May 19, 2011
I have a 6-month old female that I want to train in S&R. How would you recommend that I proceed?
Full Question:
My name is Charles Krom I have been a NYS Correction Officer for 18 years, a Volunteer Firefighter for 23 years, a NYS Fire Warden under NYSDEC for 20 years and a Member of Search Team 5-1 of Fulton County NY currently certified as a Crew Boss for 3 years. I have recently acquired a female German Shepard pup which will be six months old on 06/08/00 I am interested in training this dog for S&R operations. I would like to know what course of action I must take at this time to accomplish this task.Thank You for your assistance in this matter.
Charles
Ed's Answer:
I recommend you read the articles I have written on Tracking Thru Drive, (TTD).
I would also recommend that you get several of my training videos in the order listed:
Training the Competition Tracking Dog (FST)
Training Police - S&R Dogs
Track Laying for Police Service - S&R Dogs
If you would like to learn something about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.
I do not recommend TTD for dogs as young as yours. For the young dogs I use Foot Step Tracking (FST) with food. As long as there is not force and no corrections in FST - it does not hurt a young dog. It teaches it to use its nose. Then when it's about 12 to 13 months old I switch to TTD.
Be very careful about listening to local S&R dog trainers. My experience is that the vast majority of local S&R trainers are opinionated people who lack experience. They start area search work (off lead searches) way, way, way too early. Once a dog learns to run around with his head high searching the wind currents for scent - you WILL NEVER get it to put its nose on the ground and dog good tracks. But once it has learned to track, it can then be taught area search. If you remember one thing I tell you - remember these words of advice.
I would also recommend that you get several of my training videos in the order listed:
Training the Competition Tracking Dog (FST)
Training Police - S&R Dogs
Track Laying for Police Service - S&R Dogs
If you would like to learn something about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.
I do not recommend TTD for dogs as young as yours. For the young dogs I use Foot Step Tracking (FST) with food. As long as there is not force and no corrections in FST - it does not hurt a young dog. It teaches it to use its nose. Then when it's about 12 to 13 months old I switch to TTD.
Be very careful about listening to local S&R dog trainers. My experience is that the vast majority of local S&R trainers are opinionated people who lack experience. They start area search work (off lead searches) way, way, way too early. Once a dog learns to run around with his head high searching the wind currents for scent - you WILL NEVER get it to put its nose on the ground and dog good tracks. But once it has learned to track, it can then be taught area search. If you remember one thing I tell you - remember these words of advice.
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