It Aint just SAR

I get disgusted with the politics in SAR. Sometimes I even start to think that SAR K9 handlers suffer the worst from kennel blindness, then I get jerked back into reality .........it aint just SAR. All groups, dog, children, and adult endeavors fall to the same level of mediocrity due to the human ego.

Today I resigned from a Therapy dog group I founded almost 10 years ago. I served as the temperament evaluator for the group until today, testing hundreds of dogs, rejecting many, and having pride in knowing that I always did my best and feeling good that the members who joined had the same level of integrity that I did and would always put the patients and their safety first.

I was wrong.

I recently found out not all of them do. In fact some are IMHO delusional, even more so than some of the deluded K9 SAR handlers I have met. It is very sad in both cases. In SAR an incompetent dog can put someone's life in danger. In animal assisted therapy programs the animal can put someone's safety in danger. Either way, just because a dog is not right for either job does not devalue him as a loved companion. It just means the dog isn't qualified for the job at hand.

Grrtee, my 2 yr old french bulldog went on her first and last visit this past saturday. She was so good with the patients. Letting me hold her, maneuver her into positions where patients could pet her, giving hugs to another patient, and lying quietly with yet another while she stroked Grrtee and talked softly to her. For me, there was a sense of doing right by sharing this wonderful little spirit with people whose lives are not in the best place right now due to injury, illness, aging..........and for me there has always been a bit of divine intervention as the dog and human connects. I have seen comatose patients move their fingers through a dogs fur when they would not react to their loved ones voices. I have witnessed an angry discouraged youth try to lift his hand to throw a ball because his favorite dog was there to retrieve it for him. I have listened to an elderly woman whisper gently in my dogs ear as she hugged him, when she did not try to talk to anyone else.

It is ashamed that ego's get in the way of doing the right thing, and I am sad and I am angry at the injustice. I am angry that some people lie to save face so they can continue to volunteer with an animal that has demonstrated aggressive behavior and is a risk to have at a facility. I am angry that others who witnessed the behavior have so little integrity and character as to turn their heads and allow it, and even more so at the ones who are suppose to be leaders who in silence, say nothing and allow a good organization to be vandalized by these individuals who value themselves more than the group or the cause they ascribe to.

Most of all though, today I am sad as it is the death of many somethings for me. Perceived friendships, the integrity of an entire organization, and that truth wins out........apparently it is the liars that sometimes win.

Now I just wait for Karma...... as I do believe that you will receive what you have sown. My condolences to those who have sown lies and deceit. It's going to be a painful lesson for you no matter what venue you are in.

Why do you do SAR?

This is meant to be an interactive, get to know you kinda blog.

It's kinda funny, the idea sprang from someone's misconception on my motives behind SAR, but then I posted a short statement on Facebook and got some interesting replies. So interesting that I thought it deserved more attention. So many of my friends, even if they are only FB friends do this endeavor we call SAR. I think it is a good thing to share....it reminds me of the human element of this, our inner feelings, motivations, and the overall ability of mankind to be good, honorable, kind, altruistic...........in a time when the world seems to be much less kind than it was when I was growing up as a kid.

So I wrote a very very short version on FB. Here is an extended version and some additional experiences. I encourage you to write yours below in the comments or even better on FB if you have not already. It is a chance for all of us to get to know each other better and understand that very human side of each of us that is good and kind.

In 1998 I was living in Dallas with my ex-wife. One night we were watching the 10pm news. The news cut to a segment about a little girl who was missing. In the clip they showed search dogs (german shepherds) searching for her. She and her little brother had been abducted by their mother's live-in boyfriend. He had stripped her little brother naked and left him to die in a cemetery. Authorities found him alive but hypothermic. The little girl however, was found the next day murdered, having been raped and dumped in the river. It was tragic, .......made me sick to my stomach..........I still cannot understand why or how someone can do that to a child..........

My ex began telling me I could do this. I could train dogs for this. After all, I had been training dogs since I was 8 years old when I trained my first obedience dog. I taught obedience classes for my vet and Petco. I had done the majority of the work for my parents kennel as neither of them had any patience at all and as I grew up with the dogs as my playmates and siblings, I learned not only from experts in obedience, schutzhund, confirmation, etc. I also learned from interacting and watching the dogs. My breed of choice was of course then GSD's and after I had graduated from college and settled into adult life, I went in search of a good GSD to start my own kennel with the thoughts of obedience and agility competitions. Instead, I got into therapy dogs......but again, that is another blog.

I then owned a very nice young male who was out of good bloodlines and was one of the best males I had ever had. He was sound, had great nerve strength, was benevolent, and loved to play fetch. For our wedding gift my mom had given me a bitch from a nice kennel in TN and I planned to raise pups out of them eventually for competition.

I was in the process of getting ready to move to College Station so my ex could go to college for meteorology and so, while it remained in the back of my mind, I did not pursue SAR in Dallas. I also decided after doing a little bit of reading, at 4 years old, my boy was too old to start, so I would have to wait for a puppy. I decided I would look into it after we moved which we did in the fall of 99.

In the spring of 2000, we had our litter of pups. I picked out a couple I liked and we planned to start with a local team we had met at the annual Texas A&M Vet School Open House. They recommended we start the pups around 12 wks, so that was our plan.

As it happened it was just me. We separated and divorced that year after she ran off with the fed ex man. (not another blog. LOL). So, I began training my Allie pup in the fall of 2000 and the rest as they say is history.

About 5 years into SAR, I worked an hr search for a missing young lady. The family was on scene and were not secured from the searchers. At the end of the day, as we prepared to go home, the mother of the missing girl came up and asked to pet the dogs. We of course obliged. This was the first time we had come face to face with the family. We all felt a little awkward. Then the mom started hugging each of us. Through tears she said, "Thank you for coming and looking for my daughter, it made me know that she still matters". We all choked back the tears ourselves, but the reality of what we did had truly slapped us all in the face. Before then it was training aids and odor.......now it was a real human being.......someone's family, child......baby.

Through the years, there have been moments that I considered quiting due to all the politics that go on in the SAR world......but then there were moments like above which reminded me why I chose to continue. It made the work meaningful to me. In the beginning I did it because I was motivated from an indecent I had seen on TV. I continued because the glaring truth of the pain the families with missing loved ones go through slaps you in the face and you realize that through our efforts, even if we find nothing, sometimes our presence alone can numb some of that pain and offer comfort that someone is trying to find their loved ones. The few times you can give closure to a family, you feel your humanity the deepest and it is profound, painful yet comforting ..........to know what you did made a difference for someone. That you brought them home to their family.

I always say that the live find dogs get all the glory and rightfully so. They saved someone's life and it is an awesome thing. They are hero's as are their handlers, but never underestimate the gift given by a cadaver dog to a grieving family. It allows them closure so they can go on with their lives and in doing so may actually save their lives as well. Grief can be a heavy burden to carry..........



And so you begin your journey for one reason or another....and you continue it year after year, through heat and cold, good times and bad, politics and irritation for reasons that become even more meaningful with time to the soul......

