On another list I'm on a member said that some SAR groups train air scenting dogs to keep their heads up so that they can use ONLY the airborne scent to make the find. They don't allow their dog to drop their heads to the ground at all. They don't want the dog to use tracking or trailing to assist them in making the find.

I've always taught dogs to use the "best" scent that's available to make the find, including tracking and trailing as well as air scent. I figured that the dog knew where the scent was and which source of it was better at any given moment than I did.

Does anyone here purposefully train their dogs to ignore track and trail scent and to use air scent exclusively? If so, why?

Well, if I remember correctly, there was an exercise in USPCA called "Indicating a Person by Air Scenting" where you actually lost points if your dogs nose dropped to the ground.
Of course I'm going back to the late 1980's and they may have removed this exercise by now....
I'm dating myself. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

This seems kind of ludicrous. Imagine a calm night with dense air and the odor settling into a ravine or low area in the terrain. Cant imagine forcing the dog to keep his head up would be the preferred method. Just thinking out loud.

Howard

Hmmm...when air scenting I don't think it really matters where the dog's head is. Mine keeps hers pretty low to the ground even when working an air scent problem. She is just a ground oriented dog. There was no training on my part for that. Her head lifts up when she hits the scent cone and she takes off. It's actually quite easy to read. She uses what's available to her to make the find; air borne scent, tracks, visual cues and auditory cues.

Natalie
http://alikamalinois.tripod.com

I can't imagine doing this. If my dog is on a hot trail, he's at practically a dead run with his head straigt out. If he runs past a corner, his head goes up, down, every which way till the scent is picked up again. If he cuts a corner because he picks up air scent, so much the better.
That sounds like some kinda "sport" trailing, like "sport" tracking. In real life, If my dog wants to stop and ask if anyone has seen someone go by, so be it!

Natalie,

Your dog does what just about every other dog does. It is natural for them to adapt to conditions. To force a dog to keep his head up, IMO only limits his ability. Hope I'm not the guy that dog is looking for.

Howard

I've worked more than one track where my work dog has transitioned to air scent and then we've gotten a strong wind shift. I could not imagine at that point not being able to transition the dog back to surface tracking to get back in the game.

That sounds pretty darned ridiculous.

In the vein of the topic though - how many specifically train a dog only for air scent work, (with the realization a dog will use the strongest scent source regardless of whether there is an actual trail). I know there are dogs who only train for trailing some who only train air scent and others who do both. Then also the scent discrimination air scent dogs vs non scent discriminating air scent dogs etc.

I know there are different schools of thought but we have been developing proficiency in trailing under all sorts of problem ages and conditions before introducing predominantly air scent problems. Of course we encounter scent pools and weather conditions which require a dog to air scent. IOW the training goal is to devolop a dog who works as an area search dog being proficient in both disciplines as well as large area search.

I think the most important goal of this training is not training the dog how to search but me how to read my dog and how to learn to put the dog in locations where they are most probable to find scent and to reinforce focus on longer and older problems so the team can work for hours on a search.

My riduculous statement refers the the requirement Lou described

Also, obvoiusly the other important thing in training an offlead dog is a solid trained indication to let the handler know they have made a find.

I know this topic is old, so sorry for the ressurection but I thought i owuld respond.

When training a dog for airscent work the focus is on the dogs nose being up in the air to find the scent, and we set up the problems to best utilize this as the dog learns.But once the dog has learned the basics of airscent we dont really care what they use to find the victim.

Generally my dogs will catch a scent with airscent and then follow it as close as they can to the victim, if they hit a hot track they track it in to the victim and that is just fine. I dont care HOW the dog finds the person as long as they are found.

We dont train for the track but reward it the same way as we reward a straight airscent problem. The point in SAR is to find someone as quick as possible and if a track is the easiest way the thats what we do. Often though we dont hit a track until we are super close to a victim as the airscent is easier to pick up form a distance and follow in.