Introducing Rubble Walks

While we are increasing the dog’s enthusiasm for searching, we can normally start teaching the dog to work in debris, that is, to accustom the dog to walking over rubble, entering dark cellars, climbing over damaged staircases, and so on. To minimize risk, the dog always walks and works on rubble off leash and without a collar or choke chain. This will prevent the dog from getting hooked on something by its collar. A dog on leash could also easily be pulled down and injured if the handler stumbles or slips on the rubble. Dogs can, when they have learned to walk over rubble, even walk over broken glass and other sharp materials, but don’t put them off-balance with unnecessary commands, by working on leash, or by touching them.

A dog with a good bond to the leader of the pack (the dog handler) will follow the handler through or over rubble. With proper behavior from the handler, who should not show any insecurity, these first walks over rubble will be very interesting for the dog. Any insecurity that is visible in the dog can be changed quickly to security by showing the dog the sock toy. The dog’s immediate switch in attitude upon seeing the sock toy is proof that its negative behavior was caused by the handler. Avoid acrobatic balancing acts during the first few walks. The dog has to be prepared for its future task in the right way. At first, lead the dog over the rubble in a route that the dog can manage without any trouble. Later on, the dog has to learn to walk in front of you, as will happen during searching.

Building Confidence

During training, author Resi Gerrisen took her six-month-old Welsh Corgi Cardigan out to get her used to strange terrain and materials: “To my great fright, I discovered that on the third floor of the house where we were, a big part of the floor had disappeared. Only some floor beams still lay across there at a distance of about one yard from each other. These beams were at their widest only about four inches (10 cm). The gap between the floor beams was so great that my dog, with her short legs, couldn’t jump over. I had to control myself not to call her back when she, very happy and free, walked to the opening of the floor. She had walked along the edge and was walking over the first floor beam she encountered to the other side. Even more frightening, there was no wall at the end; you were looking down a depth of about thirty-three feet (10 m). She approached this edge a bit more carefully, and she was going to lie on the edge to have a look down. In my imagination I could already see her falling. But no, she stood up, turned around and came quietly back to me, again over a floor beam. If I had reacted in this situation with fright or panic, then my dog would have become much more inhibited. Even when she got older, she still went very confidently over small beams, as she had before.”

Let the Dog Set the Pace

In the past we thought it was important to teach the dog to walk slowly over the rubble. Our experiences with actual search missions have shown that a dog can work out the right tempo on the rubble for itself and should not to be restricted by us, not even during the first walking exercises on the rubble. We also noticed that dogs trained this way from the beginning search intensively on real rubble, never jump into deep cellars, avoid moving pieces of rubble, walk around dangerous obstacles, and don’t take risky jumps. In short, properly trained search and rescue dogs won’t injure themselves in the rubble and do their work happily and without frustration.

Figure 5.4 The dog decides how it wants to play. The handler’s role is to support and motivate.

6