Whether you’re planning to have them become a professional search and rescue dog or not, there are certain search and rescue dog training techniques that you’ll want to teach your dog. 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. You never know when it could come in handy and the more skills your dog learns the more obedient they will be. First it’s important to work on your dog’s personality.
A search and rescue dog must pertain a few important personality traits including calmness, strength and adaptability. Larger dogs are usually the only dogs that can perform search and rescue because smaller dogs may be able to track but couldn’t actually rescue anyone. Especially if they’re taking on this job professionally, when they have people yelling and screaming at them to go find someone in a winter storm they need to know not to let their nerves and anxiety get the best of them. Larger dogs always work better and you may choose to focus on one area of search and rescue with your dog or teach them a variety of search and rescue skills.
To become an air scent dog dogs must learn how to track people down just by sniffing the air. Then there are trailing dogs which track on land, water dogs that work along the shore and in water, and also cadaver dogs which find the remains of human bodies in different locations. Avalanche dogs are used in locations like British Columbia and Aspen where avalanches commonly occur and cover people. The best search and rescue dog training technique to start with is to hold the dog and have someone else stand a few feet away with a treat or toy.
The dog should immediately go after the object and bring it back to you. Instead they should be calm and waiting for you to release them. Once you do and give them a command such as “findâ€, they should run towards the object at a fast speed, grab it and return it to you. This technique can certainly take a bit of time to work on but with practice the dog will learn to understand.
Thirty to forty feet should be enough and then get the dog out and tell them to seek. This is someone who has experience training dogs and who will get you the results you want for a price. There are some fantastic dog trainers that specialize in search and rescue. You can also hire a professional trainer if you want the best results.