Quote:

Certification is important to some, that piece of paper means the world to some, however, the paper means to me that my dog worked well on that particular day in that particular setting. (therefore, I am like the mailman, I train in all kinds of weather ) I also realize that being certified allows for more confidence in the dog team by Law Enforcement, Emergency Management and other SAR organizations or deploying agencies.

My dog is already a certified CARDA dog(canadian avalalanche rescue dog association), examined and validated by the RCMP. In Cananda, there is only one standard/examination for avalanche dogs. A dog would never be deployed without being certified by the RCMP (Police). The one exception to having your dog called out by the RCMP or SAR group headed by RCMP, is at the ski hill where I work. My dog comes to work with me every day as one of our mountain's avalanche rescue dogs, and would be deployed immedieatly in the case of an avalanche, but the RCMP would be notified as well. Often by the time a dog gets to an avalanche site attended by a SAR group, it will be a body recovery, however at the ski hills we have the best chance for a live recovery as the dogs are kenneled high on the mountain, ready to be deployed. that said, without "certification", I would not be allowed to have my dog at work, or train him at work. What I am saying is no peice of paper= NO WORK here in Canada.

Our dogs must be re-certified every year. That said, we train for real life in real conditions ALL THE TIME, but also throw in some validation style searches when the test is approaching. An RCMP officer can ask to see your dog work anytime of year they want, and pull your ticket if they choose, although I have never seen that happen as a high standard is met and adheared to by all. Even in the certification exam, the cops are looking at the handler's avalanche rescue skills, handler's ability to read the dog, and the dog's drive for the work. The cops expect those skills to be bang on on any given day. What is actually found may vary according to environmental conditions.

I agree with you I could care less if it is my dog called to a site or someone elses, with only one examining group in my provice (the RCMP) I know that all the search dogs and handlers that end up on the site will represent our orginization well, regardless of the outcome.

For a bit more info on CARDA, you can watch a short video here. Sorry, website not flashy, but you will get the idea. And note that the live rescue was made at the ski hill we work at that rescue was a big reason I got into dog handling.
http://carda.bc.ca/video/



Cheers,
Jennifer

Although I have experience in the avalanche profile and we have four certified avi dogs in my valley, we have no dogs certified in anything else. I know that many of you have wilderness certifications so I knew you would offer some advice for me My interest in wilderness search profile is to provide a certified dog for summer search work to the RCMP and local SAR group. There is not even an RCMP (police) dog in my small town.

 Quote:

I've never trained my dogs to give me different alerts for different situations. I've always trained one alert for all areas if I cross-train a dog in different disciplines (wilderness, water, disaster - all bark alert). I think this makes things very clear to the dog. Find = bark. After all, there is no room for error when we're dealing with locating lost people.

I don't want to get into why the avi profile uses the alert they do here in Canada, it is another topic. You are right though, no room for error. I will not have a cross trained dog if I am not %100 confident in our work, both seasons. Avi work is my priority, as it relates to my actual job. Congrats on your very talented cross trained dog

 Quote:

In wilderness, you want the dog to respect the person's space and bark. Is this correct?

Konnie you are correct here. Part of my confusion comes from not being a part of a summer dog search group. There is one in my province, but they hold their main course when we are still working at the ski hill. The upcomming dog course I am attending is an avalanche dog course, but there will be handlers there that have their summer search qualifications and the RCMP will be doing summer search certifications for those that qualify.

Contrary to what I said earlier, I am pretty sure that all wilderness dogs here use an some kind of alert, I guess it is just not required on articles (can retrieve). Our examination will be all large articles and I will not teach a bark alert alert for those as it WOULD interfere with the way we do our winter work. Let us not start a discussion about ruining evidence , I think that there is an article on this written by ex RCMP on this site somewhere. That said like mentioned in an earlier post, I am also training for real life and have chosen the bark alert!

 Quote:

What I meant was that the "permission" (command that its OK to take the tug) comes from the helper at that point, not from the handler.

Yes that would be better! He has just been so used to having the rag presented as soon as he finds someone. I will look for more advice at my upcoming course and let you know what we end up using!

Cheers,

Jennifer

 Quote: Jennifer Coulter

Congrats on your very talented cross trained dog

Thanks, but that was some time ago. My current dogs are only trained in one discipline - disaster search. With the addition of a human baby to our family, I don't have time for much else!

 Quote:

The upcomming dog course I am attending is an avalanche dog course, but there will be handlers there that have their summer search qualifications and the RCMP will be doing summer search certifications for those that qualify...

I will look for more advice at my upcoming course and let you know what we end up using!

Sounds like a good plan. If you think of it, please let us know what they suggest.

 Quote:

Sounds like a good plan. If you think of it, please let us know what they suggest.

Here is what one officer suggested. Work on it with short searches or runaways. Have a very experienced quarry hold the "rag" out of reach. If the dog jumps for it, do not say anything, or correct, just ensure the dog does not get it. Dog barks and then quarry presents the target with "OK" (his release).

Officer said not to hide the rag for now (under clothing or whatever). Have it in full view, so the dog will learn he must bark for the rag and then it will be presentented with the release. This way the quarry can present the rag, safely, instead of having to pull it out of under a shirt.

Dog will learn that jumping or biting (eaven if mixed with barking) at rag prematurely will not make reward come, but barking and waiting for the proper presentation and release will work.

Farley is "stoked" to work on this, more short fun searches and runaways make him one happy dog

He is already barking reliably and jumping for the rag before it is presented less and less.

Thanks for all the similar advice on this one! Farley also did pass his ground search validation on our course, I put the details on his bio page.

Cheers,

Jennifer C