I once heard at a NASAR conference that the average lifespan of a K9 SAR Handler is 3 years.................really? 3 years? Thats all? That is not even long enough to get your feet wet. I wonder why those people quit. Was it not what they expected? too hard? cost too much? too much work? not the glory they were thinking?.........What do you think?


I am now at 11 years and while I know more than some, I know less than others. I have been ever so lucky in my short career thus far to have had some awesome mentors who I have the utmost respect for. SAR is a continuum, a dynamic process of learning that never ends............and those moments when the politics get too much, I remind myself of the moments like the one above and WHY I do this comes flooding back and wipes away all the anger and frustration from the part that means so little (politics).


It is not for fame. It is not for glory. It is because it is my way of giving back, helping someone in need, giving a family closure..........and that is why I do this.


How bout you?

My first SAR Dog

We write to express ourselves, we write to remember…….

Saying goodbye is not an easy thing. So why write down the memories happening when one has to say goodbye to a being that is so much a part of one’s heart? Why intensify, record the pain? Because wrapped within the sorrows of saying goodbye are the memories of that being’s life. Good memories, funny memories, heart-felt moments, lessons learned and happy times……memories we do not wish to forget and so……………..we write to remember.

Your first sar dog …………they are the teachers. They bear the brunt of our youth, our naïvetés, our infantile handler hands. They must be selected by God himself to bear out our mistakes with kind hearts and willing minds……….and show us the way……….light our path for dogs to come. It is those first dogs that shape who you become as a handler no matter how short or long their careers. They hold an immense task wielded them by the powers that be to make a SAR dog trainer out of us, not just a mere handler. God bless the first dogs…………they have courage and heart and strength that mere pets lack, even those who fail to become SAR dogs……..in their attempts……….in our attempts to force them to be something they are not they accomplish their task……….TO TEACH US……it is our simple task only to listen. We simple minded humans whose egos often are larger than our knowledge, who believe we are the masters………yet we are simply the conduits for their service and for their successors to come.

Your first SAR dog may be anywhere on the continuity of quality. It may be the super dog, who needs you only to follow and learn. It may be the mediocre dog who teaches you to be a good trainer, not just a handler, or it may be the dog never intended to do this job who teaches you humility and purpose, who challenges your integrity to strive for nobler goals.

Those few handlers who rise to the challenge to be trainers, learn from those super dogs, that in choosing the right dog, there is little the handler must do besides light the path, hold on to the leash, and reward the dog. They learn from the mediocre dogs that focus, reward systems, and timing are keys to turning a mediocre dog into a great dog. These dogs are indeed not mediocre, but they require a steady hand to focus their drive, channel their energy, establish their reward system and the wisdom to know those right moments to reinforce…….timing………..they make trainers out of us………and then there is the one that should never have been chosen to begin with………they force us to face our own egos, they force us to make choices and do the right thing and wash them from training………..they make us choose integrity. Which dog you get……….imho……depends on a little luck and which dog you need………….and sometimes……..you get a little of all three lessons in one dog because that is what you need.

Allie was born into my life at the end of one era and she lead me through the darkness into another. She laid on my chest at 5 wks of age as I mourned the death of my marriage and dealt with a painful divorce. I know, we men are supposed to be rocks, right?.....…She would lick the tears from my face and did not seem to mind that I laid on the couch for hours with her too depressed to do much of anything. But her presence forced me to carry on, to care for her. I HAD to get up and take care of her and her 5 brothers and sisters. She and her siblings gave me a reason to get out of bed and continue putting one foot in front of the other till I could do so on my own.

When Allie was 3 mos. of age I checked out a local search and rescue team. It all sounded good and I needed something to focus my energy and mind on, so I joined the team. Unbeknownst to me this would began a chapter of my life that would not only change my direction but would become the passion that drove me forward in both my personal and professional worlds. It is to Allie that I owe so much of who I am now.

After doing SAR training for a year and a half, I QUIT the team I was on and vowed to leave the SAR world behind. I had been involved in the “dog world” in some respects since I was 8 years old when I trained my first obedience dogs, and I had never met a more petty group of “dog” people than those who were on that team (we didn’t do any outside training and I had not met ANY outside members of SAR, so that was my entire impression). Let’s just say my first jaunt in the SAR world was far from a good experience and we will leave it at that.

I sat it out for the summer while Allie slowly drove me crazy at home. Her energy was more than I could stand and after a while I contacted a couple of friends who I trained dogs with and asked them if they would like to continue this SAR dog training? They said yes, and from it Cen-Tex SAR was born. Allie was the genesis of the team and to whom we owe a great thanks for it’s being. She was in her own ways a super star and her heart is as big as Texas. She certified as a therapy dog early on and loved people. She loved demo’s and as the crowd cheered she would become excited and bark in anticipation of the run! She eventually taught us all to loose our self in the reward………..that squeeling like children and cheering was ok if the dog liked it, and she loved it. 

And I learned so much………..I learned I wasn’t as good of a trainer as I thought I was. I learned that the old way of obedience training was not consistent with an independent working dog. I was too hard on her, insisting she obey no matter what, making her more compliant to me than to her victim. In doing so I crushed some of her spirit, and I learned the hard way from my mistakes. I learned to read my dog………I learned that I COULD call my dog off a victim, but if I did, she would not range but rather walk behind me obediently but as if to say, “you’re an idiot, do you have the nose?” The moment I would turn back to the direction from where we had come she would range again and go into her victim. I learned to keep my mouth shut and watch my dog and LET THEM WORK, to quit controlling their every move and guide their every step. I learned my role as the handler is to get them there and read the map, otherwise shut up and let them work. I learned………….

In her short career she obtained a national certification for area search and located a drowning victim on an east Texas lake, and she taught me so many important things for the dogs to come. She taught me humility and integrity. She had been a light for me in the darkest of times and led me to a place where I found friends and comrades and a sense of purpose to my life. Allie is my hero and she always will be no matter how short her career. She did a fine job of raising me and that was no easy job.

There were many laughs along the way. Her teammates learned to NEVER get ahead of the handler in training because she would do her jump alert to whoever was out in front of the pack. Many times she aimed low and put me on the ground. I learned early on to turn sideways and offer her my hip as to avoid such painful and embarrassing moments as such. Unwary teammates or newbies however were not spared at least one good pounding. No matter it was always followed with a “show me” and she would run bounding back to her victim. She loved to be held as she was as a baby and would solicit me picking her up and cradling her in my arms like a baby. Much to everyone’s laughter once she reached 70 lbs. She loved boat work and would start me down the road of developing a good water team. She made friends wherever she went, and in doing so, brought me along for the ride, teaching me to step out of my shell and live again. 

