This is a placeholder text
Group text
by Cassandra Marie on 29 September 2011 - 03:09
Hi Cheri:
This has been my experience in SAR. The only time I use food with a SAR candidate is to introduce tracking. All of the SAR K9s I've trained have only used food once or twice and that was when they were introduced tracking. It only took those couple times for the dog to understand that it's about finding the victim, not the food. After that they could have cared less about food. Their primary focus was on finding the"victm". I would recommend that you and the "victim" reward the puppy with a toy - NOT food. In a deployment one does not want their K9 partner to be distracted by food that they might find while they are working. On the alert, we always start our K9 trainees with the victim teasing the dog with the toy once the dog has located the victim. The dog is not rewarded with toy until they bark. It is SOOO important to have a good "victim" who will follow your requests. Once the dog barks, the toy is thrown for reward. No bark no reward. Initially it may take a few minutes to get the dog frustrated enough to bark. Once the dog barks it is very important to make a big deal about it. You will find that at each training session, the bark alert will come quicker. The command I use for a bark alert is " tell me...tell me". By the way, to keep training alot of fun for the dog, it is hugely important to have a "big party " for the dog once they have completed their task. By big party, I mean everyone in the group claps their hands, tells the dog what a good doggie they are, alot of praise and positive energy. It makes the dog feel very special and proud.
Re: Airscent - When teaching the K9s on our team, I started all the dogs with tracking - no exceptions. Some were natural trackers and others weren't. However the point of this is to teach the dog to use their nose. Many times a dog may not pick up the airscent so they can always resort to picking up a scent by tracking. I have seen this happen several times with the airscent K9s on our team, resorting to tracking when they lost the airscent. Secondly and this is very important to know: it's almost impossible to teach a dog to track IF you teach them to airscent first. One more thing, never never encourage your dog to chase other animals i.e. squirrels, cats, etc. One does not want their dog to "critter".
I hope this is helpful.
Cassandra
This has been my experience in SAR. The only time I use food with a SAR candidate is to introduce tracking. All of the SAR K9s I've trained have only used food once or twice and that was when they were introduced tracking. It only took those couple times for the dog to understand that it's about finding the victim, not the food. After that they could have cared less about food. Their primary focus was on finding the"victm". I would recommend that you and the "victim" reward the puppy with a toy - NOT food. In a deployment one does not want their K9 partner to be distracted by food that they might find while they are working. On the alert, we always start our K9 trainees with the victim teasing the dog with the toy once the dog has located the victim. The dog is not rewarded with toy until they bark. It is SOOO important to have a good "victim" who will follow your requests. Once the dog barks, the toy is thrown for reward. No bark no reward. Initially it may take a few minutes to get the dog frustrated enough to bark. Once the dog barks it is very important to make a big deal about it. You will find that at each training session, the bark alert will come quicker. The command I use for a bark alert is " tell me...tell me". By the way, to keep training alot of fun for the dog, it is hugely important to have a "big party " for the dog once they have completed their task. By big party, I mean everyone in the group claps their hands, tells the dog what a good doggie they are, alot of praise and positive energy. It makes the dog feel very special and proud.
Re: Airscent - When teaching the K9s on our team, I started all the dogs with tracking - no exceptions. Some were natural trackers and others weren't. However the point of this is to teach the dog to use their nose. Many times a dog may not pick up the airscent so they can always resort to picking up a scent by tracking. I have seen this happen several times with the airscent K9s on our team, resorting to tracking when they lost the airscent. Secondly and this is very important to know: it's almost impossible to teach a dog to track IF you teach them to airscent first. One more thing, never never encourage your dog to chase other animals i.e. squirrels, cats, etc. One does not want their dog to "critter".
I hope this is helpful.
Cassandra
by Cassandra Marie on 29 September 2011 - 11:09
Hi Cheri:
I forgot to mention that our team starts all our candidates immediately on an alert - even puppies as young as 8 weeks old. I can't think of any reason why one would wait to do this. Barking is as natural to dogs as water is to ducks. In fact you could build up the alert when you're at home. For instance, give the bark command when your throwing your puppy's toy or when giving them a treat.The recall takes alittle more time unless you have a K9 with a natural re-find. I was blessed with such a dog, my K9 partner, Richter. From the time I got him at 9 weeks of age, he started re-finds on his own. My command is " show me". He locates the victim and then returns to get me and bring me back to the victim. Most of my SAR shirts have holes in them from Richter grabbing me and pulling me to the victim. He frequently thinks I'm not following him fast enough. Its hard not to follow when you have a very determined 111 lb GSD pulling you (LOL). Of course, as I've pointed out to Richter he has 4 legs to my 2 legs. He doesn't care - he wants to get back to the victim as quick as he can. So that's his way of telling me to move it.
