What age should article training begin? I am training a SAR pup up from 10 weeks "he is now 14 weeks and doing well". I am down to just having a victim at the end of the trail and a small food pile now.I stated out with footstep tracking with food ever 2 feet or so and he quickly moved on. I have heard not until 1 year old, some say 8 months and I was just wondering through your experience what you think? I am not going to push him to fast, he really loves to go out and do it.

Dale

Patricia,

I speak from experience when I say that it can be difficult not to let our eagerness to train the mechanics of a 'search' to our dogs blind us to the most important aspect of their training as a pup-socialization. Your puppy needs to be thrilled to search for people of all shapes, sizes and dispositions, yelling loudly, carrying sticks, in a canoe, carrying (and perhaps firing) rifles, in a cave, on deep snow, wearing a helmet--you get the picture. On top of this, they have to be comfortable on a large variety of footings and in many environmental settings (e.g. high wind, driving snow, heat and humidity, many people mingling, lots of loud equipment like snowmobiles and ATVs working in the same search area, comfortable being loaded into vehicles with other dogs). If this foundation is not there then fidning some 'victims' may stress the dog (and he won't alert or be enthusiastic about searching). The same goes for the environmental settings-if these present too great a distraction for the dog (at best) or at worst constitute a source of stress, then your dog is being mightily constrained in his ability to search-no matter how well he might have learned the 'mechanics' of searching. With respect to articles, I would say that encouraging interest in articles (large, 'hot' ones at this stage!)is all that I might do--though it would be secondary to socializing and bonding with the dog.

Regards,
Isabelle

Thanks a ton for the info. I work for a fire department and live in Alaska so I am lucky enough to have access to all the items you listed. I have been socializing him heavily and he has a person at the end of his tracks to cheer him on now. Next week I will be working on helicopter training with him. I'll be taking him to an area where the helicopters take off so I can him in a down and just show him it's ok. Then in about 3 weeks I'll transition him to getting in and out of it. I am lucky that my breeder really helped desensitize the puppy before I got him and it has payed of so much. We have ATV's and 6 wheelers running around on the trails we walk quite a bit so he see's them and hears them all day long. I will be scheduling his boat training soon. I am introducing him to these things slowly and he has done great so far. I have one of the rare farms in Alaska close to me also and that has been a great place for him to learn about foul and watch them flap their wings and squawk at him.

This winter some time I hope to have him go in and out of a C-130 as we have them land here quite often. My pup is pretty busy on the days I am off. He still gets time to be a puppy but he is a working dog and thrives on doing things.

Any and all suggestions you can give me would be welcomed as this is my first SAR dog.

Thanks,
Dale

The age isn't as important as the method. If a dog/pup is having fun and has the drives you can teach it anything. Keep all training short, fun and end on a positive note.
Teach the indication (bark, sit, down, whatever) and everything else separate from the actual search work. When they are all looking good individually the will go together quite easily, Teaching the indication in conjunction with the search will only add confusion.
Any lessons with a 14 week old pup should definitely be in the short and sweet catigorey. Even a high drive pup can be pushed to the limit easily. Stop while the pup is still having fun. A major mistake is trying "one more time" because the pup is doing so well. A pup can tire easily and quickly. You push to that point and all you teach is that failure is an option.

How can I teach the bark indication? I would like to start to teach
him the bark when he finds someone. I would like to teach him in baby steps at home then take it to the trail when he is ready. Could you post a step by step on how to train this.

My pup is also having problems over shooting corners too. I have been having the corners kicked in and double laid in the direction the track is leading. I might go back to putting a food indicator on the direction I want him to go what do you think?

Thanks,
Dale