My first lesson in integrity was hard to swallow. It came on a bright, clear, sunny early April Day. She did not range well, she acted fatigued early in the work and though she found her victim, there was slowness in her step and a hesitancy that was unacceptable. Much to my entire team’s shock, I retired her from area search on the spot that day. In my mind all it would take was her to have one bad day on the WRONG day. My conscious would not allow me to field a dog, no matter how good she had done in the past, that was beginning to falter. I would not place that burden on my teammates, and I owed the victim she might be looking for and their family more. My first lesson in integrity had taken place. 

We continued to work HR for another year, but her little brother Pete had now taken over as the teacher. He was teaching me all the things a dog could be when everything comes together as it should and when you choose to teach with kindness instead of force.

My second lesson in integrity would take place at a NASAR HRD test. I had passed one section and mistakenly been sent to work in a negative area between areas (before the blank was part of the regular test). The more I tried to make her work, the more she shut down. By the time the evaluator figured out what was going on poor Allie was heeling next to me unwilling to range at all. I should have known she was trying to tell me there was nothing there.

We rested and then moved into the “right” area. She ranged, I read her, she caught something, I read her, she went right to it, I read her, I saw it, she saw it, then she walked off. I went with her, we gridded back by it, she looked at it, she went to the tree, then she walked off. Her trained alert was a bark. She refused. She nosed, she starred, she stood but bark she would not. I called the test……………No, I did not stick a flag in the area and tell my evaluator some lame excuse about why my dog located but did not indicate. I failed myself, I pulled my dog and in that moment, I retired her from all SAR work. Her job was done……..integrity lesson number 2. My evaluator thought I was nuts………..they were not accustomed to having someone say, “if she won’t tell me here, how can I trust her to tell me in the “real world”. We are done.” 

And so it was that our career as a SAR team came to a close. For a long while it felt as if I had gone through another divorce of sorts, I had lost my working partner who had become such a big part of my daily life……….but what was clear was that she was telling me she no longer wanted to do the job and I listened no matter how painful it was to my pride and in that the two of us have peace.

She has lived out her remaining years as a normal pet dog………running and playing in the backyard. No obedience, no requirements, no trainings to attend……..just relax under a big shade tree and chase the squirrels……… She taught me so much, and if I had it to go back and do all over again, I would. I learned so much I needed to know, I am not sure I would change my lessons. Perhaps I would change the way I did her obedience. She had good drive but was a soft gentle dog. With kinder obedience training her career might have been much longer and more successful. In the end however, the lessons I believe she was sent to teach me were lessons I needed most desperately to learn.

As she lay by my feet this afternoon, I know we are sharing some of our last moments together. Her body is weak now and though her heart is still strong, our time is drawing to a close. I know I will have to make that hard decision for her soon. Her heart is too big to quit………..and so I watch and wait for a sign that tells me it is time. That to go on is too hard for her…………and while I do, I remember all the times we have shared and tell myself I must for her be strong and do what is right ………..as she has taught me all along to do.

I write to remember……………as she shall always have a place in my heart that no other can fill, she was, is, and always will be, my first SAR dog.

monkey biscuits and little blessings

She lies on the floor beside my bed tonight. Sleeping queitly after giving me her nightly hug and kisses. Her father lies a few feet away and I marvel at the two of them, how different they are, yet how they are so much alike. How she must have gained his courage and his stamina, yet she had so many wonderful qualities that made her uniquely her. My pride for this wee border collie has grown exponentially since the beginning of this year. Tonight she lies beside my bed having achieved her Type II Area search certification in Sparks, NV at the end of May and then only a few short days later, her NNDDA HRD land certification in Beaumont, TX.

She was the fourth pup born of the first litter of border collie pups that were much awaited from my male Pete. She was not breathing and it took vigorous massage to get her going. She was so tiny compared to the other pups, a true runt. "Not bigger than a monkey biscuit" I said with a little disdain. Funny how some goofy thing we say sticks sometimes. Her nickname would become monkey biscuit to which she still responds. Pups so substantially smaller than their counterparts usually have health issues, and sometimes don't make it. But what she lacked in size she made up for in lung capacity and vocal arrangements. Once she started screaming and squealing she didn't stop, as she grew over the next few weeks, she went from yipping to barking..........incessantly.She had an odd bar marking on the side of her neck, my fiance said it was like a little halo, I said it was more like a stripe.......like the bad gremlin stripe from the movie gremlins. I felt it much more fitting to her personality. I think now Halo was more accurate as she has turned out to be a blessing.

However, back then, I mused over which pup to keep, I made it clear, NOT THE ONE WHO SCREAMS all the time.........NOT that puppy. She was scratched off the list of possible candidates. When I held her she wriggled and screamed and just would not settle. She just would not relax trustingly in my hand and I chalked it up to bad temperament.........I did not recognize what I would come to know as a willfulness unlike any other dog I have ever known. She was constantly making some kind of noise in the whelping box. Whimpering, crying, screaming, barking.........but noise. No, this was NOT the pup for me.

At three weeks of age I had already picked out her sister, Cephira, who I would raise to become an accomplished cadaver dog. Phira would go on to achieve her NNDDA certification at 1, NAPWDA HRD at 2, NASAR Disaster HRD at 2 1/2  and NNDDA again at 3 1/2 with her brand new handler, a Sheriffs Deputy from LA. Cephira was my little supastar,..............but at three weeks of age her tiny sister, the screaming little gremlin, stripe, monkey biscuit would get very sick. She began vomiting and continued wrenching even after her little tummy was empty. Having grown up in the beginning of the Parvo era, I quickly retrieved her and headed to the couch where I sat up with her all night till I could get her to the vet in the am. I kept her little head between my hands and held her so she would not choke and slept little. I rubbed her little tummy and talked to her throughout the night. No screaming, which scared me even more........but a soft little gentle look in her eyes, and a contentment I had never seen with her. She slept as I stayed watchfully awake.........by the morning I was hooked. I would keep the screaming puppy against my better judgment. Good thing I don't listen to my better judgment all the time. Turned out to be worms. Everyone was wormed, all was ok.

Her joy for life was evident from an early age. Playing tug, chasing toys, always a gleeful smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. Playing with her was so much fun. Sometimes I swore I could almost hear her giggle with joy as we played. Watching her made me laugh. Could it be that the wee monkey biscuit might make a good search dog after all? I was hopeful. Most of all I enjoyed the way I felt when I played with the pup. Something that was sometimes lacking with all the pressure we put on both ourselves and our dogs to perform. I realized that when you loose the fun, you and your dogs suffer. She made me keenly aware of rewarding my dogs better, and so her father benefited from her mere existence in his rewards for a job well done. She was such a joy, I decided to name her Caile after the word Ceilidh which is basically a big Scottish party of music and dancing.  I felt it fit her spirit.

Her father was cross trained for which I have always caught a lot of hell. I decided I would train her for live and her sister for HRD. Remember the willfulness? She was like my Alvin, of Alvin and the chipmunks. Calling her for a recall went something like.........caile,  Caile!   CAILE!!!!!!!!!!!! at which time she would sometimes turn her head in disdain towards me and then slowly make her way to me. Still I decided to follow my fiance's advice and give her the option to be a free spirit. I did not correct her. I bit my tongue. I encouraged her play, I channeled her drive. Her obedience was all positive, her agility was fun. She was both a pleasure and a nightmare to deal with.