Cassandra
I forgot to mention that our team starts all our candidates immediately on an alert - even puppies as young as 8 weeks old. I can't think of any reason why one would wait to do this. Barking is as natural to dogs as water is to ducks. In fact you could build up the alert when you're at home. For instance, give the bark command when your throwing your puppy's toy or when giving them a treat.The recall takes alittle more time unless you have a K9 with a natural re-find. I was blessed with such a dog, my K9 partner, Richter. From the time I got him at 9 weeks of age, he started re-finds on his own. My command is " show me". He locates the victim and then returns to get me and bring me back to the victim. Most of my SAR shirts have holes in them from Richter grabbing me and pulling me to the victim. He frequently thinks I'm not following him fast enough. Its hard not to follow when you have a very determined 111 lb GSD pulling you (LOL). Of course, as I've pointed out to Richter he has 4 legs to my 2 legs. He doesn't care - he wants to get back to the victim as quick as he can. So that's his way of telling me to move it.
Cassandra
by Siantha on 08 October 2011 - 15:10
and see when i started my female on her SAR we never used food but she was 8 months old and has intense ball drive we did runaways and then we did group runaways where the dog had to stand held by the handler as other dogs where scent out this helped her alot she went crazy about drug me to the person so we decided we would send the people out way in the woods and call her unsure of the distance but still in yelling range and she Loved and went stright to the person and stood with them i wanted to do a her stand with the victom and bark but she started doing her own personal recall indicate and then she would run back and forth between me and the person basicly untill i got there then she got a reward with the ball played tug with both of us and then i walked back behind the person. soon after we tryed alittle scent work and put someones item on the ground and ran her over it ther victom said nothing and she went straight to her then came back and indicated but my girly understood bt then she was finding a person and she loves people and enjoyed her work soo much it was crazy.
by Cassandra Marie on 09 October 2011 - 12:10
Hi Siantha:
You are correct about not using food in a puppy runaway. Puppy runaways are introduced as a visual. Food has no place in a puppy runaway , in fact it would be a distraction and could cause complications down the road! Puppy runaways are IMO 2 fold in that
a) it's introducing the dog to the concept of locating a person when they disappear and
b) the reinforcement of that concept with a reward when the dog locates the dissappering person.
The reward is the most important part of the process because it connects all the dots. That's why, what I refer to as a "big party" is so important. Not only does the dog get the toy but all the humans present reinforce to the dog that what he/she did is the greatest, most wonderful thing a dog can do. In other words, those people involved at this stage of training need to make it a big deal and show alot of positive energy to the dog when he/she locates the person. It's very important that the dog experience a sense of accomplishment.
Though referred to as "puppy runaways", it can be used as a starting point for dogs of all ages. It is a training step that should be used on a limited basis. Once the dog understands the concept, it's time to move on and introduce them to the more sophisticated elements of SAR.
Cassandra
You are correct about not using food in a puppy runaway. Puppy runaways are introduced as a visual. Food has no place in a puppy runaway , in fact it would be a distraction and could cause complications down the road! Puppy runaways are IMO 2 fold in that
a) it's introducing the dog to the concept of locating a person when they disappear and
b) the reinforcement of that concept with a reward when the dog locates the dissappering person.
The reward is the most important part of the process because it connects all the dots. That's why, what I refer to as a "big party" is so important. Not only does the dog get the toy but all the humans present reinforce to the dog that what he/she did is the greatest, most wonderful thing a dog can do. In other words, those people involved at this stage of training need to make it a big deal and show alot of positive energy to the dog when he/she locates the person. It's very important that the dog experience a sense of accomplishment.
Though referred to as "puppy runaways", it can be used as a starting point for dogs of all ages. It is a training step that should be used on a limited basis. Once the dog understands the concept, it's time to move on and introduce them to the more sophisticated elements of SAR.
Cassandra
Contact information Disclaimer Privacy Statement Copyright Information Terms of Service Cookie policy ↑ Back to top