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.

Evidence Lesson 19

Evidence Search
with your Family Dog
Lesson 19

Evidence can be a very important clue in finding a lost loved one or friend when you are searching for them with your family dog. Evidence is an item that can be linked directly or indirectly to the person you are looking for. During a disaster or emergency situation, including a person who has wandered away or become lost, evidence can help to tell you the story of their trail or journey.

Evidence can tell you what happened. With this in mind you can learn to associate items your dog finds along the way, that you can, mental and in a log book, organize to help you find the person.

Evidence is any item or mark left behind from the person you seek. As this person travels they have left in their trail foot prints, hand prints, crumbled leafs or items of personal belongings. When people are afraid or running they do not realize what they leave behind, such as a dropped piece of paper or removing their coats when they become overheated and confused.

When people are lost, hurt or trapped and in a crisis state of mind they often become confused. You can learn more about the scenarios of a lost person by reading this file which is used in police and rescue training. (the file may take time to open and will require time to read)

Even puppies search for items and people

Back to the evidence on the trail and your dog. As your dog looks for the missing person the dog will find any item the person has touch or the scent particles have settle on. This item can be anything from cigarette butts to toilet tissue, coats, hats, a piece of fabric or a foot print. Even a hot dog wrapper may be covered by scent particles so we can never assume our dog is only hungry.

 If your dog takes you to any item and shows a lot of interest in the item then you are safer to assume the item is from the missing person then to disregard the item without further investigation.

You should be carrying small bags in your backpack for evidence finds , along with a small not book and pence for a log book and property or survey marking tape in a bright color. More on this in another lesson.

Bag the item and tag it with the location, time and a note about how your dog reacted. If the item is large such as a coat, sleeping bag or unmovable like a footprint then use your marking tape to rope the area around the item off for for later retrieval or investigation. This might keep others from damaging the scene by stepping on the item. More on contamination of the location.

I usually have a team member who is trained do this for me so I can pay attention to my dog and keep tracking the person. One of your family members of friends can learn how to recover evidence and be your team member in the event of an actual search.

Repeat any item your dog finds that they indicate could belong to the missing person should be carefully taken into consideration as a clue to your lost person.

In training search dogs of all types we put together lost person scenarios to learn how our dogs will react in different situations and to prepare ourselves for each type of situation. We train by changing the setting and situation in our planning a trail sessions so we can learn to look for different signs and evidence in each setting or learn how a lost person handles the situation they are in.

This teaches our dogs what to do and what evidence to look for in each situation the dog faces in an actual search experience.

Evidence is in every training session you do with your dog and all you have to do is learn to look for the signs and clues along the way.

You can train your dog to look for a piece of evidence on command by using a scent article from another person who the dog knows. You will need a few pieces of clothing or items with the person's scent on them to begin.

Leave your dog in the car or house when you place the items in a yard or area that does not have that person's scent in the area. Make sure the person who scented the articles have not stepped into this location for at least 24-48 hours. Once your dog learns to look on command for a object instead of only the person then you can do this lesson where the person has been also.

After you have placed items in sight and out of sight in the area, bring your dog into the area. Show your dog a scent article you kept for this purpose, let your dog have a good smell then command, " find" or " seek it", or whatever word you want to use that is different then the word you use for tracking or trailing or area searching. Each command must have its own word or the dog will do what it knows already.

Follow your dog and do try at first to make this easy for your dog. The first items should be placed a short distance from where your dog starts looking. It makes no sense discouraging the dogs by making this harder for them or they may not want to do this for you. Search dog training is not the same type of training as obedience work is. This training for you because the dog is doing a natural talent and we have to learn to follow the dog not the other way around.

You dog should not be following any directions from you to find the item. Let the dog look as long as they want and encourage them by saying, "that's a boy or girl", "good dog seek" ..and when they find the item , praise, praise and more praise.

Incorporate this evidence lesson into your tracking and trailing lessons when the opportunity presents itself and during planning for training sessions.

Practice searching for items and evidence a couple of times a week. Make these lessons fun by doing them in your home. Your dog can learn to find dirty socks, lost clothing  items or your keys with practice. If you loos a item get your dog to help you find it.



Lost Person Scenarios 

Prepare for a Lost Person

Lesson 18: The Leash

Leash Knowledge 

Before you put a leash on a dog it's a good idea to learn about how to use the leash and what the equipment is meant to be used for. 

The leash is not simply a rope that tethers your dog to you or a means of control. The leash is a communication tool that makes asking your dog to do things for you a possibility and with the proper and intended use of a leash you will be communicating with your dog instead of being controlled by the leash and the dog's movement or intention.

Therefore, the leash can become either a tool for you to use to communicate to your dog or for your dog to use to control you, such as when your dog drags you down the sidewalk. Who is in charge ? Who is controlling who? In the sidewalk case, the dog is using the leash to control you!

Leashes come in many sizes and types for several different uses, just like a collar has many intended purposes so does a leash. You can learn about collars in lesson 17.

The leash is called a lead in some circles and often attaches to a collar. Some leashes have a collar included, such as many show dog leads or slip leads. 

Deciding on which type of leash or lead you use depends upon what you and your dog will be doing along with how comfortable you wish you and your dog to be. Chain leashes can be quite painful if the slip through your hand when your dog pulls or takes off while a flat leather leash can still burn your hand if the dog pulls away to fast a nylon lead will make a much harsher burn then leather will.

A leather leash will stretch while a nylon leash will not give. I prefer leather because I can get a better grip and the burn is less if the dog takes off. I use a long nylon leash for tracking and trailing because it is difficult to find a leash longer then 6 foot in leather. A leather leash does not tangle as easily as a nylon leash either.

Any leash can become tangled around your or your dog's legs tripping both of you if you are not careful. Never pull constantly on a leash or your dog will pull hard against the pressure created making a game of tug a war with you.

If your dog pulls on the leash to hard, all you have to do is give the dog some more leash or slack and turn around to go the other direction. You keep walking and let your dog go until the dog hits the end of the leash and the leash will work for you bringing the dog around and back to your side. This does take practice. 

Never keep constant pressure on the leash, if you need to correct your dog, give the leash some slack and then pull the slack out of the leash to tighten and release the collar which will give your dog a correction or a cue to stop what it is doing. 

Be aware that when using a leash on a chain collar which has to much chain when the collar is tighten allows the snap of the leash to hit your dog in the face or eye possibly injuring your dog.