I started teaching her to bark on command, preparing her for a career as a disaster dog. I rewarded the slightest little bark. Mistake........she then continued to have little barks, something we would come to call baby babble. Time wore on and try as we might, none of us could get a real BARK out of her. Oh after a few minutes she would eventually bark, but she had to wind up with baby babble to begin with. I was disgusted.
Still, I pressed on, and at six months of age I took her to an open training at a disaster facility in my area. She did outstanding on the rubble as a pup, scaling it with ease. She located a victim and gave her baby babble. They laughed. I shrugged. Maybe as she got older I thought.......She did so well they continued to push her, and I being anxious to catch her up to her sister allowed them too........bad handler, Bad bad handler. They finally placed a victim down in a hole where she had to descend down into a crevice and then into a tunnel to get to her victim. It was a little precarious and looking at it I thought a little difficult for a pup, but hey, I was not the disaster live expert so I thought we would give it a try. She worked the pile nicely, narrowing down the scent cone and then locating her victim, but would not proceed down into the hole. She ended up giving her baby babble at the top of the crevice, looking down into the hole, but refusing to enter. They said,"oh too bad she has no nerve strength." My victim, a friend, heard her barking and came out of the hole and encouraged her down to him and rewarded her. I took her off the rubble pile feeling pretty defeated. I decided to set her aside for a while. Maybe she was just not cut out to be a search dog.........maybe I should wash her. I concentrated on her sister and dabbled off and on with her over the next year.

In 2009, she was 2 years old and doing well at obedience class and no longer required the Dave imitation to achieve a recall. Her ball drive was so strong it was incredible. She hounded me constantly to throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball. I decided to start investing some time in her training again. I took her to her first seminar in Little Rock to a disaster workshop. She did everything we asked of her when others would not. My instructor praised her and encouraged me. I was used to her father though, who was balls to the wall anytime he entered a rubble pile. He was quick and efficient. He was exciting to watch. She was not slow, but moved more deliberately yet gracefully across the pile. Still, the words spoken by the disaster expert trainer that day when she was a pup echoed in my head. I finally expressed all these thoughts in my head to my instructor, who then instructed me that going down into a hole is a problem for a more advanced dog, that it was scary for a puppy and that we should have never done it. She said it was an unfair assessment, that there was nothing wrong with this dog's nerve strength and that perhaps not being balls to the wall might keep her from falling off a ledge someday and dying.

I thought about what she said and decided she was right. Pete did sometimes scare me on the pile. I dedicated myself to try harder with the Caile. The draw back continued to be her bark alert. Try as we might we just could not get the bark beyond baby babble. In the fall of 2009 I decided to switch her to HRD concentrating on disaster work as we have had two deployments in 5 years for hurricane recovery work and we live in Texas........hurricanes and tornadoes are always a possibility. Initially, I only exposed her to fresh bone and tissue. No blood, no old bone, nothing that would not be found in the immediate days after a major disaster. Her alert became a dig, as the only bark she would give was..........baby babble.

In March 2010 she certified with NASAR for Disaster HRD Type II. She finished her entire area, finding both hides in less than 10 minutes. She was a joy to watch on the pile, moving gracefully and confidently across the pile. I was proud, she and I were finally getting somewhere. In the fall of 2010, I realized her sister would be leaving us for working home in LA and I would need to step up her work. Knowing that Pete is aging, and I would need a dog as a second behind him that could do all types of HRD I decided I would have to train her on bone too, so in Dec 2010 we introduced her to bone. Each time we worked it was like introducing her all over again. I began to get discouraged and took a break with her while I prepared for her sisters departure. Thoughts of washing her entered my mind again, but like always, something kept me pushing them aside. I also was busy raising a litter of her siblings.

Her sister Phira left in Feb of this year and once Phira was gone she blossomed. I now wonder if we would have gotten past the baby babble early on if I had only had her. Her works became stronger and stronger. I began reading her better and we began clicking. My teammates watched and offered their help, shaping her own unique way of rewarding. She began indicating well on bone, teeth, tissue, you name it, if it was HRD she was going to hit it. I had never trained an active alert like a scratch so I had to learn also to move in when the dog began to alert. I learned how to reward her better and as I did the game became fun for both her and me......a team was finally being born. I know that feeling. I have it with her father and have had for some time. The better we did, .......the better we did. I was pleased with my wee little monkey biscuit hrd dog.

The end of May found me testing her for Area Type II on the spur of the moment. This was done to assist others in obtaining needed evaluation requirements as the intended candidate backed out of the testing. Since she had training for over a year in area, I volunteered so the evaluator could get the credits they needed. We did a quick check with a puppy runaway and to my surprise she ran straight to her victim and began her baby babble. At least she was consistent. Still, I assumed I would be going out for an hour and a half walk. I observed my test area and came up with a plan. Even if she would not do her part, I would do mine. I calculated my wind direction, looked at the lay of the land. It was not my area, it was foothills of mountains with scrubbrush, a few scattered pines, and lots of sage brush, and it was not flat. My part of Texas is flat. A drainage ditch here is elevation change!

My evaluator went through all the official protocol and asked what her final response was, to which I responded she will bow and offer her baby babble bark. Everyone laughed. I then pointed out that I was serious. They laughed again. Not a real dramatic final response eh?

My search strategy was to do a quick perimeter on the downwind side, then cut across the wind in the middle of the search area and see if she showed any interest. I started my dog on the top of the rise at the corner of my search area that was downwind and worked downhill into a draw. I was surprised at the speed at which she took off when I gave her the command "search".  She worked well, ranging to the left and right of me, going where I directed her. Disappearing into the brush but checking in from time to time with me as she traversed the terrain. It was somewhat uncanny how well she appeared to be searching. We progressed through the brush, across the drain and then coming upon the bottom of a ridge that went uphill at about a 60 degree angle to my right shoulder. The wind was coming down the ridge and the moment she hit the base of the ridge, she did a head snap and made a 90 degree turn and headed up the ridge. I turned to my evaluators and said, "I am veering off my search strategy and following my dog, I believe she is in scent." My throat tightened and my heartbeat sped up and not because I was climbing. I knew enough to recognize that head snap, the change in animation, the carriage of her tail. I followed. They followed. At the top of the ridge was a tall pine tree and several large boulders. As I topped the ridge, I could barely see the tip of her tail over the boulder, it was wagging. I knew then in my heart she had the victim. As I got closer I could see her. She was facing the area under the pine tree. She saw me and looked at me. We made eye contact and that moment a handler knows occured..........she turned her attention back to the area beneath the pine and she bowed and began to give her baby babble. I turned to my evaluators and said I have an alert. I had not yet seen my victim. I then moved in quickly and there tucked behind another boulder, inside a sleeping bag, under the pine tree was indeed our victim.

