Search and Rescue Dog Training
Search and Rescue dogs are trained to find victims (alive or dead) during times of tragedy or disasters. Dogs have a magnificent sense of smell and can penetrate small areas that humans cannot navigate through easily. These dogs are heroes during disastrous times and they work very hard. They live for praise and what we perceive as work they see as fun. They live for the reward and praise.
It is essential that these dogs be focused on the task at hand in spite of of the obstacles they face including thousands of other odors they encounter. Different breeds of dogs have specific abilities that are valuable during search and rescue endeavors.
- Bloodhounds are renowned for their ability as a search dogs
- Newfoundlands are recognized as avalanche rescue dogs
- Labrador Retrievers are the absolute best cadaver dogs in the world
For a wide variety of search and rescue work German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and Golden Retrievers are exceptional at tracking and following scents. What most individuals may not realize is that the breed is not as significant as the attitude of the dog. If a dog is to be regarded as part of a search and rescue team, first they need to be assessed. Dogs with a strong yearning to play are favored. These types of dogs love to play and be rewarded.
A dogs sense of smell is a thousand times more acute than humans are and is more discriminating. A dog can pick out a target odor among millions of odors, particularly if his immersion is strengthened by periodic contact to an item of clothing or other object handled or worn by the person he is searching. When tracking a person, a dog focuses on the scent of skin cells that come off off the body. These skin cells drift in the air and drop to the ground as the person moves about, and they float to the surface of the water if a victim has drowned.
There are dogs that are trained in air-scenting. This is when the dog will hold their head up and sniff the air to find the scent and then follow it to the victim. This type of search and rescue dog is valuable when there are collapsed structures and drowning victims. The advantage of this type of search and rescue dog is that they can also be effective in areas that have been contaminated by searches that have been conducted by humans. They remove everyone and allow the air to settle for a bit and then the victim (or body) will give off a scent in the air that the dog will track.
Many dog owners would love to have their dog trained in search and rescue techniques so that if it were necessary they could help their owner out if there were an emergency. This sounds like a wonderful idea but remember training your dog for search and rescue techniques is intensive and requires commitment on your part as well as your dogs. In training your dog, they will learn:
- Positioning - This is training to condition the dog to take up the correct position at the right place of the handler for the exercise that is to be executed.
- Chaining This is when a series of exercises is put into one complete exercise. The dog is first trained in separate exercises and then they are combined into one complete unit.
- Eyes Eyes are very expressive and the dog can read both the handlers mood and what they are looking at. This is another tool that can be used with other non-verbal signals in training for search and rescue.
Remember if you want to train your dog in search and rescue techniques to research the subject thoroughly as it will require a commitment in both time and money. You may want to start by having your dog evaluated to see if they have the proper temperament and then move forward.
Zahid N. Sindhu is a dog enthusiast who, after noticing the lack of an online resource for dog lovers in Pakistan, decided to launch http://www.DogsPK.com The site features a comprehensive list of dog breeds, breeders, veterinarians and online classifieds. The site also has a forum where people meet to discuss their canine friends.
Written By: Zahid Sindhu
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