Coming soon to Family Disaster Dogs Online-weekly posts to Train a Dog to Find People

 Hey everyone, 

Here's hoping your 2022 is off to a great start!

Over the next couple of  months I will be posting weekly about how to start training a dog to find people for the fun of it, for sport and for search dog work.

The upcoming posts will be a great way to have a fun activity to do with your dogs! 

Plus, friends and family will be amazed at how quickly your dog can find them !

Some dogs need an activity that helps them to destress and relax just like people do. The upcoming posts will give you and your dog a great way to do just that!

Reactive dog? Hyper Dog? The skills you'll learn are a great way to redirect that energy in a safer calm controlled situation. 

Here's my dog and I getting ready to track a hidden person down!

Copyright A.Higgins

Did you know there are dog sports that use the skills search and rescue dogs do? 

In the sport of K9SAR, dog and owner/handler teams practice and have fun finding hidden people with a dog. Here's a cool site to learn more about the sport which is slowly gaining interest in the USA and much more popular overseas. If you would like to get involved in the sport, feel free to contact me. I can help you train and participate. 

All breeds and age of dogs are welcome.  

Mainly though, I will be posting because with the increase in natural disasters we are seeing worldwide I want to help everyone learn an easy way to find family or friends in the event anyone was to go missing.  

Also I want to encourage and help anyone interested in learning how to volunteer for Search and Rescue get started. 

Although the posts will give everyone a fun way to spend time with dogs, family and friends additionally, those who wish to advance into dog sports and search dog work will learn how to get started. 

Let's have some fun this year, and follow our dogs!

Be sure to sign up for the newsletter and upcoming posts at the pop-up window. (reload page for pop up). Feel free to use the contact page above in the page menu to learn more. You can find Family Disaster Dogs on Facebook with a simple search to follow, like the page and join the group.

Stay safe out there,

Amber

Founder and author of Family Disaster Dogs

Coming in 2021 a new Scent Dog Book, New Family Disaster Dog Site and more

 Coming in 2021

Welcome to the New Year 2021! 

With the start of the new year, I want to wish everyone the best in the coming months. 

I want to say Thank you for the support the last year, for the many visits, shares and comments to my articles and the Family Disaster Dogs blog, Facebook page and group. (look FB up)

Thank you for following me on Twitter at #UrDogCanRescueU   

It's come time to update this blog and make a few changes that will benefit you, me and dogs. 

copyright 2020

Here's what I'm working on for 2021 

A New Dog Training Book 

I hope to have this new dog training book available by spring 2021. As the book comes together I will share more news about what type of training. Be sure to sign up for newsletters in the pop-up window when you go to another post or first visit this post or join from the email box below this post. You can follow me on social media links below to get updates too!

A Whole New Family Disaster Dogs Website 

I've started to built a main FDD site several times over the years and the main reason I didn't is that this blog worked well. 

The page you are reading right now is a page of a blog that grew to look like a site. This way of getting information to everyone around the world has worked well for many years and grown to over 250 pages of articles I have wrote with a whole menu of pages. There are many daily visitors seeking more about search dog training and scent dogs.

In order to continue sharing a whole lot more information about dog training for disasters and missing persons plus make the info easy to find. I'm working on a new website that will include dog training courses, books, lessons, newsletters, a member's area, and more. I will making my books available directly from me, the author and dog trainer not only Amazon for those of you who would rather buy directly. I'm tired of the middle person web places making more than I do on my hard work. The books will stay on Amazon, Google and sites but also be available for download and purchase from my new site. All my courses will be available as direct download from me too. 

Once the virus is under control and life back to allowing me to have in-person events I will post updates for book signings, public speaking at community gatherings and dog training.

Feel free to contact me to talk dogs.

Stay safe and well out there!

 

Amber Higgins 

 

Air Scenting with a Dog's Nose-Train a Scent Dog to Area Search for People

 check out my book on Amazon

Air Scenting Detection Dog

2018 Update: Click for the new "Family Disaster Dogs" book on Amazon from the author and you get all the lessons, dog bug-out bag list and CPR all on your device.

2021 New Book Release "Start Mantrailing - Train A Dog to Find People" Step by Step for Work, Sport and Fun. By Amber Higgins featuring dogs from the USA and UK 

Air Scenting by A.Higgins

In this lesson we will discuss how your family dog can work as an Area Search dog. The area/air scenting search dog is what we most often see on television working in disasters with FEMA rescuers. These dogs are most often called disaster dogs, area search dogs, air scenting dogs. Area search dogs are trained for different jobs. Some look for people, some look for drugs or whatever they are trained to find. In this article we are discussing search and rescue dogs that look for live or recently deceased people in disasters. 