Again we went through all the formal protocols and the test was concluded. My little monkey biscuit had just passed her Type II area search test. It only took her about 27 minutes. I was in awe of the little dog. My level of respect for her had just quadrupled in strength. I knew that if we were ever out looking for a body, now for sure she would find it. No questions asked. She had finally proven herself to me. That night she slept on the bed at the hotel, quite pleased with herself I do think. She knew that something had changed with us, as did I. I knew I had a new partner. My fears of not being able to replace her father were absolved. Of course, no individual can ever replace another in the emotional sense of the word, but the little monkey biscuit had earned her place among the other search dogs in the family at long last and I had a new respect for her that will serve us well as a team for years to come.

Despite all that, I had no intention of continuing with her area work. Until of course I came home and my teammates slapped me upside the head. "Get off your butt and train that dog" I believe is what one of them said to me.  Still, I had my doubts. I made excuses that I would not be able to hear the baby babble at a distance. They persevered and said, give her a chance. We took her out for her first official training upon returning and hid a victim in the woods blind to us both. I started her at the trucks and let her go. She was gone in moments, into the woods. I entered the woods on a foot path and began moving along. I could hear her working but could not see her. Suddenly, a strong bark echoed through the woods, not baby babble.......then another and another and another. I ran to her through the woods following the echoes of her barks. I arrived and exclaimed reward the dog and her victim came alive with her toy and they played.......oh how they played. And they all said, I told you so............which I think they greatly enjoyed saying and for once, I greatly enjoyed it too. Sometimes, it is good to be wrong.

And so it is..............having put on several pounds during grad school, I do not move as fast as I used to, but perhaps my wee little border collie is also a blessing in that getting off my butt to train her will help me shed some of those study earned pounds. Yes, I guess Halo was more appropriate, though when she gets into the garbage I still think the term Spike applies!

She passed her NNDDA HRD land test only 5 days later having gone from 60 degree weather in Sparks to 100+ weather in Beaumont, TX. She dug and barked and rocked on!  We have many miles to go together and once again I am training one of those "dreaded" cross trained dogs. One who could find a subject in 60-80 acres of wilderness area in a terrain and topography she was not accustomed to after flying over 5 hours and a whole day trip in airports, riding a shuttle bus, and elevators with little sleep. Oh yeah, and she also hopped on one of those moving flat escalator things without hesitation and stood proudly by while people gawked.  Yeah, come to think of it, I think that handler who told me this little dog didn't have much nerve strength.......well.........to be pc...... I think she was wrong. This dog has great nerve strength, great drive and a great heart.

So, thank you God for the little monkey biscuit, she is a true blessing to my life, and maybe for others she searches for in the future too.

The SAR Epidemic

Ever start a thought and get lost with where you were going?

I think this happens way more often that what we think in many aspects of our lives. Seems sometimes handlers start out with great intentions and then loose their way.......sometimes not even aware of it till they hit a point where they stop and say, "how did I get here?"

A couple handlers pointed out in their comments that not all problems are with the dog. What about the handlers? I agree, the dog is only half the team.

So.......lets talk about a serious epidemic in the K9 SAR world. It is a disease that spreads quickly and easily. Whole teams can be consumed by it, but it usually starts with one individual and grows from there like an invasive cancer. What is this disease you say? Is my dog at risk? Well that all depends on your own personal level of integrity. It is a two fold disease...........the acute onset is Kennel Blindness, and the chronic condition is the inability to say no to a mission even when you should.

So what is Kennel Blind? Well in the show dog world it means you are blind to the faults of your dogs. In little league it is called Dad and in Soccer Mom......j/k. But all joking aside, it is a serious problem though that afflicts many individuals and causes those "maybe" dogs or even "WTFAYT" dogs we just talked about to be fielded. Kennel blind is believing a dog has no faults, no limitations......... So lets get real............All dogs, no matter how good they are have limitations. Even if they are REALLY REALLY good at their job it could be that they are black and therefore you must be more aware of issues with over heating due to their color. Limitations can be due to breed, coat, experience etc. Even Superman has kryptonite. Those Supastar dogs have their limitations too.

Whatever your dog does, whatever your dog is, that dog, just as you, has their limits of performance. As the handler, you need to know them and acknowledge them. Kennel blind appears to be proportional to the level of ineptitude in the canine. The more inept the dog, the more serious the affliction of kennel blindness. This extends beyond members of teams but to leadership and mentors in the SAR world. Sometimes the phenomena of first dog superdogs leads the the affliction of kennel blindness in subsequent dogs. It depends on whether the handler realizes they got REALLY lucky with their first dog who turned out to be a rockstar with our without their help, or whether they have convinced themselves that their expert training is what made their first dog a supastar. Poor trainers who subsequently cannot repeat their first supastar dog tend to be more apt to suffer kennel blindness in subsequent dogs.

Sometimes however, kennel blindness is an affliction that starts in the infancy of the handlers career. It may be due to attachment to a pet sar dog or due to the handlers own arrogance in regards to their knowledge. They may think their dog is just outstanding. Some will listen when you point out their dogs issues and decide the dog maybe isnt cut out for it. Some will listen quietly and go elsewhere till they have someone tell them what they want to hear, and still others may get down right mad at you and tell you that your full of it. Bottom line always, keep the mission in sight. Would you want this dog looking for you or your loved one? If the answer is no, stand your ground.

WARNING! Kennel blindness can be contagious. If the team leader is afflicted with the disease, teammates are more susceptible to the affliction. Its like the story of the emperors coat, no one has courage to tell the emperor that he has been duped (in this case by himself), that instead of having a glorious coat (insert incredible sardog) he is instead running around butt naked (insert WTFAYT dog). EVERYONE starts agreeing with the emperor until one brave soul starts laughing and points it out......even then sometimes the brave soul who speaks up gets burned at the stake or stoned instead of applauded for having integrity and pointing out the problems. That is called MOB MENTALITY.

We humans are tricky creatures. Our dogs are far more honest than we are, ashame we do not listen to them, they give us all the answers we need as to whether they want to, can do, the job we ask them.

Amazing...........So now we have this handler who thinks his dog is "the bomb" and the dog really is a bomb but not in a good kind of way. The handler takes this dog out and the dog fails miserably on a mission in front of LE. The handler makes excuses. LE looses respect...............for the handler, for the team..........for SAR dog teams in general.

But this dog can do no wrong, it has no limitations, it is SUPADOG! This leads to the second chronic portion of the illness.............not knowing when to say NO. As pointed out in a comment from a wise LE handler to the last blog, you need to know when to say no.

Sometimes it is something you have never trained for. With HRD dogs for example, try as we might, our imaginations are not as good as some of the sick perps in this world. We can never create every situation we may encounter in a mission. Environmental conditions may also challenge you with a situation you have never trained in. Sometimes the best thing to do is say no. If you say yes, then LE should be made very aware that this is not something you have trained for and you can only give it your best shot. Let them make the call if they want to continue, but be honest and up front. They will respect you more in the long run.

