Advanced Alert to Danger

Advance or Follow up Lesson

 Teaching your Dog to Alert you to Danger

In Search Dog terms "Alert" and "Indicate" have the same meaning.

Moses finds man in water

This lesson is a follow up to the two previous lessons that teach your dog how to alert you to danger, such as fire or smoke, an earthquake and when the emergency warning sirens sound off. In the previous lessons we went over how to teach your dog to wake you and other family members whether they were sleeping in bed or unconscious under pretend rubble.

In this lesson you'll learn how to teach your dog to "Alert" you when you are awake and how to continue improving these skills and use these lessons with other disaster or survival dog skills.

After you have read lessons 26 - 27 and  followed the instructions you will continue to work with your dog whenever possible and in different settings or locations. With each different setting change the material you use to make the training set-up look like a disaster scene or rubble pile. 

Get creative, bury yourself under cardboard boxes or let your children make forts out boxes when your dog is sleeping or outdoors then let your dog in to find you or the children. Use the garage next time or a friend's house. Each time you play these games it teaches you and your dog new skills and scenarios.

Encourage your dog to paw and wake up the pretending to be unconscious person in different locations and times of the day.  When your dog does respond in a way that attempts to move or nudge the person, praise them to do it again.

Use your dog's toy and treats to get them motivated and looking for the person. After your dog is looking and has the idea then gradually use the toy or treat less and less until your dog no longer uses the toy or treat to find the person or you.

Replace the toy or treat reward with talking and petting your dog when they do this incredible feat. Always trust your dog and guide them without punishment and with praise.

Teaching your dog to alert you to different odors and items is the same as teaching them to find a person, except you use the odor as the scent article and the odor in a container as the hidden item in training.  You can read the lessons here at Family Disaster Dogs about training your dog to trail and track or area search for a lost person for further details.

When you are working with your dog to find the hidden person or odor, you can teach your dog to go ahead of you and look for what you seek then return to you when they find the scent by teaching them "Refind" which will be covered in the next lesson. This is like sending a scout ahead of you.

You can also teach your dog that you will be following them to the missing person on or off a leash by going along with your dog each time. If your dog moves to fast or slow then talk to your dog to slow them down or speed them up and develop a speed of working which is more comfortable for you as a team.

With each lesson you and your dog will find a pace that is comfortable for both of you. When you reach this point in training you will feel a great satisfaction in knowing your communicating with your four legged best friend.

This feeling is the bonding you often hear of search and rescue dogs sharing with their handlers. It's a natural teamwork sense of confidence that comes with practice. Practice makes perfect.

Once your dog is going to a person and pawing them or waking them, then you do the same lesson but you are the person hiding so your dog learns to alert you to danger by waking you up.

After your dog is waking and alerting a sleeping person then your dog is easier to teach how to to alert a person who is awake by simply asking your dog to go to the person and paw or bark or sit at that person to alert you of the person. Again this is similar to your dog finding the person but the dog makes sure to "alert" you with pawing, nudging the person or barking to "Indicate" which search dogs also do.

By using the person's name the dog learns to go and alert on that person only. 

This is helpful in case the person is somebody you know who is buried under rubble or missing.

To teach your dog to alert you when you are awake and not in rubble or a dangerous situation but pending danger you will ask your dog to alert by coming to you and barking,pawing,rubbing on you or however your dog likes to get your attention. Some dogs will come and sit to look at us, this is the dog's "alert" to you.

Learn to "Read" your dog to find how they naturally alert you to what is going on. Many dog's nudge us with a nose to get us to notice something they see. Use this as an indication or an alert by encouraging the behavior when the warning sirens sound or when the weather turns dangerous and whenever you can do a fire drill with your pets and family.

When you feel danger or get the chance to practice this, then you'll include your dog running to you by you calling "come" and say "alert" or "speak" or "give me your paw"..whatever..then praise your dog and go together to do the evacuation plan that is in place. 

By doing this over and over you'll teach your family dog to do this for you when the time comes.

Good Luck and Be Safe!

Understanding and Reading a Scent Dog

How to Read a Dog

Keep in mind that this training is for in the event of a disaster or emergency situation in your own home which could never happen, therefore there is no pressure on you to or your dog to perform these lessons to high expectations.

In other words, take it easy, relax and let your dog do the work as you follow your dog and have fun. Maintaining a causal attitude and tone will work much better with this type of training then does a firm or obedience type of military.

As your dog works to find a lost person during a disaster you’ll be reading your dog for clues that indicate what your dog finds along the route, such as; tail held high and wagging means the dog is getting close to the person. 

Or, if your dog has their nose to the ground while working slowly this may mean the trail is many hours old requiring the dog to pay more attention then the free spirited tail wagging of a nearby find.   

