SAR dog Search and rescue

This is what USCA is offering in trials now, and I *think* also DVG (these are the two main national working dog clubs that hold trials). Like I'd mentioned, this is a lot of the basic work for SAR, but without the commitment of team to be deployed. Some of us are just too old to start a new active career in SAR work, but the exercises and trial work is fun & exciting for anyone wanting to push for something new & exciting to do. I'm going to a 2-day workshop this weekend at our club in AZ to learn more. Hopefully we'll be ready for our prelim level trial in February.

 
It was a great workshop, learned tons of stuff, especially what I need to work on. And also, @Dasz88 this IS what is used as testing in the real world of International Search And Rescue (IRO: Internationale Rettungshunde Organisation), so not "pretend-like" just for trial titles. Anyone who continues on with this can work toward deployment.
The "victim" in Ashas search set up her phone to video & it's fun to watch. We are doing "free indication" alert where she finds the victim, is rewarded with a treat (very impassively) and runs back to tell me "I found the victim!" and I say "show me!" and she runs back to the victim and I follow her, and she does a relay until we close the gap. Since this is early training, I reward the dog with a tug, I then down the dog, help the victim up, return to the dog & leash up. The most common way of alerting is the bark alert where they stay with the victim barking, but I opted not to choose that method and Asha LOVES all the running involved in this. Here's a ground level view of Asha finding the victim (bonus, it's someone who was not a club member, so totally new person to her - she was all business!


 
Ravenbird said:
It was a great workshop, learned tons of stuff, especially what I need to work on. And also, @Dasz88 this IS what is used as testing in the real world of International Search And Rescue (IRO: Internationale Rettungshunde Organisation), so not "pretend-like" just for trial titles. Anyone who continues on with this can work toward deployment.
The "victim" in Ashas search set up her phone to video & it's fun to watch. We are doing "free indication" alert where she finds the victim, is rewarded with a treat (very impassively) and runs back to tell me "I found the victim!" and I say "show me!" and she runs back to the victim and I follow her, and she does a relay until we close the gap. Since this is early training, I reward the dog with a tug, I then down the dog, help the victim up, return to the dog & leash up. The most common way of alerting is the bark alert where they stay with the victim barking, but I opted not to choose that method and Asha LOVES all the running involved in this. Here's a ground level view of Asha finding the victim (bonus, it's someone who was not a club member, so totally new person to her - she was all business!


Click to expand...
That's awesome. Makes me want to get my Ruby into a SAR program. I ordered the book from Amazon and will start our process very soon.
 

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@Ravenbird that is SO awesome!! Even though she is all business you can't help but wonder how good this is for her reactivity with strangers! I didn't know a thing like this existed. Ripley would LOVE it (especially the running, using her nose and getting treats part...basically the entire thing LOL).
 
Rits said:
Even though she is all business you can't help but wonder how good this is for her reactivity with strangers! I didn't know a thing like this existed. Ripley would LOVE it (especially the running, using her nose and getting treats part...basically the entire thing LOL).
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That's why I keep bringing it up! When I first asked about SAR or HRD, I was basically told you had to have a stable dog, you couldn't do bite work sports on the side, you had to commit to law enforcement blah blah blah. Then I saw this RH trial stuff with USCA and thought well, it's sorta like that but just for trials. Now I find out this really is the Internat'l organization and they LIKE working dogs. Dogs with drive, dogs with no quit. A little too much dog? Do more obedience. the gal who did this workshop was great. Stephanie Dunion, USCA RH Director, International Search & Rescue Trainer and official translator for the IRO. A stern German with a sly smile and easy way of telling you what you need to hear. I said Ashas biggest problem is rushing/wanting to do everything fast and furious/bull in a china shop - how do I deal with this? A moment of silence, the sly smile, a quiet voice: "more. obedience". And of course it's true, I'm part of the problem, I cater to Asha wanting to DO, but what we need is more work on basics. All the time, never ending! Another guy said his dog wanted to stay with the victim because they had treats, wouldn't return, what to do? She again had this moment of silence, a sly smile, and pointed to a long line coiled up on the ground near him. And said nothing. LOL, I live for teachers like this!

The greatest thing about this is, is that you can do it for fun, no commitment to SAR deployment. Maybe that leaves some people cross that clubs do this for fun, but look at what the dogs learn. Look at the teamwork that results from this. And the young whipper-snappers that start out doing it because their club offers it ends up going into SAR instead of IGP. And dogs that don't have quite the bite drive, they have other stuff they can work toward. The dexterity stuff is like agility but in slow controlled motion. OK, I'll shut up now.
 
