Bulanda - K9 search and rescue troubleshooting : practical solutions to common search dog training problems

When you decide to join a canine SAR team, you typically want to train your pet dog. Often, you entertain notions about you and your dog saving people and being heroes.

If this is you and you are sincere, and your dog is capable and willing, this combination can succeed. However, the first lesson you must learn is that to be a good SAR dog handler, you must first be trained as a rescue person. Then you can specialize in the K9 aspect of SAR. A SAR dog handler is a rescue person who specializes in the use of the K9. The K9 is only one tool a rescue person uses to find missing people, and not all missions require the use of a dog.

Understanding and accepting this key aspect of the SAR dog handlers job is important because it influences your handler mindset, giving the dog a better chance to succeed. If you view SAR as just another activity for your dog, or a fun thing to do, you will inadvertently communicate that to your dog, which can affect the dogs attitude toward the work. If you do not take SAR work seriously, your dog may not, either. Of course, the dog must enjoy the work and think it is fun. But your attitude toward SAR work should not be the same as when you are playing a game of fetch with your pet. When people have the Its all a game attitude, the dog can interpret it to mean, It is okay if I dont feel like doing it today, or the dog may feel it is acceptable to only do the parts he wants to do. The dog may even feel that if something better comes along, he will do that instead.

As any working dog handler with experience knows, dogs are in tune with the moods and attitudes of the handler, even to the point where they can feel the handlers attitude through the leash. A dog can smell your mood, since our moods change our body chemistry just enough to give a scent signal to a dog. Think of the dog that knows when his owner is afraid and the change in the dogs behavior as a result, or the reaction of the dog when the owner is happy and excited. It is not only the tone of your voice, your body language, and your facial expressions that communicate to the dog, but your scent as well.

Recent studies have shown that dogs have a special area in their brain to process human faces, which gives us another clue as to why dogs are sensitive to human social cues. Dogs are much more aware of what their handlers think, feel, and do than most people give them credit for. Ignorance of or ignoring this aspect of canine/human communication is often at the root of training problems.

From the beginning, therefore, you, the SAR dog handler, must take SAR seriously and leave all ego and romantic notions at home.