Lesson 25: Area Search Training

Lesson 25

Area Search Training

Teaching your dog to do an Area Search

Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals of scent and how a tracking dog works you can train your dog to do an area search when the LKL (Last Known Location) of a person is not known.

You might have wondered when you read the tracking dog lessons, how do you start your dog on tracking a person if you do not know where the person was last standing or sitting?

This is where air scenting and area search can play an important part in tracking a person who is missing. Not only then but when you do not know for sure or from where they entered or even if they are in an area or building.  Sending a dog in to clear the area or building saves time.

You do not have to train your family dog to do tracking or trailing in order for the dog to do an area search. You can use this lesson to train your dog to only do air scenting without any tracking experience.

Many detection dogs that air scent or area search work off a leash to cover more ground. Obedience training and good response to your directions while off leash will help you and your dog work together better while doing detection or air scenting.

However, if your dog does not work well off a leash you can still train on a leash. The lesson is the same.

There are two methods you can use to train your dog for air scenting.

Hide and Seek Method

The Hide and Seek Method trains your dog to do air scenting and area searches without a scent article. You have your helper person hide from your dog in an open area then you ask your dog to search the area.

Your dog may or may not follow the person’s foot print trail; your dog’s nose may or may not go to the ground. Most often your dog’s nose will be held high seeking the scent in the air.

At first, the best place to train is in an open field with high grass. Have the person run off with the dog watching. The person sits down in the grass and holds still. You release your dog or run with your dog on leash asking your dog to find them.

Follow the dog, if the dog does not go then have the person make a noise and you tell your dog to find it again.

Continue making noise or calling the dog until the dog gets the idea.

Praise your dog in big ways and they will remember what to do next time.

This can be done indoors with family members running off to hide behind doors then asking your dog to find them. The dog usually will consider this a great game to play and learn quickly that when you say “find them” somebody is hiding.

The dog gets praise or a treat upon finding the person and will look over and over again until every person in the area is found.

The Second method is the Toy Method.

The toy method is used to teach a dog to find any live human scent or a particular scent such as the scent of a bomb, drugs or a cadaver (dead person). A toy the dog enjoys playing with is usually associated with that specific scent.

Police dogs and bomb detection dogs are generally chosen for training if they have a high play drive and desire to play ball or chase an object because this makes training the dog easier, saves time and funds.

If your dog loves to play with a toy then follow the instructions below to train your dog using the toy method of training.

If your dog does not care to chase a ball or toy then use the hide and seek instructions.

Toy Method 

In order for your dog to learn what scent you want them to find you have to associate the scent with something they enjoy, like a toy. In order to do this you have to make the toy smell like the scent first.

The toy has to be saturated in the scent of what you wish to find. The dog actually looks for the toy and not the person, drug or bomb. The dog is thinking about the toy and the play reward afterwards.

To make your dog’s toy smell like live human scent or one of your family members you will place your dog’s training toy in a sealed container with clothing from the person.

If you want your dog to find any live human scent then you can mix different people’s objects but if you want your dog to find a person by name then use only that person’s clothing. Dirty socks and hats work great.

Set the sealed container to soak up scent in a warm, dark place for 2 weeks. The store it in a freezer for future use.

When you are not using the toy for training, keep the toy in the sealed container or the toy will be contaminated with other scents. Only you can touch this toy. Do not let anybody else touch this toy.

Your dog can have other toys to play with; this toy is a training toy only.

After your dog has learned one person’s scent by name because you always used the name when asking your dog to search  then you can add another person to your dog’s memory by doing the lessons with the other person’s scented toy and using the person’s name. Be careful not to confuse your dog by asking them to find more then one or two people a day.

Once the toy is saturated with the scent you will hide the toy and ask your dog to find the toy. The dog naturally uses its nose to find the toy consequently finding the scent you asked for. You play with your dog with the toy as a reward.

After multiple lessons or play sessions of finding the scented toy, the toy is replaced by the person or object (drug or bomb smell) of scent the toy has been saturated with. The dog is asked to find the toy and uses its nose to find its toy thinking of the play afterwards.

