Bark Alert gives training ideas for how to maintain your HRD search dog and train them to a higher level of expertise.
We all know about the 5 W's of journalism: who, what, where, when and why. They are basic questions that are also considered when responding to a search. In order to prepare for a search incident, we could also ask ourselves these questions when training and maintaining our dogs.
Who will we be looking for? Male or female, adult or child?
What will we be looking for? Evidence and/or remains?
Where will we be looking? What type of terrain will we be searching in?
When will we be looking? Did the incident just happen, or is it historical?
Why are we looking? Criminal or overdue?
These 5 W's can all be recreated through training. It will keep our minds tuned in to searching and not just setting out sources and running the dog. The proofing and testing, as described in this book, will keep us as a dog team, or the dog teams we train, fluid, and prevent everyone from becoming stagnant. This book was written for the handler or trainer to promote thinking outside the box when preparing the dog team for searching in the field of human-remains detection.
Author: Mary Ann Warren
Mary Ann Warren has over 25 years of volunteer experience working as a search dog handler in the profiles of live find, evidence, disaster, water and human remains detection. She has been the volunteer trainer for the Search & Rescue Dog Association of Alberta for over 20 years, aiding in their members' search dog and handler team's development. Professionally, she has been a dog trainer for over 35 years, learning all she can in the dog obedience, tracking, search and detection world. She has been awarded for years of service medals from the RCMP; Edmonton City Police; Office of the Fire Commissionaire, Alberta; and the Search & Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada, with many police agency acknowledgments for finding missing persons.
