Smuggling the Replacement Prey

In the beginning of its training, the dog always reaches the helper, where it gets the sock toy as a replacement prey. Later, once the dog is fully introduced to this process, it will only have full access to the victim every now and then. Because of the great depths at which victims can be found beneath the rubble, and the extensive work of salvaging, we play a little trick on the dog: after the dog has alerted very clearly on a location during training, its handler will push the dog carefully aside so that the dog can’t see what the handler is doing. Now the handler lays the dog’s sock toy under a few stones in the place where the dog alerted, without the dog seeing. In this way the handler smuggles the toy into the scent cone of the victim and then gives the dog the opportunity to search again and get to the sock toy.

The handler must always know that the dog’s alert is correct before smuggling in the sock toy. Because the handler doesn’t know the location, the instructor should confirm the correct alert to the handler, after which the handler can hide the sock toy in the odor trace and let the dog search that spot again.

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Linking the Search Field and a Human to the Sock Toy

When step 2 is repeated often, the dog learns that it will always find its sock toy at a victim. The final goal of the training is worked out in the third step: connecting the search field and a human with the dog’s sock toy. In this step, the surroundings and the missing or buried people also become decisive stimuli in the hunting drive. This is the result: the view of certain surroundings (rubble, woods, snow) will elicit a strong search passion in the search and rescue dog.

In each training session, the handler has to have a clear idea of every part of the search action and then help the dog progress in accordance with its character. A search action does not start just with removing the dog’s collar and a correct heel position; it touches the dog much more deeply.

Let’s go back in time: The hunting behavior of the dog is, in principle, still the same as that of its forebears. Only one dog will lead the pack’s hunt by following the prey’s track. When close to the prey, that dog gives up the lead and releases the pack for hunting.

Leading the Hunt

What can we learn from this pack hunting behavior in terms of searching with our dogs? There is a regular system: leading the hunt and releasing the dog to hunt. If we practice this system in a search with our dogs, then as handlers we are the leaders of the hunt, and that’s why the dog looks to us for the release to hunt. Before starting the hunt, it is important to briefly stimulate the dog’s hunting drive. Often it is enough for the dog to see the surroundings (rubble, woods, or snow). If that is not enough, then you can try to put the dog in the right search mood by talking to it about the coming search action. As a last possibility, you can briefly show the dog its sock toy.

Releasing to Hunt

The dog has to stay briefly in this state of tension until, mostly by eye contact, it tries to get the release to hunt. Go with the dog a few paces toward the search field and release the dog with a clear throwing movement of your arm and hand and the command “Seek.” After you have released the dog to search, the dog has to start to work with the search pattern it was taught. For the wilderness search, that is a looping grid pattern from left to right; on rubble, the dog must also systematically search the indicated area. Dogs have an excellent ability to smell. They must constantly decide between the human odor we want them to search out beneath the debris and all other background odors, which also contain human odors. After that, they have to point out the scent clue, the place with the highest odor concentration.