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There are a number things you can do. Can your dog find 1/4 at 8 feet, 10 feet. How many lockers can the dog search and still be proficient. If you don't know the answer, you haven't tried it. Can he do 200, 300, 500. Of course, you as the handler, shouldn't know where any or how many or if, in fact, any are hidden. Sure puts some mystery in it. I tell my handlers all the time. You will never know what your dog can do, until you find out what he can't do.

KelsoK3 says ...

I've always tried to recreate deployments that other K-9 handlers have had trouble with. This helps me learn what my dog will do in a similar deployment. Lately the hides have been up about 8 feet.

When I feel like messing with a handler; we have a rule, you can screw with the handler, never the dog, I hide it in either a floor drain or a A/c duct.

I have scented cotton balls in with training dope and after they have aquired enough of the odor, I keep them in mason jars in my trunk. I come across a lot of abandoned cars around the county and its easy to hide them wherever you want. I have even put them in water faucets.

I get some of the other Deputies to hide dope in the patrol cars and go out and drive so I have a real life decoy type situation and put him on the car with traffic and everything else going on.

I have broken down some quanities as well into 1/2 grams and hidden them. Not always found, but some of them are. I also use a Kong as a reward to I place a new unused Kong out as well as a negative aid.

We've never paid for damages on a vehicle that dope was found in. We had a similar discussion on passive vs. aggressive response. In over 50,000 vehicle "sniffs" and over 7,000 responses on vehicles, we've paid 3 claims. Never once did we pay a claim where there was dope, paraphernalia or dope residue in a vehicle.

Do you do much with negative training aids?  The sky is the limit with what you can use (toys, sleeves, people food, dog food, cat litter, animal droppings, sterile packaging materials, etc), but I would recommend that the handler know where the negatives are placed so he can correct the dog if he alerts on the negative.  Also, for court purposes, every now and then get your dog out for a narc sniff, work him around a car, luggage or some rooms that are ALL blank then put him up without finding anything.  That way, if some defense attorney asks if your dog is programmed to alert everytime he gets the command to find dope in training, you can answer that he is not.  Also, make sure you document these blank exercises as well.  I'm also a fan of what DFrost mentioned about extended searches.  At one time we had a 7 floor hotel for training.  The guy running the training had each team search the ENTIRE building...all 7 floors (about 70 rooms, some with old furniture in them) for ONE hide.  Or try putting  some marijuana (20g or so) in a room for an easy hide then also hide a small amount of coke, meth or heroin and see if your dog will work beyond the misdemeanor (that he'll probably find first) for the felony (and make sure he gets rewarded for both).  For tracking, have some other handlers in the group get their dogs out and have them nearby while your dog has to track past them.  It's a great distraction for him and provides some good supporting documentation as well.  Just some thoughts...good luck.