Dog Badge

June 22nd, 2010 by admin

Teaching a dog search and rescue skills can be incredibly rewarding. Even for owners who don’t plan on getting their dog into this field as a career should still at least consider helping their dog to learn these skills. Whatever the case may be, there are important search and rescue dog training techniques that need to be included. The first step is to work on your dog’s personality and make sure they have all the basic characteristics that make a good search and rescue dog.

The first step is to work on your dog’s personality. Large breed dogs are always best for search and rescue, because of course a Chihuahua is not going to be exactly helpful when you’re trying to find someone and have them rescued. There are a few different search and rescue skills that a dog can learn. Or you could choose to have them work on all areas of search and rescue.

To become an air scent dog dogs must learn how to track people down just by sniffing the air. These dogs search for people hidden and trapped under piles of snow as a result of an avalanche. One of the best search and rescue dog training techniques is to hold the dog on a leash and have someone else walk ahead of the dog by a few feet holding a treat or toy. The best search and rescue dog training technique to get a dog started with these skills is to hold them a few feet away from another person who is holding a toy or treat.

Make sure that the dog’s not struggling or trying to force their way out of your grip and towards the object. This can be especially challenging when you’re using treats because at first most dogs are going to chow it down before you can stop them. This teaches the dog to retrieve and not just attack without getting a command. This technique can certainly take a bit of time to work on but with practice the dog will learn to understand.

You can also make it a bit more challenging and bury the object under a pile of grass or snow and see how long it takes the dog to retrieve it. This is someone who has experience training dogs and who will get you the results you want for a price. Especially if you plan on getting the dog into this field professionally, their skills need to be concrete. Whether you hire a trainer or take the task on yourself, search and rescue dog training is an incredible skill to teach to your dog.