Each dog is different in how they show their findings or clues which is why each dog and handler team must undergo certification. If a handler changes dogs they must learn how to read the new dog and certification will prove they do understand the dog.

Every handler must watch each dog they work with to be able to read the dog and as you watch your dog, look for any sign your dog gives you to what the find along the way.

The dog working an air scent will not go on the same path as the person does so never scold your dog if they do not go on the person’s exact path to find the person.

Only in tracking competitions do dogs have to stay directly on the person’s foot prints or path of travel and we are not competing we are saving lives there is a big difference.

The dog is always right and when a dog fails to find what they are looking for 99% of the time the handler has not read the dog and mistaken that the dog failed so the handler stops the dog. 

If you dog stops on a trail and looks at you for direction or in question then look around because they are trying to tell you something, they are not quitting. Usual the handler mistakes this sign as the dog losing the trail or scent path of the person they seek when that is not what the dog is indicating. 

For instance, one time Incredible Sue and I were looking for a lost elderly man with about 500 other search members. About 5 of us were searching a barn yard that had a blackberry patch next to the corral. Sue took me to the blackberry patch and she went to one of the bushes then used her nose to bump a bunch of the berries that were hanging on the bush. I had never seen her to this before.

At first I thought she was hungry or thirsty but she did not try to eat the berries. I paid attention to her to see what she was trying to tell me. I asked her what it was and to “show me”, she sat down which is her indication she found something. Then she bumped the berries again. I told her okay, now what. She got up and went to another bush and did the same thing and did this over again at another bush.

I watched her in amazement as it dawned on me the elderly man who had been missing 3 days must have been in this berry patch eating berries. He would defiantly have been hungry by then.

The other rescuers and I discussed what Sue was doing and agreed it sure looked like she was telling us this then we radioed the base camp to ask them to ask a family member if the man knew of this berry patch and he did. He was found a few days later not far from this berry patch after Sue and I did a midnight search on day 5 of his disappearance.

Always watch the dog and ask the dog to show you then let the dog show you. You do not show the dog where to go, they show you and this a complete opposite of what we teach our dogs in obedience and manners. (click to see our courses)

In search and rescue work we have to trust our dogs unconditionally and is one of the hardest things to learn. I always remind myself that my dog knows his nose better then I do therefore I do not interfere.

Another example of reading a dog would be when Sue and I were searching along a highway and she picked up a nice clean hanky that was in our route of travel, she carried this by her little front teeth like it was delicate then she dropped it. 

I told the officer with me that the hanky must of belong to the person we were looking for because otherwise she would not of noticed the cloth laying on the roadside. He left to confirm the hanky with the family as belonging to the lost person. Sue was right again. 

Never underestimate your dog.

The weather can make a dog work entirely different then we expect so always follow your dog and let them go to the person on their own without any interference from you.

No coaching the dog unless the dog just does understand what it is you are looking for and that is only when you first start training. 

If your dog has found a person who has hidden a few times and then the dog refuses to look for you the dog is either bored which can lead to burn out. Or, the dog knows where the person is and you are missing the clue.

If your dog goes in a completely different direction ignoring the person or what you ask them to do then do the lesson again being sure not to leave out a step which can confuse the dog.

If the dog fails again to respond by searching for the person then I would make sure the person was honest in how they hid and where they hid. Then start at the beginning lesson again until you learn to read what your dog is telling you.

You and your dog will learn to work as a team with practice and after many lessons once or twice a week. A bond will develop where communication is very clear between you and your dog. 

You will learn from your dog by reading them how they communicate with you through the tracking leash, body language and clues.

A wagging tail means what? Usually they are hot on the trail.

A tail that suddenly goes down means they came to a spot they have to work out or figure out like a puzzle. This spot is where a scent pool may have been left when the person sat down.

This could also be a spot where another dog happened to pee. Only after a few training sessions will you be able to tell the difference by learning to read your dog.

If this spot is where another dog peed, most likely your dog will only smell it and then relieve themselves at the spot too and then go back to looking for the person or on the trail.  

However, if this is a scent pool of the person you are looking for the dog may smell more deeply and show more interest or different interest in this spot and work a one or two ft area that is heavy with the scent of the person.

Let your dog do the puzzle because you will never be able to use your nose to do this scent puzzle. Once the dog figured out which way the person exited the pool of scent they will lead you on the next leg of the route.

Here's my wolf and I looking for my daughter in sand dunes for the first time.

Dogs that are hot, tired and thirsty from working a long trail may go off the route if they smell water. Sue often did this in the summer heat. I would let her go for a swim in a creek if she wanted to because I knew as soon as she was cooled off she would hop back onto her trail. Even if the creek was down the road the opposite direction she would go back to where she cut off to find water and resume the search.

Trust your dog and learn to read him like a book.

Here's my book !

How-to train a tracking dog click here