When the dog finds the scent they find the person. You, the handler, have carried a toy to reward your dog with a play session after they find the person. An unscented toy is fine for reward and play, you can save the scented toy for training or to use if you do not have a person to hide.

The person who hides should carry a toy to play with the dog too. Especially if the dog is not on a leash because your dog will reach the person before you do and you want the dog rewarded as soon as possible upon reaching the person.

You can hide objects from the person who scent you are working if the person is not available to hide. This works well when you age the search area for training in case a person is missing for hours or days.

The toy and person can be hidden indoors and outdoors where you can play with your dog. A variety of locations and settings will teach you and your dog what to expect in different situations.


You do not have to make a training course as we did in the tracking and trailing lessons but doing so will make the training easier for you and build your confidence in your dog's ability.

You simply have a person run or walk swiftly away from you and your dog to hide then turn your dog loose or follow on a leash until you find the person.

At first, do this in a small area, making the area larger as you learn more.

At first, when the person runs to hide they keep your dog’s attention until they are out of sight.

Your dog’s nose will be high in the air or working the ground as they follow the person in pursuit. If you make this fun and enticing most dogs love this game.

Some dogs are hard starters and need more excitement to get going. Food treats might help if you have an older dog that is not interesting in chasing anybody. By using a command your dog is learning to do as you ask and not to chase but to follow.

After the first few sessions, once your dog has the idea, the person will walk to hide and hide without your dog watching. You do the lesson the same, tell your dog to find them and follow your dog. If your dog does not go then the person comes out of hiding to entice the dog until the dog does go to look.

With both methods, once your dog is finding the person, you will age the area after a person or object is hidden beginning with a 10 minute wait to begin the search then adding 15 minutes after a few sessions until your dog can find an object or person who is hidden 24 hours in different locations.

Be sure and read aging the training course to learn how your dog can find a person who is missing for days.

Always allow your dog to use its natural scenting ability to find the person. When your dog finds the person, play with your dog like they are the best dog in the world.
 
Cadaver Scent will be discussed in the next lesson.

Miss Lilly 

Be sure to read Lesson 24 before you do this lesson.

Area Search Basics : Lesson 24

Air Scenting

Area Search and Detection Dogs

Area search, air scenting and detection dogs all have the same job. The dog smells the air for any trace of the scent they are seeking instead of following the scent foot steps or trail like a tracking or trailing dog.

When a dog is doing an area search for human scent and they are not given a scent article or individual scent to follow they will find every and any human scent in the area.

Air scenting detection dogs work by elimination of the discovery of scent in that area. Most air scenting dogs are trained to find one scent and a few are crossed trained in two or more scents.

Air scenting dogs who find people are detecting any live human scent in the area and not any one individual scent while a cadaver dog finds a person’s body after the person has passed away.

Drug dogs, bomb dogs and bug detection dogs are dogs that are trained to find that specific scent or odor. All these dogs are air scenting or scanning the area with their nose to find the scent they specialize in.

Avalanche dogs are trained to work in snow and harsh conditions. A good avalanche dog is cross trained to find both live and expired human scent. The training is basically the same, only the scent and location changes.

Airport dogs are trained to deal with the noise and activity in an airport while seeking the scent they specialize in while a rural tracking dog trains in a country setting and an urban dog trains in the city.

The family dog does not need to find bombs or drugs and in the event of a disaster, your dog will most likely be working at your house. Therefore, family disaster dog training will be done using live person scent and most lessons can be done at your house or location.

If you wish to cross train your dog to find live and cadaver scent, each on a separate command then you will follow the area search lesson to train both. First train for one scent and after that specialty is mastered, train for the next scent.

Do not train for 2 scents at once or your dog will become confused.


I highly recommend reading the pervious lessons for the best understanding of search dog fundamentals and to learn how to read your dog before you attempt to train a dog as a detection dog or area search dog.

Reading your dog’s indications and clues during a search are vital to finding a person quickly and safely.

When your dog is doing an area search and air scenting, your dog is usually working off a leash and may be a distance away from you in order to cover more ground in less amount of time.

Let’s face it, we humans cannot keep up with our four legged friend off a leash when they are hot on a trail or scent.