Handlers often have a hard time turning down a mission. The thought is, well a marginal dog in the field is better than nothing at all in the field. See the definition of Maybe. Not if it costs someone their life. I would rather not send out a marginal dog on a search and have LE know the limited resources they have, than have them count on a dog who may or may not alert on a victim.

How many of you have ever pulled your dog from mission ready status voluntarily? I salute you! You have integrity! I have a great deal of respect for a handler who will stand up and say if their dog is slipping in training or if there is an issue. Its a hard thing to do but it is the right thing to do. But be forewarned, sometimes the MOB (see mob mentality) will attack you for acknowledging a problem and attempting to fix it, ah but that is a blog for yet another day.

Everyone says Trust your dog.....................I say know your dog, read your dog, trust your training and handler..............KNOW THYSELF!

In the end, there is one thing in this world that truly belongs to us............our integrity. Integrity is the cure for "kennel blindness" and "cant say no". We can either have it or we can throw it away. What will your decision be?

The end of an era

Today our 8 yr old border collie bitch Brigan was spayed.

Not a big event for most dogs, pretty routine surgery, done every day around the country. For this girl though, it is a big event, the end of an era so to speak.

Brigan has whelped 3 outstanding litters of border collie puppies for us over the years. Brigan has been bred to my male Pete three times. Each litter producing outstanding puppies. Pete has his share of genetics to claim fame to for the pups, but Brigan was the perfect compliment for him. What he lacked in build, (straight front legs) she made up for with her stocky perfectly square build. Pete comes from a hard working line, Brigan tempered that hardness. Pete has great drive, Brigan has greater. Had I known back when I got her what I know now, I would have stopped training my GSD Allie immediately and focused on the wee border collie bitch I got off an email list.

Thats right folks. She was a cast off. Someone had gotten her as a gift that did not want her, put her in a kennel run for the first 7 mos of her life, and when she got out and started chasing their horses, was going to plug her with a .22. A neighbor who worked at the Vet School I then worked at, stopped them, rescued her, papers and all, and then sought someone at the Vet school to finish the rescue. I was the first to respond and went to look at her. When I walked into her office, there she was in the back of the room cowed under a desk. I sat down on the floor and she immediately came and got into my lap. Somehow dogs know dog people. I said I would take her and find a home for her.

Brigan did not even know a name when I got her, she was used to her food being thrown over a chain link fence onto the ground. She was so sweet, so agile, and so afraid of people. She came out of her shell with time and kindness and the touch of my fiance' Tiffanies hand. She went on to be a wildlife scat detection dog and a therapy dog. She plays with the "redball" (a story for another day) as if it were a rowdy and unruly sheep that needs to be kept in it's place. Her agility is astounding. She is the Houdini of dogs, escaping anything and every enclosure she has ever been placed in. Her agility on any object is uncanny and beautiful.....The kind that takes your breath away and at the same time makes you want to yell at the top of your lungs after you watch her scale a 6 ft chain link kennel flat footed, or wiggle her way through a cattle panel on the roof of a kennel, pressing her back in the corner so she does not fall, as she slides one shoulder at a time through a square in the panel you SWEAR is too little for her to squeeze through. Then stands on top of the run, balancing on the slim bars and jumps onto the ground like floating from a cloud....Watching her sail over the back of your couch as if it were inches off the ground.....never missing a step and going on to retrieve a toy thrown for the other dogs..........NO, ..Placing her never became an option, and as time wore on, having been raised with a family that bred GSD's, my eyes would run over her short stocky lines, her drive, her temperament, her pedigree and ponder...........I wonder what she and Pete would produce?

I did my research. I found out that she was descended from one of the greatest cattle herding border collies of all time. Her sire was a son of Keith Gileon's Rockin G Spurs. Spurs is one of the winningest cattle herding border collies of all times. His pictures revealed a dog with immense drive and courage and yet gentleness, pictured with Keith's young son. I researched and called and found that many of the other dogs in her pedigree were actually working ranch dogs, assisting cutting horses and ranch horses in their daily duties, eventually tracing back to imports from Scotland by some of the founding herding people of Texas. Not bad for a free throw away dog.

Physically she is one of the most sound dogs I have ever seen. Good hips, good elbows, good eyes, nice square body, good proportions, not too big, not too small.........just right she was. When Pete and she hit around four years of age we decided to give it a try. I wanted a pup from Pete and really felt like this cross would produce something great. I think maybe that was one of the best decisions of my life.

The first litter of six everyone thought was a fluke. You cannot have all six pups in a litter make it as successful working dogs. Doesn't happen...........well folks, I'm here to tell ya, it can! All six have gone on to become outstanding search dogs in their respective disciplines. All are certified in HRD land with a national agency, once is also certified in area search and one in trailing with national agencies as well. Four of the six have had finds. Two are also therapy dogs. This litter just turned 4 years old and I continue to marvel at them, they are amazing. I have been lucky, getting to watch them all grow up as myself and my teammates kept all the pups and trained them together.  It has been an incredible journey and a topic for another day.

Litter two is a work in progress, all six just having passed a year of age. One is a working herding dog, One is in training to be a disaster dog live, one a disaster dog HR, one an HR dog, and the last a wilderness area dog. I expect their first certifications to be coming this fall.

Litter three was not of my making. I always give people a hard time when they say they have had a "whoops" litter, so it is no surprise that it would happen to me. I'm grateful however, to Brigan and Pete on making the decision without us. Pete himself was from a Whoops litter, so it is fitting that I keep a son from this litter. With this litter though, brought the beginning of the end of the era. Three litters is enough good work for any bitch in my book and the decision was already made to spay her after this litter. I got the enjoyment of raising these guys over the winter through the holidays and have never enjoyed a litter so much! I ended up keeping two for myself as I knew this was the last lot, no more, end of publication. There would never be another chance to own one of these great dogs. How this litter turns out remains to be seen. One is in KS being trained to be a disaster dog, three are in TX being trained for various disciplines, and two went to MT, sadly one of them met a tragic ending. I have no less optimism for this litter than the previous ones. They are full of promise, they have drive, focus, nerve strength, sociability............all the things a good SAR dog needs to become a success.

To which we owe Brigan a lot. Yes, Pete is their daddy, and no one is prouder of that dog than me. He has been my buddy, my partner and my teacher over the years, but Brigan shares equally, maybe a little more in the success of the pups. She reared them with a gentle benevolence that has given them all a manner of ease I cannot quite describe. All I know is that there is not a task shown them that they have not been able to accomplish thus far. Their limitations lie within the handlers own, and the handlers likewise, realizing what little jewels they have been gifted with have rose up to meet the challenges of such a dog. I am ever grateful to my teammates for the way they have brought L1 and L2 pups along.

Am I bragging on my own dogs? Yes. and if you were unlucky enough to miss out on one of these pups.......well all I can say is I'm truly sorry...............it is really too bad there will be no more.

