine how they do it)
- Anyone who wants clarity on introducing small-target wall searches in a clean, step-based progression.
What you get
- Step-by-step progression from whole toy to ~1 cm piece
- Reward mechanics for each stage
- Video demos for every step.
One-page PDF guide with clickable links to short demo videos. Optimized for A4 printing, so you can take it with you when you train.
Concise and clear. Just hands-on, practical info, at a glance.
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Introducing the Brick Wall
A step-by-step progression from full Kong to 1 cm piece
