Greeting to my fellow humans from around the world.

I am a professional mountaineer, based in India. I live and work in the Himalaya, and am just getting my first working dog in a month. He is a german shepherd, with an east german papa and Czech mamma, both with IPO3/SchH3 titles. As far as I can tell, he is already a curious, happy and courageous pup, and his family is the same.

Not only will he be my constant companion in the mountains, but I also plan to train him to be a Search & Rescue dog.

I am looking for help with this :
1) Is there somebody who would be interested in communicating with me over a long term basis, helping me train him? I am looking for an online mentor of sorts, who can work with me.
2) Can the people on this forum recommend books that I can get which will help me in my journey.

I understand, very well, that it is difficult to learn this from a book, or a 'pen-friend' (that sounds so 1990!), but the problem is there is no trainer near me who I can trust. India does not have a 'dog culture', and all the trainers i've met are focussed on tricks. The police/disaster trainers, from what little i've seen, believe in a negative reinforcement training, and keep dogs in pretty bad conditions... i don't want to learn from them, even if they would be open.

The upside: I'm a fairly bright guy, and very committed. I've already devoured this website, as well as a large number of books - from The intelligence of dogs to a book by cesar milan (i know, i know) and one by the monks of new skete. I've just downloaded training the K-9 hero, and am about the start. I have about 6 complete books on my Kindle, and over 20 samples. I've read Ian Dunbar as well as a US navy seal.

I can't offer much in return, except a home in the himalaya that one can visit, and the free services of a himalayan expert, if you should ever want a hiking (or fishing! or Climbing!) holiday in our beautiful mountains. And good conversation!

I'm looking for somebody who has experience with S&R and with training dogs.

Is there anybody out there?

Best,
Karn Kowshik

avalanche SAR ?

Ian, I'm hoping that will be a part of it, but i don't expect it be the major work. In india, it is unlikely a rescue will ever be able to respond quick enough to rescue avalanche victims (unless I happen to be around when it happens).

Over the last few years, i've seen (and been in) natural disasters caused by rains, landslides and floods. Over population here means that every couple of years, there is a natural disaster and hundreds, if not thousands of people die. This is where we can really help.

I am looking forward to reading the posts between yourself and the people who volunteer to help guide you. There are some tremendously knowledgeable people who visit this site.

hey karn , not trying to rain on your parade because i admire your enthusiasm , but the profile you are referring to is incredibly involved and probably should be overseen by folks who have been there and done that . the resources necessary ( practice ready disaster sites with all the required assistants ) alone is pretty daunting .

any chance you can get over to the states and find a trainer who can guide you to a FEMA certification ?

but of course , if you have no certifying bodies there in india to refuse or accept your assistance at disaster sites , then i encourage you to go forth with what experience you have , and all the help you can muster .

the long and short of it is to train a response into the dog , and then by starting simple , provide the dog with many many opportunities to succeed . remember it is work for you , but a game for the dog so as long as you keep it fun and moving in the right direction . . . .

one other thing , and i may not need to mention this , but document everything you do with respect to training the dog .

i have the avalanche profile ( Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association ) and there are some commonalities with the disaster profile : the dog is indicating on a source of human scent that it cannot see , or access .

sorry , one last thing ( for now ) the work / game gets to be pretty tough on the dog , and you . both of you will see a lot of bad things , death and destruction . good intentions can only keep you going for so long , but even one life saved would be a careers' worth of work well spent .

how old will the dog be when you get him ?

You need to select the dog for the job.

MANY folks have a dog and decide to go into SAR.

It doesn't work that easy without the right dog.

High drive and a desire to keep searching after a long time when nothing is found.

Any dog can be taught to find it's toy or whatever but the desire to keep searching when it doesn't go right is genetic in a given dog.

My almost 12 yr old GSD had a retrieve drive like the best Labs and would keep searching until I called him off.

He was a natural dog for scent work because even as a pup he would retrieve a stick I held in my hand even when tossed into a pile of similar sticks. That was natural for him and I selected him for SAR work.

My 8yr old had to be taught to retrieve and would loose focus within 10-15 mins if he was unsuccessful. I didn't even try to teach him search work.

I can make suggestions on teaching how to find people or "stuff" but without a quality team to teach all the needed info about wind directions, heat of the day, moisture in the air, distractions, age of track, etc then it would be a very tough road to get somewhere as a SAR dog handler.

@ian, yes, I realise it's pretty daunting.

To be more clear about my thoughts: The intention is certainly to train one SAR dog, but the larger idea is to foster a dog-spirit among rescuers here. Who knows what the future holds, maybe my dog becomes one who just loves walking with me in the mountains and whines when there is a bear around or maybe he prefers to stay home with my partner, giving her company while she writes, or maybe with very little training, becomes a great rescue dog, or maybe he never does a rescue in his life. Who knows.

It's like kids, when I have kids, i'd like them to be climbers, but i'd be happy if they just grew up to be happy.

What I do know is that I will learn a lot. I will find people along the way who have the same goals I do, and together, we can build a SAR dog culture here. I know that I will make mistakes, and i know this journey will continue for a long time.

Ian, YES, there is a very good chance I will bring him to the states when the time is right. I have a 10 year visa, and have climbed and hiked in the states. A canadian visa shouldn't be too hard either. I do plan to visit in june 2016, when my partner receives her PhD.

Theres nobody here to refuse or accept my help at disasters, so in the past i've just showed up. Since we're low on skilled man-power and resources, our efforts never cause harm... even if we fail. I've worked disasaters (and mountain rescues) before, so i know how hard it can be. (Just for fun, i'm attached a few pics from a flood in kashmir last year... after days of rescuing humans, and wishing i could do more, i realised that as rescuers, we rescue who we can. My last rescue in Kashmir was a lab and a St. Bernard pup...we had to do it at sunset to avoid angering locals. I'm the stoned looking {but actually just super tired} guy with the headlight. Funnest rescue ever. http://www.geck-co.com/?p=554 http://www.geck-co.com/?p=554 )

Ian, how long does the FEMA certication and training take? I guess it would become easier and more productive if we came prepared, right? I can't afford to live there for very long... damn exchange rates. In any case, it's a decision to be taken a few months down the road.

8 weeks

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

I am looking forward to reading the posts between yourself and the people who volunteer to help guide you. There are some tremendously knowledgeable people who visit this site.

I am too :P