I am training my GSD in SAR work. I am specializing in human remains and cadaver searchs. My GSD can smell out the scents but I am confused what to use as a reward. I use to use praise but it seems to me she does not get excited enough to continue working. I want to stay away from treats, or should I? I tried tennis balls but she does not have much drive for that. The master trainer uses a tennis ball with her GSD and he lives to get the ball. I want my GSD to have the same drive so she has more to work for with regards to her reward. Can I increase her drive. She is still 10 months old and I am wondering if this is due to her age. peppcso@msn.com

I wouldn't use a tennis ball. I've heard horror stories about dogs choking to death when the ball gets lodged in their throat. Also, there was a thread on this forum recently that mentioned tennis balls wearing down the dogs' teeth over time.
But, I would suggest that you find a toy that your dog really likes to play with. It doesn't have to be a tennis ball, it can be any type of retriever toy that your dog enjoys.
When my dog wasn't really that interested in play after finding a subject and I wanted to increase his excitement level, I started taking him out into my yard for short play sessions daily. I would get him excited with the toy, but make him bark for it at least three times before tossing it for him. For some reason, making him bark for the toy increased his excitement about the game, which I was able to apply to our SAR work.
I've found that toys on a rope (such as toys designed for water retrieval) or toys that make noise (such as a ***hard rubber*** ball that is too big to go down a dog's throat, that has a noisy thing inside) really get him cranked up.
Good luck!

Thanks for that advise, I'll try that and let you know the results are.

My experience in this forum is VERY limited, however, I have heard Bomb detector handlers ( law enforcement and military) discuss the many similarities their dogs, training methods and end desired results have witrh SAR / Cadaver dogs. You might look in that direction for information as well. As I understand it, Conn SP has an excellent cadaver program evidenced by their help with the Westbury Serial Murderer. ( Suspect name escapes me)

J. Parker, I have a question regarding your desire for your dog to bark for his / her reward. As I stated previously, my experience in this forum is limited and from the observation point of view only. In a tactical or noise discipline required environment, as I imagine in which a cadaver / SAR dog may be required to perform, would a handler really want his /her dog to bark? I would think ( speculate) that I would prefer an SAR /Recovery dog to indicate and behave passively, in the same manner as a bomb detection dog would. If I am wrong, please let me know and know why as this is a facet of dog training I have not done (yet). Thanks.

Trooper it's not a bad thing if a dog barks with SAR work because the dog needs to give a signal when they find their objective. I agree with you with regards to bomb dogs. In that type of searching, you need it as quite as possible.

Pumba, understanding there needs to be an indication of some variety for the handler to key on, do SAR dogs work that far from thier handlers that eye contact is broken? If that's the case, I will leave SAR work to braver souls than myself!!!!!!!! Is it fair to say that a building search, minus the personal safety measures ( tactics) is more equitable to Sar work than ex detect? Thanks for the info.

Trooper In our team we have only one k9 that is off lead. He never strays far enough to be out of site and if he is leading that way he is recalled. My GSD can be off lead but now because she is still 10 months old and not profecient with the recall, I keep her on lead. As for building searches, we don't handle them. If there is a need for a building search, most likely the Sheriffs Office will do that. Our team is mostly handling cases in wooded areas. Thanks for the reply.....

AZ Trooper, I'm not an old hand at the SAR thing, I only started last Spring, but I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.

In SAR/Cadaver work, the dog does not have to be quiet. Many dogs will use a bark alert to indicate that they have made a find, but not all do. These are not dog/handler teams that will be deployed in tactical situations, as we are volunteer civilians (though we are trained in what to do if we come across a crime scene). The type of SAR that I'm referring to is wilderness SAR, not urban; searching for lost hikers and the like, not suspects. We will not be called in if it is a "law enforcement/tactical" situation.

This is where the off lead work comes in. Most of the dogs that I am aware of do off lead air scenting, or area search. This is where the dog/handler team and a few support people are deployed into an area, and the handler decides upon a search strategy based upon wind, weather, time of day, terrain, etc. Usually the handler does some form of grid search if the terrain is open enough, while the dog ranges ahead of the handler in the direction that the handler is traveling in. If the handler changes direction, the dog does as well. The dog will also check areas of vegetation that are too thick for a person to get into without a lot of trouble, at the direction of the handler. In area search, the dog is searching for the airborne scent of live human in the search area. The advantage to this is that you're not relying on the subject's trail to locate them, which by the time SAR is called out, will be quite old and contaminated, and it just may be faster and easier to locate them by their airborne scent than by their trail.

Some SAR teams do on-lead tracking, but when it comes to wilderness SAR, this is very difficult to train, and can only be applied for specific situations, such as establishing a direction of travel, or picking out the subject's scent from among that of other hikers who may have been through the area. I haven't seen as many of these as I have area search teams. I think the advantages of area search combined with the *relative* ease of training this (compared to tracking) outweigh the advantages of tracking for many teams.

Does that answer your questions?

As for working off lead, I have found that most, if not all the SAR dogs I have worked with work off lead. There are exceptions, but most work at a good distance from or away from their handlers. When I teach SAR seminars, I want the same ability from a SAR dog as I want from a patrol dog without the fight driven combat of a bite. The dogs must hunt and search for the love of the hunt. Far too often many of the dogs I have seen in SAR are low drive, pets that someone plays SAR with. I'm NOT saying ALL of them, but there are many. In disaster work, on a rubble pile, most of the time the dog can only cover ground and look for scent off lead as the handler is not physically able to keep up with the dog. I also advocate a b/h and not re-find for my own likes and saving the dogs physical strength and the possibility of injuring a handler. A good SAR dog should hunt/search independently for the joy of the hunt. This IMO is born and not trained into the dogs. I have heard many SAR and even LEO trainers talk about "building drive." I for one think you can only build upon what is given. You can't create hunt drive, it's in the dog or not. In building search work, in SAR and LEO the dogs should be off lead, if you can not control the dog off lead, they are a liability to all, thus should not be deployed. I think it was Donn Yarnall who says if you don't have control you don't have tactics. If you can't recall, redirect or stop a SAR dog during a search, you will probably have a dead dog at some point. All that being said, when I worked the WTC on Sept 11 and 12th, there was NO WAY I was going to let my dog off lead. It was too dangerous IMO and he's too daring for his own good at times. Then again he's one of those stupid little ugly Mals who thinks everything is breakable or climbable. I don't want to sound hypocritical, but for me in that circumstance, I didn't feel comfortable with him off lead. Just my two cents.