These dogs are trained to pick up and follow human scent that is floating on the air, buried in rubble or concentrated in one location.  When scent is released from a person or source object (examples of a source odor-drug, bomb, person, human remains) the particles are dense and form a type of invisible cloud that slowly moves away from the person in a cone like pattern. The scent particles drift further apart the further away from the point of release or person. Therefore spreading from a narrow cloud the at the person to a wide cloud. See the illustration below.

As you can see by the illustration the scent dissipates and spreads out 

further from the person. 

The Air Scenting / Area Search dog is trained to find any human scent floating in the air and to follow the scent cone to the person.  As the dog works the scent cone closer to the person the area the dog works becomes smaller and smaller indicating that the person is near.

For instance, when a air scenting dog is ask to search a large meadow the dog will go back and forth crossing the area seeking scent particles. This is called Casting. As the dog moves across the field the dog encounters the human scent on the wind and continues smelling the scent until they reach the edge of the scent cloud.

The dog then naturally turns at the edge of the cloud

to stay in the scent cloud and works the scent to the 

other side of the scent cloud where the dog turns again 

into the cloud. As the dog moves back and fourth casting and working

the scent cloud in this cross back pattern the dog moves

towards the subject into a smaller and smaller area 

until they reach the person. 

A dog when allowed to work the scent on their own will use the wind to their favor. You can learn to read your dog by watching how they react when working a scent cloud. Watch how your dog finds the wide side of the cloud and works less and less land until they reach the person. 

Because the dog is looking for any human scent in the area they will find any human beings in the area regardless if the person is lost or not. This accounts for air scenting dogs not finding a lost person in a heavily populated or contaminated area. The area should be cleared of all human beings before training a dog to air scent on command. Otherwise you will spend all day going from one person to another until the dog has found every person in the park for you.

To train your dog to do air scenting all you really have to do is watch the dog while they work a scent then you will know what to look for. Dogs are working scents even in their sleep, they know what each scent means and it is up to us to learn how the dog is working the scent so we can follow them to the person. This is what's meant by reading a dog.

When working with your dog on Air Scenting the location is important in order for your dog not to become confused. School yards and parks that are empty along with wooded areas where people seldom travel are best for beginning dogs and owners.

Depending on your dog. you can do this lesson off leash or on a long tracking lead. Many trainers today use shock collars and training collars which I do not believe in using these. I believe in using teamwork, taking my time to establish the lesson, and a leash if need be until taught to work off-leash.

You will not have to have the person make a trail or course like in the tracking or trailing lessons.

Instead, have the person talk with your dog while you hold your dog. Then have the person run away from the dog and hide in the large indoor or outdoor area. As soon as they are hidden turn your dog loose and say “Find them” or “Seek”. 

As your dog moves off to look for the person watch how the dog works the air with its nose. The head will go up when they find a scent and the nose will go to work. Follow your dog to the person and pay attention to how the dog works the scent cone so you will know next time.

If your dog does not go right away to look for the person then encourage your dog to go find them by going yourself.  Talk to your dog and ask them to go find the person with you. When you find the person have them pet and praise your dog. It’s okay for the person to offer the dog a little treat so next time your dog really wants to look for that treat.

Repeat this 3 or 4 times each time you go out to work with your dog a couple of days a week. This is a good lesson to end a training session with because the end result is the dog finding a person on their own to receive praise and attention. A happy moment to be remember by the dog which encourages your dog to do this again for you when you ask.

Use different people and as your dog gets faster at finding them then have the person hide for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes and 15 minutes making the time longer each week until your dog can find somebody who has been hiding for 1 hour on a few acres of land.

Use different areas and surfaces but do use care with traffic and public places where you or your dog can get hurt. You can do these lessons inside a large building such as a multi unit parking garage or warehouse. The larger the area the better but at first do not have the person go to far away from you and your dog.

These lessons are not made to fool the dog or to make finding a person any harder for a dog to do. After all, a dog already knows how to use its nose. It’s you who is learning how to find people not your dog. You are learning to trust your dog.

You can read about the different types of Search Dogs in my Start Mantrailing book.

Get my children's book that shows your young child what to do if lost and how the family dog can find mom! It's a fun activity book with games the whole family can play with dogs to learn how to find lost or missing family members! Art from UK Dog Cartoonist "Scotty"

 Kill Ticks that spread Lyme disease, fleas and mosquito all summer with one collar. 

This really works! 

Here's a good book I recommend. 

All purchases help support the Family Disaster Dogs Free Dog Training Site

A very small commission from ads on this site help maintain the site and keep these lessons free to the public. I really do not make much money on book sells after publishing cost, plus I offer all the books free on Kindle Unlimited and Audible discounts to help everyone interested to be able to train Search and Rescue Dogs worldwide. 

If you would like a signed paperback directly from me, the author, visit the Family Disaster Dogs book page

Stay safe out there!

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