What is the smallest size of dog that can be used for SAR? My 9 month old puppy weighs only 35 lbs and is approx. 22 inches tall from ground to withers and will not get much bigger.

She is doing well with her scent articles and I am going to lay a short track outside today. I haven't laid a track in years, just in school. I will be using flags and I thought the track should be about 90 feet to start and aged about 45 min to an hour. Is this correct?

Hi Lisa, I think the size of your dog is good. In case of injury, you may have to carry her some distance. I have seen small dogs such as Jack Russells and Miniature Poodles do SAR work.

Will this be her first trail? Has she been doing run aways?Baiting your steps? Are you laying your own trail?

Flags are a good idea and I would go with a hotter trail at first, aged only 10 minutes or so. Just enough to let the scent settle on the ground.

My SAR dog is a 20" 29# Border Collie. I really like his smaller size and it has not been an issue at all.

Yes, this will be her first trail.We worked on the scent articles in the house. She downs by each article without me saying anything. She is proficient at it.

Yes,I am laying the trail.

What are runaways and what do you mean by baiting my steps. Do I need to teach these these before laying her first trail?

Lisa is there a SAR team in your area? There is so much involved in the training of a SAR dog and handler, that this message will not cover it. Your best solution is to join an established SAR team and learn from other handlers. If there are no teams in your area, try to attend as many SAR seminars as you can. There are many good books out there that will also help you get started. Search on the internet for Canine SAR and you will get a wealth of information. Click on my profile to access my team's web page, Education page, which provides links to several national SAR groups which provide calendars for upcoming seminars.

Runaways are done in the beginning to get your dog excited about tracking. First runaways are done with the dog watching the person running away, you give the search command, and the dog takes off after the person. Party! Then you move to runaways where they runner hides behind something, then move on to the dog watching just the beginning, and so on and so on. There is a whole progression just for runaways. Baiting the track is laying bits of treats along the track. Start with short, newer or hotter tracks, gradually moving to longer tracks, then adding time, corners, etc.

Some Shutzhund handlers are required to and lay their own tracks, but for a SAR dog, it is much more beneficial if you can have someone else lay the track.

Wish you the very best in your SAR endeavors. Stay safe.

Hi Lisa,

If your dog has not done any tracking yet, I would not age it any longer than a couple minutes. Bait every other step and have a "jackpot" of either food or toy at the end. As soon as the dog is performing reliably, then you can start baiting every few steps, or aging it longer, or lengthening the track. Remember, it is better to take gradual steps as throwing more than one component at a time may confuse the dog.

No reason you cannot lay your own tracks at first, especially when teaching your dog just to keep their nose down. I still lay my own tracks for Ajay, and I leave his ball at the end. We are baiting the track less and less now and are about ready to add in the scent article component, which we have been teaching him to "check it" separately first so that he knows what I want him to do at the start of the track. (this is when I stop laying my own tracks.

We have also been doing some scent discrimination work as far as asking him to check the article and then doing a line up of people. When he stops at the correct person, he gets a huge "GOOD" and a game of fetch. He is doing really well.

And like I said, it is almost time to start adding the scent article and seeing if he "gets it".

Flags are great for the handler to use, however, do not let yourself get "reliant" on them and cause them to make you "lead" your dog. I see too many people do this and it just causes more issues to "fix" later on.

I will send you a PM with some more info as well as some links to some great information for you.

Also, size of the dog.....well,I look at it this way....as long as the dog has the drives to do the job, size does not really matter. My dogs range from 90# down to 44#. But all LOVE to work.