How to Train Your Dog to Search and Rescue
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Introduction
Dogs have some serious physical advantages over us humans. They're equipped with an amazing sense of smell that allows them to track stuff down from far away. Most canines have strong legs that enable them to move fast through brush or other terrain. To top it all off, pooches come with a keen ear.
These traits make puppers the ideal helpers in a search and rescue. A dog may be able to quickly find the person in need-- long before a team of professionals.
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Defining Tasks
When someone goes missing, especially in the wilderness, it can be hard for rescue teams to know where to start. A dog is able to easily pick up on scents left in the area in the last day or so. Once the pooch finds the scent, he can follow it through the rough terrain, either bark or run back to his handlers, and potentially save the missing person!
The best breeds to use for search and rescue are smart and eager to learn. Labrador and Golden retrievers, Border Collies and German shepherds can make excellent trackers. If possible, start training the pup as young as twelve weeks. Youngsters catch on quicker, but older mutts can learn to perform this important task as well.
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Getting Started
Once you've decided to help your pooch become a hero, you're going to need to prepare. Some key things to have include:
- A Helper: Training a search and rescue dog is so much easier with two! Pick a family member or friend who won't mind coming along for numerous sessions.
- Treats: When the dog makes a find, you're going to want to fill him with treats to let him know that's the point of the exercise.
- A Toy or Other Object: During practice, a toy replaces the missing person. The dog will be required to seek the toy, often without having seen where it went in the first place.
- Some Outdoor Gear: Search and rescue dogs are used no matter the weather, so both you and your pup will have to get used to the elements.
- A Harness and Lead: This lead should be at least 20 feet in length, but no longer than 30 feet.
While your young pooch is learning how to rescue, they should also be tuning up their obedience skills. A fully trained search and rescue dog can use location directions from vocal commands alone!
Below are some of the best methods for teaching a doggo how to be a hero. Keep in mind that the order you teach certain skills will impact how the dog uses them. Trailing and tracking skills should be taught before air scent training.
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The Air Detection Method
Most Recommended
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Most Recommended
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Hide out
Have your assistant retain your dog, while you get his attention and then run and hide. Make sure to take his favorite toy with you, and keep it simple at first.
Introduce the command
The assistant then lets go and says the verbal command.
Locate
Reward your dog and make a really big deal of him when he finds you.
Teach a signal
Tell the dog to “speak” every time he finds you, and make sure he gets treats if he obeys.
Increase difficulty
Begin hiding outside of your dog's view, and gradually increase distances. Leave more and more time between when the person hiding takes off, and when you allow your dog to search. Work up to three hour long searches with over a day since the hider has left. Go in all types of weather and vary the land you cover.
The Right Track Method
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Effective
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Prepare your dog
Put your pooch in the harness and attach the lead.
Start scent path
The assistant then should drop one piece of clothing that they have worn, and wipe their feet a few times over one patch of ground.
Leave an unmistakable trail
The assistant then walks a short distance away and hides, but leaves a trail of treats behind them.
Introduce command
Give the dog a verbal command like “search”, and let him follow the treats.
Locate
If the dog finds the assistant, give him tons of praise and a few more treats.
Increase difficulty
Keep increasing the distance, and add some twists and turns. Decrease the number of treats left on the ground and work up to scent trails that are over a day old with no treats on the ground.
The Follow Trail Method
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Least Recommended
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Prepare your dog
Attach your dog's harness and lead.
Choose a spot
Go to an area that is more populated, such as a park or street.
Introduce the scent
Give the dog an article of clothing from the assistant and say your command.
Sniff and Search
Allow the dog to sniff around and find the scent trail from the assistant. It's okay for the dog to take brief short cuts as long as they're headed in the right direction.
Distract
Arrange for a second assistant to create a distraction.
Teach focus
Teach your pup to ignore all other scents but the one of the first assistant. If the dog finds the first assistant, reward him like crazy!
By Amy Caldwell
Published: 09/20/2017, edited: 01/08/2021
Training Questions and Answers
Tess
Collie
6 Months
Question
0 found helpful
0 found helpful
I always had dogs , Tess is quite different for others dogs Tess is very intelligent wants to be on the all the time would it be a good idea for Tess to have Tess trained as a rescue dog , How intense would the course be as Tess is only 6 Months to find a organisation to train Tess and myself any advice you can give
July 6, 2022
Tess's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1133 Dog owners recommended
Hello Thomas, Check out these videos to get an idea of the training, time, and commitment involved, to help you decide if this is something you want to do. Search and Rescue is an amazing thing to get involved in, but it's not something you can do halfway, and pup won't be trained and working with another person, you as pup's handler would also be going on missions with pup as their handler, so it's a bit commitment for you as well as pup, so make sure it's also something you want to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6qsmm21BYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKS83vaFgnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7FLtcxkjC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgbambZVPI If you are interested after your research, I would google your region and search and rescue teams, and see if you can find the contact information of someone in your area actively involved in search in rescue that you can reach out to and meet up with to learn more. If you decide search and rescue isn't for you, I would look into some canine sports or trick training for fun outlets for pup's intellect and social skills. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 7, 2022
Willow
Working Cocker Spaniel
3 Years
Question
0 found helpful
0 found helpful
I am a Search Tech with SAR and although my dog has passed her basic skills/behaviour tests she has a strong prey drive for deer/livestock generally so is unable to train fully until this is addressed. Can you advise on how I can help her to reduce this? In your experience, is it possible to train a dog to ignore prey?
July 3, 2022
Willow's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1133 Dog owners recommended
Hello Aileen, The outcome of this will depend a lot on the specific dog. I recommend checking out a bunch of James Penrith's youtube videos I have linked below. He does off leash training and specializes in dogs who chase and kill livestock. Teaching pup to leave large game animals alone is going to be most similar to addressing the livestock chasing issues. Pup can likely be taught to leave those scents alone, but it's hard to tell until you address that whether pup will be able to focus on what they are supposed to be tracking or still be too distracted by the scent of other animals even if they aren't chasing them anymore. On his channel you will see where you can search for videos. I would try words like livestock, chasing, recall, come, leave it, killing, prey drive, and so forth to pull up the most applicable videos. https://www.youtube.com/c/JamiePenrithDogTraining Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 4, 2022