Ravenbird said:
It's a big challenge, but if you have a local group you should give it a try! You'll learn a lot, learn how to work with teaching your dog some incredible team work - what's not to like?
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I like a challenge and have trained her in proper indoors and open area manners with unknown dogs and strangers. Part of my acclimation process for young pups. I look forward to growing with her in this new role as we have signed up as of today. More to follow. By they way, you made a great write up about the German trainer.
 
Ravenbird said:
It was a great workshop, learned tons of stuff, especially what I need to work on. And also, @Dasz88 this IS what is used as testing in the real world of International Search And Rescue (IRO: Internationale Rettungshunde Organisation), so not "pretend-like" just for trial titles. Anyone who continues on with this can work toward deployment.
The "victim" in Ashas search set up her phone to video & it's fun to watch. We are doing "free indication" alert where she finds the victim, is rewarded with a treat (very impassively) and runs back to tell me "I found the victim!" and I say "show me!" and she runs back to the victim and I follow her, and she does a relay until we close the gap. Since this is early training, I reward the dog with a tug, I then down the dog, help the victim up, return to the dog & leash up. The most common way of alerting is the bark alert where they stay with the victim barking, but I opted not to choose that method and Asha LOVES all the running involved in this. Here's a ground level view of Asha finding the victim (bonus, it's someone who was not a club member, so totally new person to her - she was all business!


Click to expand...
YESSSS!!!! YOU GO ASHA!!! I love this!!! I'm so glad you can do sar work, I've been wanting to get you into it ravenbird! I think you and Asha will be awesome! We are NSDA (national search dog alliance), so it's a different organization, but it looks like you guys are doing what is called air scent or area search for us! Asha is so athletic, she's going to be great at that!!! I've been gone and I was so happy to come back and find this!!
 
Ravenbird said:
That's why I keep bringing it up! When I first asked about SAR or HRD, I was basically told you had to have a stable dog, you couldn't do bite work sports on the side, you had to commit to law enforcement blah blah blah. Then I saw this RH trial stuff with USCA and thought well, it's sorta like that but just for trials. Now I find out this really is the Internat'l organization and they LIKE working dogs. Dogs with drive, dogs with no quit. A little too much dog? Do more obedience. the gal who did this workshop was great. Stephanie Dunion, USCA RH Director, International Search & Rescue Trainer and official translator for the IRO. A stern German with a sly smile and easy way of telling you what you need to hear. I said Ashas biggest problem is rushing/wanting to do everything fast and furious/bull in a china shop - how do I deal with this? A moment of silence, the sly smile, a quiet voice: "more. obedience". And of course it's true, I'm part of the problem, I cater to Asha wanting to DO, but what we need is more work on basics. All the time, never ending! Another guy said his dog wanted to stay with the victim because they had treats, wouldn't return, what to do? She again had this moment of silence, a sly smile, and pointed to a long line coiled up on the ground near him. And said nothing. LOL, I live for teachers like this!

The greatest thing about this is, is that you can do it for fun, no commitment to SAR deployment. Maybe that leaves some people cross that clubs do this for fun, but look at what the dogs learn. Look at the teamwork that results from this. And the young whipper-snappers that start out doing it because their club offers it ends up going into SAR instead of IGP. And dogs that don't have quite the bite drive, they have other stuff they can work toward. The dexterity stuff is like agility but in slow controlled motion. OK, I'll shut up now.
Click to expand...
I think it makes total sense!!! SAR work has so much positives for building a bond between dog and owner, challenging the dog perpetually, and just being an amazing program! I dont think IRO does many deployments workjng with fema or law enforcement here in the US but i dknt think that matters at all! My group is one of those "no bitework, no akc scentwork, etc, etc". But it is one that is through NSDA, and which has to follow FEMA protocols for actual deployment. I am happy to do it because I am also into SAR for myself. But I have barely done work with my dog! I have had to get my NASAR SARTECH II, boating safety license, ham radio technician license, first aid/cpr/aed, animal cpr, wilderness first aid, do a CRAP ton of very dry FEMA courses, learn different types of knots and ropes lol, and do significant field support hours before I can even bring my dog out of his crate to train! It's great for me because I am now fully deployable myself for SAR work and have done searches without my dog. BUT I don't think ANY of that has any bearing on training my dog for search work I the slightest!! If this type of group makes aar work more accessible to the non-wannabe survivalist lunatics out there, it is going to be good for the professional SAR world in the long run!!!

