Well my 5 month old pup is doing pretty well I only have two small things I am working on. If you have an suggestions I would love to hear themn as this is my first SAR dog.

My pup is doing 300- 400 yard searches now and I can usually get him to bark once when he finds the victim. He is air scenting at the moment and doing really well with it. SO I send him out he finds the victim barks once I call him back and say "show me", and he takes me to the victim.

Problems I am working on: He only barks once and as soon as he finds the victim he wants his treat.

Now the treat thing is a transition because to teach him to search he use to get rewarded as soon as he found the victim. But now there are a few more steps and he does not get rewarded until he he takes me back to the victim. This will come along better in time and I am really trying to figure out how to get my pup to bark 2-3 times at the victim. Rome was not built in a day and I am really proud of what he is able to do so far.

Thanks for any help,
Dale "Patti's" husband

Dale,

Are you training the "speak" separately as well?

Training that separate and them "plugging it into" your training may help. The victim can encourage the first few times when the dog gets there by saying "speak" or whatever your command is. Once the dog barks reliably, we then have the victim stay still, silent and make no eye contact until the dog barks. Then the victim comes alive and parties with the dog.

Couple questions though...

Why the bark at the victim if you are adding in a recall/refind?

What are you training the dog to do when they get back to you to let you know that they have found the victim and are not just coming back for a "hey, okay, your still with me?" (we call them drive-by's)?

I have a bark alert dog and he stays at the victim continuing to bark until I get there.

The recall dogs I work with and train perform some kind of action when they come back to me, sit, down, jump, bark are the four that I usually choose from, but I watch the dog at first to see what they are "naturally" going to offer.

I see too many people say "I want them to bark", when the dog runs to them and sits in front of them....I take what comes more naturally to the dog, it is MUCH easier to train them that way as far as an alert.

Sounds like you are making great progress and that is just GREAT to hear about. Kudos to you for your hard work and dedication. It is really nice to see that in the SAR field (or any field of work).

Hum well I was having Ares bark when he reaches the victim and I call him back to me because we are apart in the woods and I can not always see him. Then I say Show Me and he takes me to the victim. You think I should add a sit when he comes back to me then have him do a Show me?

This is my first SAR dog so I am following some books but any real world advice is greatly appreciated!!

I did train Speak separately and then combined the hand Que and speak command to the victim.

When you go for certification, 99% of the tests are going to have a "How do you know your dog has found the victim and is not just coming back to see what your doing?" (or the like) question.

Normally the evaluator is going to ask, what does your dog do when he finds the victim?

You are going to say...."he barks a couple times when he has found a human and then he comes and gets me and takes me back"

This is fine, except (there is always one of those it seems) dogs may bark at all kinds of things just a couple times, be it deer, skunk or what ever else they may see when searching, and if it is something that spooks them or makes them unsure they may run back to you for a confidence boost, so you need a real solid indication when the dog comes back to you rather than at the victim if you are going to do a refind.

Does this make sense?

With all that said, some are probably thinking, "well Carol has a bark alert dog? why can't I?"

Answer is....you can. Most definitely.
Rock barks continuously until I reach the victim, and it is a specific type of bark. A little high pitched and steady. Not a rapid, deep alert bark (like he does if he sees big game or comes across a big cat or coyote track) but rather a "gimmee my toy I found you" bark. (I will add that Rock rarely, if ever barks at all at anything unless it is a person, but I know his barks from just being out and around him when he does them)

It comes down to being able to tell the difference in the barks your dog has and when he/she applies them.

This is why I like a solid indication rather than a bark. Rock came to me with the bark alert from his disaster training and since I did not want to screw anything up in regards to his disaster training, I work with what I have.

Thanks a bunch, I asked the question and your real world experience saved me screwing up later on. To add a sit to the recall/refind should not be to big of deal. I don't know if many people really understand how many little parts there are in the recall/refind. I used clicker training for each piece and then put them together slowly. Looks like I missed the sit and I'll really work on that bark everyday until I get what I want. The recall/refind looks so easy when a trained dog does it. I am glad I have a smart dog or I would be in real trouble.

Thanks for the help and advice,
Dale