A dog can cover more ground and area in minutes then we can in days.

100 men doing a line search equal 1 Bloodhound or area search dog working the same amount of area.

Air scenting and tracking are a whole science of themselves that can be a very interesting study for those who want to learn more.

Certified Search Dog Akiela and her son, Chaos 2005

Bulls Shoals Lake Arkansas

The lessons here at Family Disaster Dogs are tailored for the family dog and owner so they can save themselves in the event that rescuers cannot reach them.

In other words, these online lessons are prepared with the novice in mind. The lessons would be much more technical if I were teaching you to be a call out ready SAR team.

Those of you who would like to learn more can use the contact page to receive more information.

The lessons here are for pets and owners to know how to save themselves and loved ones.

The lessons are simple without being set in stone for perfection because I trust your dog will love to help you in an emergency.

These lessons are effective if used like any other emergency exercise or drill and preparation.

These lessons are similar to learning what to do in an earthquake, fire or tornado but you will be practicing the exercise with your dog by your side.

All you do is incorporate these dog training lessons into the emergency plan you have for home, car and work.

Coming up: Step by Step How to train your dog to air scent.

Lesson 23: Aging Training Courses and Trails

In search dog work the age of the trail is one of the most important aspects of the search. The age of the trail is how old the footprints is in the sand or how long ago the person left the scent at the location.
In other words, if a person is missing 1 hour then the trail or track of scent they left behind is 1 hour old. When a person has been missing 15 minutes the trail has an age of 15 minutes.

As you and your dog gets close to the person the scent becomes fresher or hotter (younger). The further you are away from a person the colder or older the scent.
Your dog will react differently to cold and hot scents. A dog is usually more excited the hotter the scent and a dog is more inclined to slow down to study and work older scents. By watching your dog you can tell the age of a trail or scent.
Dogs are amazing in regard to how old of a scent they can find and follow. The Bloodhound is known as having a cold nose because they can follow cold trails as well as hot trails or tracks.

We might think a hot trail of scent would be easier for our dogs to follow but this is not the case because the scent particles have not settled and are floating around as a person moves. As the scent trail ages the particles settle on surfaces condensing into scent pools or trails that concentrate in one area or line of travel.

For this reason a dog can follow an older scent trail easier then a person who only moments before ran away. In training search dogs we want to make sure the dog is given every chance they can to achieve the goal of finding the lost person. With this in mind, you want to make reliable courses and trails for your dog to follow. The first training courses should always be prepared fairly simple for your dog to follow with the scent trail settled and aged.

Otherwise your dog will become disappointed and discouraged or confused by us asking them to follow a scent that is not reliable or consistent. From a dog’s point of view, a scent that is floating everywhere is difficult to follow.

The dog has to trust you to know what you are asking them to find because they already smell every scent around them and know what each one is. It is up to us to know which scent we want them to follow out of the millions of scents they come across.

As a basic rule, a novice dog that is beginning to work scent trails and area search should not be worked on courses or scent trails less then 5 minutes old but no more then 15 minutes old. This might not sound like much time until you are standing in place counting the minutes while you let the scent settle and your pretend lost person is waiting in hiding. Then 15 minutes can feel like an hour. 

After you dog can consistently make a find of a lost person who has been hidden 15 minutes then you graduate to aging the course to 30 minutes. A dog usually works each time frame a week or two before they can graduate to the next level with confidence and drive to keep looking. By adding 30 minutes to the age of the course or trail you dog will gradually learn the differences they will encounter while on an actual hunt. 

After your dog can find a person who is hidden for 30 minutes then you will age the trail for 1 hour, then 1 and a half hours, then 2 hours up to making a 24 hour old training course or trail.

If your dog becomes confused or unsure on a newly aged course then you know you have graduated from one time limit to the next to quickly. Go back to the pervious time or age of the course where your dog did work well and start from there again. 

Give your dog extra lessons at that time limit and make sure the turns and pattern is not to difficult. You may have to simplify a pattern at first to help your dog discriminate scents that are older and then make a more complex pattern at that age after your dog gets the age of the trail.

Aging the course or trail means the person helper who hides from your dog will leave walking from the starting point of the training course and will hide for that preset time limit. 