Ravenbird, when I FINALLY get all these dang prerequisites done, you guys are going to be so far ahead of us in actual search work! Share all your tips here!! 😆
 
Dasz88 said:
looks like you guys are doing what is called air scent or area search for us!
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Yes, for RH it's called Area Search, which would be most common here in the Southwest. They also offer Water & Avalanche & Rubble & Mantrailing, each one being a different search test, but basics & obedience still apply.

Dasz88 said:
I dont think IRO does many deployments workjng with fema or law enforcement here in the US but i dknt think that matters at all! My group is one of those "no bitework, no akc scentwork, etc, etc".
Click to expand...
Correct. Why I'm really liking IRO. They work with any type of dog, many are IGP sports dogs. One at the workshop had completed PSA1 (protection sport - way more involved in bite work than IGP) and the dog was very good at all the obedience skills. They said if your dog can do the work they don't care what its past is. IF the dog can prove worthy throughout obedience. They even say muzzle the dog is ok if you're unsure. They want deployable disaster teams but don't mind that most of us are just doing it for sport, as it raises interest in the clubs & surrounding communities and they know this will get more people who actually want to be deployed.

Whats not to like?
 
Dasz88 said:
I am now fully deployable myself for SAR work and have done searches without my dog. BUT I don't think ANY of that has any bearing on training my dog for search work I the slightest!! If this type of group makes aar work more accessible to the non-wannabe survivalist lunatics out there, it is going to be good for the professional SAR world in the long run!!!
Click to expand...
Congrats on your human homework & that you have become deployable! Do they not want you to work with your dog in the meanwhile? All of the work you do with your dog is 100 x better to start at a young age! There's a 16 week old puppy doing work with us at the club and doing better than most of the others already because they are so fast to learn and so eager. It's a working line lab - boy oh boy is she fun and her bite on the tug would put lots of bitey dogs to shame. LOL. Have they suggested starting Gilly on things like obedience in directions and obstacles? Lots you could be doing at home with him already!

I was hoping you'd be posting some work you'd been doing with him. Don't stay gone so long it's fun to banter back and forth. And really awesome that you've covered so much of your own learning!
 
@Dasz88 here are videos from last weekend - an example (short videos, each just 15 - 25 seconds) of obedience expected for a SAR dog at the very lowest level. This is training, not finished examples. The dog must wait once on the bridge, then heel off with you. The dog must stop & wait after leaving a tunnel for you to catch up. The dog must go (be sent) to the table and sit, down, stand and recall at the distance. No reason why any of this can't be taught at home. It's like agility in slow motion! :rofl:



 
On the 8th day of Christmas, my true love gave to gilly... a rib bone and a whole bunch of teeth! We have finally gotten some good source! 😆
 
Best gift ever for a SAR dog!!! :rofl: :paw::dobe: One day you are going to HAVE to show videos of y'all working it!
 
We had a drill in an abandoned hospital yesterday- so cool!! I didn't get any pics of gilly working because I don't have the multitasking ability to do that yet 😅. But here he is playing around in the 'bed graveyard' storage area. It was cool, we had access to the entire massive hospital, which had only recently been closed. So, gilly got to search for real source in an ER (some kidney under an ER ICU bed, a finger in the oncology waiting room, and some clothespins soaked in decomp source under an MRI machine, and a 'zombie' in the bed graveyard storage area-- they had made a mannequin with a zombie mask and hid source in the chest cavity lol). Gilly did great, except he was tentative about putting his head UNDERNEATH strange places. So I have to work on that. But mostly, it's my timing that's an issue, not gilly 😆
 

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Gilly and I had an HRD day- only other cadaver dog folks (we, too, are our own breed within SAR lol!). Gilly had a great time. It was 12 hours and gilly only got about 45 min of work, but he did really well doing hard time in his crate in the car lol.

Then Gil got to search in a historic opera house. I wasn't sure he could do the same search as the older, NSDA certified dogs. I didn't test him with trace source, but we had a great time with the bones! Gilly found bones hidden behind heavy velvet curtains up against a window, bones hidden in an old metal stove, and a little jawbone on a bookshelf in the props section. Like a real life game of Clue! 😆
 

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