Is there a general time limit that a dog will be actively employed on a bomb search before being replaced by a fresh dog or given a break before continuing?

What type of signs would one look for in the dog's behavior to indicate fatigue?

And, are there any endurance exercises to increase the duration for which a dog can be actively and reliably employed on a search?

I understand that there will be some contributing factors; i.e. age of the dog, weather conditions, etc. but are there any general guidelines or rules of thumb for my questions above?

hello Bradley

there is no general time of explosive dogs to search, its depend on the dog the wheather,the job, the drives and the field. ive seen dogs that serched good about an hour and iv seen dogs that after 3 mints where useless...

you should know your dog and preaper it to hes scenarios best as you can.

adog may not work from 3 main reasons: drive, faith in the handler that there is explosives out there, fisical conditions that may prevent him to search or smell.

dogs signs for about to be not usefull is : heavy panting (breathing fast and heavy with long tugne out) decrese in sniffing rate, slowness and less asertivnes in the moves besides that each indeviduale dog has its own marks - you should know your dogs sighns... the thing is that when thos signs appear you usally to late especially if you traing to keep long routin of work. the time to change between 2 dogs is before thos efects show up by knowing your dogs and alot of training experince you should know when thos sighns going to appear and do the switching... if you not sure that you could tell when your dog near the edge you better stop when the dog is at hes peak or near the peak... ilove to work with athird "backup dog" in the van so when imiss my dogs rest and they start to show sighns istop the "loop" and give tham both along rest and start from zero...
you should allso know when your dog search but cant sniff to well...

keep your dogs shape very high not just threw search training running is importent swimnig can be good work out asswell,

you should train your dog how to smell when hes on panting its not like the regular sniffing but dogs can smell while they panting.
you better start it not on the search train field but with toy searching; just threw your dogs toy to high grass or whatever, make tham run for it than search it while panting in gradully incrise of time between 1 training to the other... if they get to tohgh you can do this just after the running... you should do all of the above with maximum carfull and gradully for your dogs wont get dehaydret or hit stroke advice with your veterinare.
try this in difrents wheaters

after your dogs nose work ewhile panting is good you should take it to the training.


you should allways keep your dog drive high, allways keep him rest between searches and you should prepare it for long searchs in hard conditioning. you should make tarining similar as possibale to the dog...and get to apoint when the training is abit harder from the real work and you should be just fine...

hope imanaged to help
sef.s

p.s

your dogs resting should be efective aswell:

on acoll and ventilated place with free water abit cool water and with no stimulus that whould activate him and tire him up.
use the down when you dont have the choice to force him to rest.

Thanks for the input, Sefi. I figured that environmental and individual dog drives play important roles in the ability of the dog to endure long searches. I appreciate the advise on signals that the dog is getting tired; I will be looking for some of those when we start training outdoors in the elements again in the spring. The sniffing rate and speed of sniffing were signs from the dog that I probably would have not picked up on without first having it mentioned to me.

glad icould help.

teach your dog to work hes nose while panting and not on explosives at first (just on retriving atoy ) that probably the best advice i gaved you.
if somone whould have gave me that advice 10 years ago iprobably had 2years of my life free for thinking to my self (perhaps iwhould have invent something realy importent or solves some puzzels go figure...) so if you aint doing it yet you should better begin before you endure your dog to extrim....

sefi.s
israel

Duration of search is also a two pronged effort. One of course is stamina. Stamina is built the same way for dogs as it is for runners, by going the distance. Secondly is proficiency. In training, finding 3 targets in an hour search is not the same as finding 1 target in an hour search. When building for endurance you have to consider both time and proficiency. The only way to ensure the dog will both have the stamina to conduct a long search and the proficiency is to train and objectively test the training.

DFrost

Gentlemen,

Thank you! It seems that the training for endurance is fairly comparable for a human athlete; set up scenarios to increase the stamina of both body and mind. I'll keep this simple fact in mind when I get down to the nitty gritty.

Hi again,

Another question... when hiding her ball for a proficiency search (i.e. one find in an hour for example) should the ball be replaced by an actual target odor later on?

yes ovcourse...
thou when you back to explosives make it abit easier than it was with the ball than incriss gradulley...

sefi.s
sahar

Sefi,

How do I go about making it easier? Do I increase the number of targets in a given search area, or do I simply try not to hide each one as much?