So thank you Brigan for what you have given us and the world. Your children have already brought closure to families and peace with their search work. They have brought smiles to the elderly, children, and patients of hospitals and nursing homes. You will never receive a ribbon, an award, a certificate but you have given more to the world in your short life than many dogs give in a lifetime. Enjoy your new status as the retired matriarch of Rothcala Kennel & Farm! Good girl Brigan, good girl.

That dog wont hunt............seriously folks.

Despite having many years of dog training experience, I found quickly that SAR Dog training is a whole other world. For all endeavors I have ever trained for, my goal was to have my dog comply to my command. I did not want them to think for themselves or problem solve, just comply with my command. SAR dogs must go a step further. They MUST think for themselves. They must be so committed to their odor that they will go through hell and back to get to the source of their target odor. This takes the right dog. Any dog can be taught obedience. Any dog can learn to target agility objects. How good they become is a combination of the handlers skills, the dogs personality, and circumstances. So it is with SAR dogs, but the dogs personality, the innate lump of clay the handler is tasked with molding into a working partner is far more important. I can take a dog with a shy temperament and make them into a great obedience dog, teaching them to focus on me and only me in the ring, despite all the scarey sights and sounds going on around them. But I promise you when I retire from the ring, the dog will fall apart unless I continue to heel them all the way back to the car or their kennel. My SAR dog cannot do this. He must adjust and quickly to whatever situation I throw him in. The SAR dog must have a soundness of temperament that many other performance dogs do not, and especially more so than most pets.

Hence comes the problem of people joining a SAR team with their "pet". Pets are selected for our enjoyment. They are not selected for nerve strength, drive, focus.......in fact many a good SAR dog prospect comes from cast offs rescued from shelters across the nation because the family "Just could not DEAL with the dog". Many pet owners see news articles and become invigorated at the possiblity of using their dog to help people. That is great. What is not great is the efforts it takes to convince them that "rover" is not cut out to be a SAR dog.

If you are in a position on a team where you assist in the evaluation and assessment of new team members you are going to have to cross this bridge at some time. How you handle it will have a significant impact on everyone involved. Sometimes you will get great potential handlers with lousy dogs. Other times you will get great dogs with lousy handlers. It has to be a package deal. If the handler has potential but the dog does not, will they get another dog? Will they train themselves until they can? or is their ego tied to the dog at hand. This business is not about egos. It is about the mission. Handlers who cannot separate the two often unwittingly do damage to the SAR community through their interactions with law enforcement and other responsible entities. But I digress.........

What is even worse is when a team accepts a sub-standard dog who does not have the right stuff to start out with. It does a myriad of damage to the team, the handlers, and even to the dog itself. How many of you out there have stopped and asked yourself, does my dog have his hand raised for this? or is it me that has my hand raised?

I am not saying anything that has not been said before, by a myriad of experts and master trainers who have spent their life training detector dogs. I am simply repeating it in hopes that if their words did not reach the minds and hearts of handlers who need to hear this, mine will.

The old saying my Great Aunt has said always comes to mind. "You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear". Dogs are born with innate qualities. They have a genetic predisposition for behaviors. While it is true we can guide, mentor, and even enhance their genetics through raising, we cannot create something that is not there. If a dog is scared of things in it's environment, no amount of exposure is going to make the dog good enough to be a SAR dog. Now, I am not talking about the quirky developmental stages puppies often go through. I have seen many a great SAR dog be a squirrel for a day at a given point in their development as a pup. However, a dog that is scared of people, scared of trees, poles, grass, etc is not going to make it. Continuing to pressure the dog in SAR dog training imho borders on abuse. The dog is stressed, the dog is not happy, why force these conditions down the dogs throat?

SAR dog candidates should have the the drive, focus, and nerve strength required for the job from the get go. Like nerve strength, drive cannot be created if it is not there. You can manipulate what is there to your advantage and do what appears to be "drive building", but what you are really doing is only channeling the drive to a purpose. You are pulling out all the innate drive that dog has and focusing it on a task. This requires that drive to already be present. You cannot create what does not exist. This is a huge mistake made by many novice handlers, myself included.

My first dog was a good dog and had fair drive. I made many mistakes with her which definitely undermined the drive she did have however, I had to stop and re-evaluate everything when I obtained Pete because he showed me the level of drive I would require of all my future SAR candidates. Mistakes were not as big an issue with him because his drive was so strong it could counter my screw ups. Now, my first dog had a find in her short career and she taught me many things however, once I had a "better" dog I immediately retired her.

I probably would reject her now as a candidate based on what I have learned and she is far above most dogs people bring to the team for evaluation. As a very wise woman has told me, if the answer is maybe, say no. (thank you TMac and ShirleyH)

Perhaps that seems harsh. It is. This is a serious job we are doing. Someone's life may one day depend on the dogs we train. Explain to a family member whose loved one has died in the woods because that "maybe" dog decided today it was too hot, too cold, too wet, too stickery...(etc ad nausuem), and missed their loved one. Because that "maybe" dog has always struggled to stay up with the rest of the dogs, but the handler is so good, we don't want to loose them. Explain that "maybe" dog to the family who has lost their loved one........died, gone, not ever coming back. Maybe doesn't look so good now does it?

If I just offended you then my words are lost on deaf ears. Don't bother to read on, it's only going to get worse. If you are offended then you are one of the ones who NEEDS to hear these words because if you are offended you are probably training or fielding a "maybe" or worse...........a "WTF are you thinking!"

So back to the dog that should never be admitted as a candidate to begin with. Yes, I call those "WTFAYT"
 (what the F are you thinking?!). These dogs lack the drive, lack the nerve strength from the get go. Everyone says we can work on it. NO WE CAN'T. If it does not exist you cannot create it. See the definition again of what to do with Maybes.

How does taking on one of these dogs damage the team? Well, it causes splits. Those that are knowledgeable enough to say WTFAYT? are ostracized and accused of not being team players because they do not want to waste the team or the owners time, let alone, stress the dog all to hell over months and months of meaningless attempts to force the dog to be something it is not. Needless to say, this is not good for building team unity, morale, and dedication.

How does this damage the handler. In essence, you are lying to them (and yourselves) if you tell them "we can work on it". Somewhere deep in your heart, you KNOW the dog is not going to make it. Telling the handlers this only causes them to have false hope. And..........and it will happen................and when the time comes that the owner finally has to be told that the dog will not make it, ANGER. You have told them for months, maybe years, that the dog is going to make it. Now you say, ok, we were wrong, lets stop training. How much time and emotional investment have they made? This is where team splits often come from, to the detriment of the SAR community. This now ANGRY handler who is thinking they are being screwed, perhaps your jealous of their dog, instead of the truth, now takes half the team and goes and starts a new one, with even less knowledgeable leadership and even worse dogs.

Someone once told me a team achieves competence only as high as the team leader does. I believe this to be very true, especially with smaller teams. So, you have your new split off former teammate guiding a new team with their very bad SAR dog.........what do you think THEIR candidates are going to be like?

Now now, I'm not saying all teams are that way. I split off from a former team because I did not agree with the training methods and philosophies, nothing more. However, often split off teams are the case quoted above.