Planning must be done for the person who will be hiding to have something to do while they wait, such as taking a book to read or making the training course at a location where the person can walk through a wooded area to another house of a friend and wait there for you to find them later. They can get into a car and return to the finding spot later when you will find them.

This is where teaching search dogs can get complicated or it can be easy if you look for opportunities to work with your family dog. For instance, let’s say your teenager is going to stay the night at a friend’s house a few blocks away. 

You and your child discuss how you will fit the dog training into the visit by planning the way they will walk so you will know your dog is on the right trail. After your child is at the friend’s house then you would give the trail time to age by going about your day at home until the time comes to find your child. Take your dog outside to the front yard and give them your child’s scent article and the command to find. Follow your dog to your child for a successful training session made easy.

When people come to visit, ask them to hide from your dog and help you train. You will be surprised how many friends and children would love to see your dog find them. Even beginning dogs are amazing in finding a person, especially somebody they know and love. All they have to do is go outside and around the house to hide, give the scent time to settle for 10 minutes then send your dog after them for a happy reunion. This training should always be fun.

You can use objects for your dog to find instead of a person by having your helper leave in their place of hiding a jacket, book, shoes or an object that will have only their scent only on it. The person can then go home without walking where they did to get there. Leaving by car is best.

 

The trail from start to object must be connected for your dog to make a find. You allow the object to sit and the trail to age then set out to find the object with your dog.  When your dog finds this object they have completed the lesson .It’s time for play and praise.   

Advancing in Training-Lesson 22

Advancing in Training

After you have reached the point in training where your dog is able to find a person (helper) or trail layer as outlined in lessons 3 and up then you are ready to advance in training by planning courses as outlined in the pervious lessons and aging the course in the next lesson. 

If you can play hide and seek with your dog then it is time to plan a course, either inside or outside and let the course age without interference and then work your dog to learn how your dog acts in the event of a person being missing for hours or in a scene of a lot of contamination after a building collapse. 

At this point of training your dog has been finding a helper who has walked away and hid from you and your dog. You can give your dog the person’s scent and your dog goes looking for them on or off a leash with you following your dog to the person for a happy time.

You are working on learning to read and teach indicating and alerts. You have learned how to read your dog to the point of understanding there is much more to read and learn from your dog.

You know your dog is always right.

Willie is right!

You are working with your dog once to three times a week on how to find a lost person and adding new skills as you go along. You are thinking ahead to when your dog will be doing more skills. You look forward to learning and working with your dog on these skills.

Now you are ready to advance and will do so by making the person harder to find using planning the courses, aging the course as you learn other skills, such as teaching your dog to return to you after making a find or bringing you the first aid kit in case you are trapped. These lessons or skills will be added into your sessions when you work on these courses now that you are ready to advance.

Some of you have been working with your family dogs off leash and others have been working with their dogs on a leash. This is what makes family dogs multi purpose and you can take a look at the standards for search dogs that I am posting next to see which classification or type of search dog your training your family dog to be. 

The main difference between a Tracking Dog in comparison to an Area Search or Air Scenting Dog is that the tracking dog works on a leash and the air scenting area search dog works off a leash. 

If you are working with your dog off leash then you will set up courses indoors or outdoors the same as you do for working a tracking dog. The only difference is you turn one dog loose and not the other dog loose. One dog you have to stay with on the leash while the other dog you can follow further away. 

The size of the area can be a room or fenced yard; you can use boxes, furniture and anything as course to make a puzzle for your dog to work out. Children can hide under blankets in another room while your dog goes out to potty and when your dog comes in you can ask your dog to find your children, make it fun and you just did a lesson in search dog skills. 

Get creative building and planning your course but never make it so difficult you yourself are not safe traveling it.

Now that your dog have the general idea, you can run and hide from your dog any time the opportunity presents itself.  

Make it fun!

Remember most disasters and missing person events happen at home or nearby which makes your family dog the best resource for helping you and your home and neighborhood the best training grounds.

Roadside parks make good training areas
if you make sure your
dog can not reach the highway

Feel free to ask questions by emailing Amber if you need any help.