Starting out with a SAR Puppy
First things first, find a search and rescue unit and start getting involved! Lots of the time, as a new member, you’ll have a looong ways to go before you’re sent into the field. You’ll need to be primed in a lot of things, but above all else safety and consistency. It doesn’t matter if you can climb sheer faces like Alex Honnold but you might go solo and pull an Aron Ralston…. Which diverts your entire unit away from the real subject. You’ve gotta be happy with hurry up and wait, enjoying sitting in either the middle of nowhere or in a back alley listening to some weirdo in your unit (or even the IC) pull out a banjo or a ukelele and start going to town at 3 in the morning and you have to stay awake! You will most likely have to pay your entire way through any and all medical, K9, navigational, tracking, SAR strategy, EFA, and other trainings you’ll go through and maintain your own certifications.
Past that, there’s your dog. I’ll get to this more later, but selecting a dog can be as much water dowsing as it can be science. Suffice it to say, do your homework on what breed you’re looking for and why, work with a good breeder after interviewing a bunch, meet them and their dogs, check medical history and testing on the parents/grandparents, talk to previous clients, get referrals to breeders from other K9 handlers, and go through temperament testing with your puppy before taking them home. The goal here is to set both of you up for success as much as possible, but it’s just like with kids — you’re going to love them but at times just going to wonder how their finger fits that far up their nose and…. Why?
The main stuff we started with was working for food/toys — so you’d probably need to isolate around feeding times, take him aside for a bit for some pre-work rest if your dogs don’t have a chill time already in the day.
Name desired behaviors that you’ll have trouble with later on — “Ground”, “Air”, “Paw”, “Dig”, “Speak”, etc. Teach your dog to speak instead of using a bark collar — there’s not a good way back from that, and it can be a great way to find your dog if he’s driving towards a find. Obedience and agility help a ton, especially if you have a high drive dog. Figure out what the best thing in the universe thing is and save it for subject finds, go absolutely wild in your puppy’s favorite way — “if you’re not embarrassing yourself you’re not doing it right” -Taylor Grisham
Especially early on, you can do high-success things like leave lines of food from an outside door to his food bowl (hidden somewhere) and have him on lead/harness so he has to work on each sequential scent (I’m assuming you’re going for tracking/trailing since he’s a hound)… Over time you can spread line thinner, scrape a piece of food along mixed with an arbitrary article that you start with him sniffing, and eventually just drag the article while giving the scent article a name (and leaving its pair next to the food) — don’t use your own stuff for scent articles and make sure to make distracting tracks with your own scent after making the track.
Have him search for treats in your yard in varying wind conditions to help him learn what wind does to scent, both with treats on the ground and elevated.
Ask your dog what he wants to do. If he wants to play and be a puppy, that’s awesome! If he wants to work for the ball or a treat, that’s awesome too! You may or may not have a dog that wants to do SAR work — but either way you have an awesome puppers :D
(Obviously this will grow over time, I’m just starting now because I’ve typed it too many times to keep copying and pasting)