Now, what about the poor dog? The prisoner in all of this. This dog is forced to do something it does not want to do. These dogs show signs of stress, drawn back lips, grass eating, body carriage, you name it, get a DVM Behaviorist on the scene and they can point it all out to you, but the handlers never see this. Sad, because it is upon this poor dog our whole hopes rest. If the handlers manage to certify the dogs, the dogs will still never perform as well as a dog that wants to do the job, and will often shut down. Some handlers literally will continue to run through evaluators until they find someone who will pass them or the dog has a good day. This of course are for external certifications. Split off team from above will probably do their own standards and evaluate their own dogs. Need I say more?

The bottom line is the mission, the victim. They are who this is most unfair to. Those of us who train SAR dogs have a moral obligation to train and field the best. Someone said to me last year, "well, not everyone can have a super dog". Well I sure as hell hope they can! Please do not bring your sub optimal sar dog to look for me if I ever go missing. Bring the SUPASTAR! I want the dog that WANTS to find me. We owe the families of our victims no less, and if you are not going to go for that level of SAR dog, please.........go do flyball or something where someone's life is not on the line.

Cheers!

Training perspectives

Everyone who trains a dog knows the old joke "The only thing two dog trainers can agree on is the third one is wrong". Stupid but true. Dog Trainers come in all flavors. Some are so sugary sweet you want to puke, while others are so bitter you want to puke as well. But every once in a while you get those that are just right. Those that do not train a specific "Method" but rather read the dog and the situation and use what is appropriate. These are the trainers I prefer to work with and learn from.

Everyone thinks I am against e-collars. I'm not. There are valuable uses for them when used correctly. The problem is that most handlers and even so-called E-collar experts do not know what they are doing. Some even propose that E-collars are simply a form of positive re-enforcement. WTF? Are you kidding me?

Obviously, there is a lack of understanding of scientific terminology of +R. So lets go over this to eliminate any confusion out there. "The Principles of Learning and Behavior" by Domjan is a text book used by Universities to instruct the principles by which animals (people and dog included) learn. Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, association is association whether it is intentionally manipulated or occurs spontaneously by chance. In dog training, both occur and sometimes those spontaneous learning moments are significant, both good as well as detrimental.

Positive Reinforcement occurs when a response produces an appetitive stimulus. An example of this in search dog training; the dog is exposed to a target odor, the dog exhibits scenting behavior to the odor such as smelling or nosing the target then the behavior is marked with a conditioned reinforcer and dog receives a primary reinforcer. This should increase the dog exhibiting scenting behavior again.

Negative reinforcement prevents or removes an aversive stimulus resulting in an increase in the behavior. An example of this in search dog training; an aversive stimulus can be applied to the dog until it performs a desired behavior, which ends the aversive stimuli. An example of this is when a dog fails to offer a passive final alert, such as a sit or down at target odor. The dog is then presented with target odor and jerked or shocked until a sit or down is offered. The dog increases the passive alert behavior to avoid or stop the application of the stimulus. However, one concern is whether the dog also now has an association via classical conditioning of target odor tied to the unpleasant event of being jerked or shocked. If so, this association may result in a decrease in the dog’s reliability to hunt and locate this target.

Positive punishment is the application of an aversive stimulus in conjunction with the target behavior which will decrease the likelihood of the behavior occurring again in the future. Relevant example to scent training: the dog engages in inappropriate pursuit of an undesired odor, such as that of another animal. The dog is given a verbal or physical correction which results in the dog being less likely to engage in the inappropriate behavior again.

Timing is essential. If the dog associates the punishment with any non-target behavior being performed at the time of the punishment, he is also less likely to perform that behavior. Therefore, if the dog was actually scenting a target odor and the handler misinterpreted the behavior or the target odor dissemination, it may decrease the dog’s likelihood to engage in the actual search behavior.

Negative punishment, also referred to as omission training by Domjan, is the removal an appetitive stimulus or the opportunity to acquire an appetitive stimulus resulting in a decreased likelihood of the behavior occurring again. Many dog trainers are now incorrectly replacing the term negative punishment with extinction. Extinction results from non-reinforcement of a behavior that has a history of receiving reinforcement (Domjan, 2003) therefore it is not an accurate replacement for negative punishment. Relevant to scent dog training: removing the dog’s opportunity to obtain the reward due to undesirable behavior such as failing to offer an alert or focusing on other scents beside the target odor. The handler simply removes the dog from the training situation into a kennel and does not allow the dog the opportunity to obtain any type of reward. Often, the dog is placed within view of the training area and allowed to watch subsequent teammates using that dog’s toy reward to reward their dogs at the target odor. Eventually the handler takes the dog out of the kennel and attempts the training scenario again. If the dog goes to the correct target and offers a final response, the previously withheld reward is given. The probability is decreased for the future occurrence of the incorrect behavior of ignoring the target scent by removing the chance to obtain the reward.

So, if we go by scientificly validated learning paradigms, e-collars are positive punishment. However, the bottom line, make no mistake, is that E-collars are NOT appetitive, meaning they are not pleasant. Shock is unpleasant. How many people out there enjoy getting a rug shock? Primates (chimps, apes, and us) are notorious for exploiting pleasant experiences, hence drug addicts. If Shock was pleasant, you would see thousands of people hiding in alleys, paying someone to shock them or ordering them online and carrying them around shocking themselves. I have not seen that, have you?

Now......sometimes unpleasant training experiences are needed. Dogs that chase animals, dogs that run away.......there are a variety of VALID uses for an E-collar.

Training a SAR dog IMHO is not one of those because of the principles of learning, Associative Learning to be exact.

Associative learning is used in scent dog training to establish associations between conditioned reinforcer and the discriminative stimulus, the specific target odor. This association results eventually in a trained final response paired with the target odor. With HRD dogs especially, final response issues is one of the major stumbling block for handlers. Perhaps final response reliability problems may be the result of commands which have been unintentionally paired with stimulus perceived by the dog as painful, fear inducing, or aversive. How does this occur? Training a sit or down with compulsion (jerk, pop, shock) and then pairing this aversily trained response with a target odor. The baggage of , "Oh I have to sit, or I am going to get shocked" is now paired with target odor. Or for those who use "compliance to command" with E-collars, they are directly shocking their dog AT the target odor. Sit (shock) Sit (shock)........How does this make any kind of rational sense? let alone, it flies in the face of everything we have learned scientifically about learning and performance, but what the hec, Science is useless right?

This will not change the way these trainers train or the way they think. Fine by me, just please do not bring those dogs to look for me if I am ever lost. I want a traditionally positively trained search dog, one who sees their target odor almost as an addiction because everything associated with that odor has always been fun, great, a blast. Please do not bring the dog who might figure out today that since his owner does not know where the odor is, he cannot be shocked, therefore, OMG I can do anything I want to, and I don't have to find that stupid target odor where I get "stimulated".

No, please bring the happy goofy search dog that thinks the "toy thief" is the greatest thing in the world.