SAR dogs

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
20,039
Saw a somewhat non informative but still entertaining article on search dogs, in a local circular. Basically, general SAR using dogs by volunteers in the Baltimore metro area. There were a few general tidbits in the article about what to do when in the great outdoors, and it was mentioned that you should always take a whistle with you when you are out in the "woods", among other things. No mention of sharp things, but it would appear that these people at least carry the essentials, maybe the knife was a multitool or SAK.

I was thinking about my pups, and other pups I have had over the years. Any tricks you can teach that old pup that might come in handy on your weekend hike? I've gotten as far as "Hey, don't eat that!". Any SAR stuff that you can teach your dog?
 
I saw a little thing on them in the local news a while ago and they showed some of the ladie's gear. She was in her 40's and she carried a swamp rat howling rat for splitting firewood. :thumbup: Can't always judge a book by it's cover.:D
 
We trained our dog with hand signals and with some search and rescue techniques I guess. We can ask him where a specific toy is and he'll fetch it. Either me or my girlfriend will stealthily duck off a trail and the other continues with the dog and continue for a 1/4 mile or until the he notices one of us is missing. The other person then gives a command to find the other person and he'll sniff us out. Really fun to watch and keeps him happy.
 
basic hunting principles such as sniffing out your target can be pretty much instantly applied to search and rescue. Dogs with good noses and long endurance generally make the best SAR dogs. Belgian Malanois are generally considered superior to German Sheperds because they are slightly smaller and can travel much, much farther than a Sheperd can. Norwegian Elkhounds, wolf breeds etc are also spectacular.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Saw a somewhat non informative but still entertaining article on search dogs, in a local circular. Basically, general SAR using dogs by volunteers in the Baltimore metro area. There were a few general tidbits in the article about what to do when in the great outdoors, and it was mentioned that you should always take a whistle with you when you are out in the "woods", among other things. No mention of sharp things, but it would appear that these people at least carry the essentials, maybe the knife was a multitool or SAK.

I was thinking about my pups, and other pups I have had over the years. Any tricks you can teach that old pup that might come in handy on your weekend hike? I've gotten as far as "Hey, don't eat that!". Any SAR stuff that you can teach your dog?
Click to expand...

Hi,

My dog and I are a trained K9SAR team and started out by taking an advanced whistle recall class after finishing obedience. The final exam was to be able to recall your dog from 1 km. first by whistle and then by air scenting. If you want to try this be sure to get a pea-less whistle as they carry farther.

We then started K9SAR training where we moved from hiding and having your dog find you, to working off lead with the dog as a partner. Here we use the whistle again as well as regular commands and hand signals. Then we were taught how air scenting is done and how to read the dog while we’re searching.

We did open field, wilderness, rubble and then article searches. Somewhere in there we learned agility to better negotiate wilderness and rubble during searches too. After that we learned how to do all that at night and in all weather conditions. We use the American Rescue Dog Association Training Manual and do both air scenting and tracking. You can also learn cadaver and avalanche searching but we have not done that. This summer we are going to learn how to do helicopter drops into a wilderness search area.

It’s a lot of work, time and effort but we love it and it builds a very strong bond with your dog. It also requires most of the skills we talk about here, as you must be self sufficient in the bush with your dog, possibly for one or more nights.

One of the things my dog and I do at this time of year to practice for K9SAR is to track for deer looking for shed antlers and using a small antler as the source scent. We haven’t found any yet, but as it was a light winter there is still time. To make sure my dog always succeeds, I will toss my source scent antler into the bush several times as we go so she can find that.

Here is a short video slide show of her doing this…note that whenever she finds a spot where a deer has been lying down, she loves to roll in that spot like she’s in heaven.

I would get the book at the link above and try some of it out especially the off lead handling. If you think you would like to learn more take a course with your local SAR unit. I would highly recommend it.


gerry :)
 
As gerryg has said, basic obedience with both voice and hand signals, especially recall, is important. Advanced off-lead obedience is useful, although our are almost never off-lead when we're hiking. We've taught ours several things in addition to actual tracking skills. Ours have learned directions since they're usually on leads when we walk. Left right, up & down are helpful when you're on a trail that splits. They stop at junctions now and wait for us to give them the direction to go. They've also learned to walk on different types of surfaces, climb, and descend gently so they don't pull us around (they're 70# each and I'm usually hooked to two of them at a time).

We've taught them to jump obstacles like fences and barriers. They can easily clear a five foot fence now wearing their packs. We've also taught them to carry their own stuff. We have packs and harnesses so they can carry food & water for themselves.

We're working on tracking skills with two of them for SAR use, but tracking can come in handy in other ways as well.
 
PayetteRucker said:
basic hunting principles such as sniffing out your target can be pretty much instantly applied to search and rescue. Dogs with good noses and long endurance generally make the best SAR dogs. Belgian Malanois are generally considered superior to German Sheperds because they are slightly smaller and can travel much, much farther than a Sheperd can. Norwegian Elkhounds, wolf breeds etc are also spectacular.
Click to expand...

Labs and Retrievers are the most common search dogs in my area, but we have some German Shepherds, and a bunch of others. From a subject's point of view, I prefer the former -- it can be intimidating to have a big shepherd come charging up to you, even when it's wearing a bright orange doggie jacket.

I help out sometimes with my area's SAR dog unit's training (And volunteer with a non-dog SAR team)... hiding for the dogs to find, doing runaways (Basic exercise to get the dogs in the habit of finding someone and then going back to their owner to lead them to the location), stuff like that. Can't really offer any training tips from the dog handler's perspective, though. Gearwise... enough kit to spend the night if you have to (Though we usually don't camp. Moving all night long looking for somebody or doing an evacuation, now...), dog food, extra first aid gear. Pretty standard stuff, plus radios. A few guys have dog collars with GPSes attached.

gerryg said:
You can also learn cadaver and avalanche searching but we have not done that. This summer we are going to learn how to do helicopter drops into a wilderness search area.
Click to expand...

Avalanche search practice is great fun as a subject. Dig a snow cave, crawl in, have the entrance collapsed behind you, and get comfortable while the dogs take turns sniffing you out. I've done helicopter ops with dogs, too. Every one I've seen has loved riding in the local sheriff's office's Huey... except when it comes time to ride the rescue hoist...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top