Lisa,

Yes maam, I've heard of that, and a few others that kind of bring the hair up on the back of my neck. Like you, when someone tells me thier dog is never wrong, has never missed it kind of sends a red flag up for me. I've always believed that when training if you don't know what your dog can not do, then you will never know what your dog can do. That philosophy alone will cause some misses.

DFrost

The feral behavior that some dogs display that has come up in this thread is not unusual. It isn't an alert per se. It is simply feral behavior that some dogs display, a left over from times of scavenging for food. Left to their own devises dogs would mark the area, eat their fill, and defacate in the area of such a fortunate find. Not every dog does this. I see it a lot in the malnois, but then again they are barely domesticated creatures.

Kevin,
I agree about feral behavior. It's not uncommon for a dog to roll in the decaying carcass of roadkill etc. What I was referring to were some of the outrageous claims made by some handlers pertaining to their dogs ability.

DFrost

David,
Check your PMs.

Hello ,
A few things that has help our private 501c 3 SAR team to be accepted by LE . We train with our local LE .We lay trails for their blood hounds, and in turn ,members of S.O. k9 team will hide for our area search dogs . If you want to gain their confidence (LE) , tell the head of S.O. K9 team to hide and then go find him/her . Our cadaver handlers are constantly giving demos to law enforcement. PREPLAN , build your relationships with the game wardens , state parks , fire sevice before a search is called out .After one demo at a local fire dept., " Whoa , you do have search dogs ", said the Chief . Another tool that has help get our foot into the door , is a Board of Directors that is independent of our group .Espicially when the board members are from the business community and law/emergency response community .

Standards from a indpendent third party is the way to go , but the problem is most of those standards are to rigid . One association wants you to carry enough gear to climb Mt Everest.I can walk to a McDonalds in twenty minutes from most of our searches.Another association will fail you if you find the victim to quick .There is one national group wants a blood hound to past a rigid off lead obedience test .Tell a deputy to have Ol Blue to do a down from 50 feet away .He will look at you like a cow looking at a knew gate .Why does someone call a red blood hound Ol Blue?
A SAR team in a nearby state, is one of the oldest and most respected SAR teams around. They certifiy in house .They still get called out , because they get results .They dont care who has cerified your dog, they want to know what your dog did last month in training . I got to go , supper is getting cold .
Dalane