All:

I am trying to get it together (that means financially) to get a female from Ed's current Sassy X Rambo litter (I currently have a male GSD from Leerburg, Holly X Chucho.)

I homeschool five children; we adore our GSD, and I believe he is a spectacular example of fine breeding, thanks to Ed. My oldest children and I are very interested in pursing civilian S&R... we are dedicating much time to research and study, and I must provide a GSD with series potential for this endeavor. My current understanding tells me that a female- particularly from this litter- has the potential (no guarantees, of course) to fulfill this pursuit. Do any disagree? Why, or why not???

Thank you for your time and expertise.
Liz

FOr search and rescue, I really don't think the sex of the dog matters. In fact, in some instances the smaller structure of the female might be more appropriate.

Above all else, the temperament , drives and working ability of the dog is most important.

In the book "Search and Rescue dogs-Training Methods" by American rescue Dog Association
(page 3) it said :
The transition from tracking to air scenting was not an easy one.......

Among their early discoveries was the relization that dogs that were first trained to track wanted to remain "ground oriented",thereby running the risk of missing an airborne scent.Dogs that learn to
air scent first would remain with the scent unless they encountered a very recent "hot" track."

Was it right? Under what condition the difficulty happen? Is it because the tracking training method at that time or
they just want dogs more "air oriented"?

Stubby'mom's ,Mika's , and Shandar's opinions confuse me.

When my dog(alpha) try to find people he both trail and airsent(depend on wind and
track condition).But his nose is not so near to ground.When he try to find
article (toy/stick/ball) I believe he's nose
is always near ground first and then high to chek the trees if he find nothing from ground.
And when we walk he often check the ground
with nose almost touch ground and sometimes
100% track for a while.
Maybe I can say my dog is "taget oriented".

Finally I have to say I did'nt train my dog in orgnized way and hope you all say something more about trasition or crossing training of tracking and air scenting.

Any response will be appreciated.

Yu-Ping Hsu.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

From my own experience it is far easier to train an air scent dog to track,than the other way round.
An air scent dog has the advantage of being used to looking for scents from any source,a tracking dog tends to be more focussed.

Hi there,
My dog when doing the scent discrimination exercises is never right during competition but during training he is super. What actually go wrong can some one help please thanks

Need more info. Also, you might try posting your question under "Sport Tracking".

Although I understand basic SAR prinicples, I am not formally training my dog for this. My 2.5 yr old female GSD works like Ping's dog (see post from Nov.). She'll go to the ground with her nose, air scent, whatever until she finds what I sent her out for. I give her the scent off my hand of the item or the person, then tell her to "find it", or "find him". She likes to sniff out stuff, and without formal training we've just done "fun" finds up in the woods and on the prairie (grasses 3 feet high) with finding toys, finding me, etc. She can even find an old styrofoam cup or empty plastic water bottle that we picked up as litter. I'd throw it into some brush by the creek, and then 10-20 min. later take her back to the general area, give her the scent from my hand and tell her to "find it". She's pretty good, it seems to me. Now I'm thinking of SAR because I think she my have some natural talent and she and I are very closely bonded. She's not consistently motivated by toys/balls but thrives on being with people, especially me. So here's my question for you experienced SAR/tracking people: Is this the type of behavior you'd expect to see in a dog with potential or is my naivete deluding me? I would really appreciate your honest opinions. If you have any ideas on ways I can test her aptitude further, I'd be so grateful. I bought the video on RCMP Level I Tracking today to learn more. Thank you so much!!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

VanCamp - Are you grinning because I'm obviously naive about what it takes for SAR? Spell it out....just lay it there on the table....I can take it.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Nope, just enjoying the thread.