Handler Training Tips

Training an Air Scenting dog is mostly a matter of training yourself. Most Search Dog handlers seem to believe they are training their dog. In actuality, YOU are the one that needs to learn! In the process of training, you should know 80% of the time where your "victim" is hidden. Once your dog is focused on finding a human, he is going to "make the find". That's not the problem, the problem is the handler. The dog learns what to do right off the bat. The handler needs way more "nose time" than the dog! Why? Because the handler needs to learn what happens in certain types of wind, on various types of terrain, in all kinds of weather, and with all kinds of hidden people and/or articles. He needs to learn how to watch the cues or signs of travel, what the dog does when it first hits, what happens when the scent hits a "barrier" ... so many many variables enter into the picture.

This type of learning is for YOU, not your dog, and can be done on a short search as well as a long one. Furthermore, "short and sweet" searches will build up the dog's desisre and drive. Finding people is FUN for the dog, and keeps up the interest. "Nose time" can be built up gradually, interspersing your short searches with a longer one every fourth or fifth search works well, and gradually build up the acreage you are searching until you hit the 80 acre mark and at least a six hour scenario.This can be accomplished without so much strain on your "victim" if you simply begin your search farther away, and radio your "victim" to enter the wind pattern two or three hours after you are into the search.

Trusting your dog is important. Even more important is trusting the person you are hiding out. Kids can be real bad for this activity as far as your training goes. They think it is fun to "fool" you and hide somewhere else. This is NOT GOOD unless you do indeed trust your dog, for you might have the tendency to disbelieve what your dog is telling you and try to call him off scent because you believe your victim is hidden in a different location. So it is important that you tell your "victim" to go exactly where you say, since you are training yourself and you need to watch what the dog does when he hits and you need to learn what is happening with the wind conditions etc. Dogs know what they are doing. Dogs DO find, so in the end, trust your dog!

Watch a great video here about training obedience. It makes you want to get out there and TRAIN, doesn't it?

Learning the GOTO for the REFIND

Phoenix has been learning the "GOTO" so she can do the "REFIND". Along with this she has also been learning the "TELL ME LOUD" so she will bark when she alerts on cadaver. And it is (pardon the pun) clicking right along. She will go to someone else, sit in front of them, bark, get a treat, then go (still on command) back to me, sit in front, and bark for a treat.....all in preparation for her (eventually) doing the REFIND.

For those of you unschooled in the REFIND, what it is ....the search dog, upon finding the subject, will return to the handler, give an indication that he/she has made the find, and take the handler back to the subject. All of this must be done, at a certification, without any "commands" from the handler. The "TELL ME LOUD" is what I am saying to Phoenix to get her to bark....I want her to bark for me , in the boat, when she smells the cadaver scent...this is in particular for an alert from a boat on a drowned victim.Actually I don't really care if she barks or not on a living find,I just want her to take me in for a refind....but I absolutely am going to insist on a bark alert on cadaver.

AS you probably guessed from the first paragraph, I am training this with the aid of a clicker. A clicker, in her mind, tells her that she is doing something right. For example, the other day, when she did her FIRST EXCERCISE on hidden cadaver, out in the grass, I could see that she was casting around for the scent. I could clearly see when she "hit" on the scent. Since this was her first experience at finding cadaver in the grass, (rather than her previous training, where she was to touch it with her nose as I held a salt shaker with cadaver in my hand) ...I immediately CLICKED when I saw that she was beginning an indication on the cadaver hidden in the grass. This immediately reinforced her, much quicker than my voice would have done, and she honed right in on the cadaver and touched her nose to it. Immediately, another "CLICK" and she got her reward, ...I then encouraged her to touch it AGAIN, and this time immediately asked for a "tell me loud" and she obliged, getting another click and reward.....soon , by the time she "hit" on the third hidden cadaver, she was sitting,and barking immediately on finding the cadaver...she got her treat AFTER she touched it with her nose.

She is a quick study. She learns fast. ALL in all, she is a joy to train. She is so full of energy and curiosity and such a goobery hairy bundle of love....I relly get a kick out of my Phoenix!