Any dog if it has qualities, aptitudes, courage, security, agility and autonomy, can be an apt dog to save lives.
If a dog is good, but it does not have the suitable conductor they will never be a good rescue team.
There are many variety of breeds, but in my opinion, the more adapted are the shepherd dogs (Belgian shepherd, German shepherd, Border Collie etc.)
I also recommend any of the 4 Swiss Bouvier breeds: Great Swiss, Bernese Mountain Dog, Entlebucher and Appenzeller. These breeds are getting introduced little by little in our country and they are showing us they worth as working dogs as much as company ones.
The puppy
When we decide to adopt a dog to work any discipline, we have two options: to raise it from puppy or to get an adult one. In any case we must observe that the animal demonstrates certain aptitudes we will have observe when we are decided to carry out the election.
• Game . The instinct of game in the animal will allow us to turn basic education in something amusing and stimulating for the animal.
• Hunting . It is basically the impulse that moves to the dog to persecute moving objects.
• Prey (as the name says it) it consists of catching or hunting with the objective the prey does not escape.
• Hierarchy . It is the instinct the dog has to be under or follow the leader, in this case to its guide and companion.
• Track . It is the instinct that animates the animal to follow the tracks of its leader or prey in any type of ground.
We must keep in mind all instincts that are not stimulated during the first stages of the puppy and youth of the animal, may get sleepy or in some cases extinguished.
The first months
Before beginning to work a dog we must know clearly which work we are going to do with it, tracking in this case. We also must know if we are going to work with it in rubbles or open areas, or both disciplines. When we begin to work with dogs it is very important to fix the goal at which we want to arrive.
It is interesting the dog and its conductor begin their work by different sport works (rci, agility, mondioring etc) In my opinion this will bring security and confidence to the dog.
Another observation to consider during the first months of the puppy is preparing it to assimilate all type of noises, blows, shots, scents, fire, as well as to accustom it to the cars, heavy machinery, airplanes, generators etc. so that in the future it does not create insecurity problems to us.
The bark
When the dog locates to a victim it must mark it by barking or investigating, therefore from the first moment we must teach them to request us with the bark, to bark at your service, to request the food, to go for a walk etc.
The so called BRINGSEL method is also used. It consists of hooking in the necklace of the dog a small toy so when it locates a victim, it bites it an returns next to the conductor, then it will take it to the victim.
Training
When the dog is 5 or 6 months, after stimulating the instincts and forming its conduct, when we are sure it is ready for working, we will begin the training period.
The dog will already know obedience orders: sits, plats, voraus, quiet
The right and left control
The objects such as stairs, balance beams, tubes, heights, etc.
If we have stimulated the dog hunting instinct, it won´t have any problem in locating. In the first working locations is extremely important the tracking team know each other (dog, conductor and victim).
We must prepare the dog to this work by signaling. We will do this in successive training exercises just to create the dog the habits we want to.
In the first signaling exercises we will confirm the dog to the first or second bark. Once the dog barks easily, we will extend the time of the barks. We will condition the dog by this way so it will know clearly what to do once it locates a person. The dog will relieve the tension by signalizing to the victim. The dog in a training advanced period will not have to see its owner going away.
The dog will react the same way when it hears the work “seek” and see the hand gestures. This way we will obtain the conditioning behavior in the dog for this work
This system will worth in rubbles or open areas tracking.
In rubbles the dog must scratch and bark just in the place where the center scent is (the chimney).
It is important the dog learns to scratch in the exact place the scent is. There can´t be any doubt in the location of the chimney.
First exercises must be short, then we will extend time, distance as much as difficulty just until similar problems we can find in a real tracking exercise.
More tracking photos
Carmelo Garcia, Canine instructor by M.I., S.C.V., INSF
