Schutzhund tracking vs Sar

[melanie]

Can somebody tell me the difference in training the SAR dog as opposed to the (Schutzhund or AKC/UKC) tracking dog? All I've learned about SAR around here is that it's hit and miss, this SAR club members are simply following their dogs.... there's no tracking going on. Lots of airscenting, but where's the discipline in SAR work?



[glow=red,2,300]Mel[/glow]

[maugh]

The Swiss were the great pioneers in Search and Rescue. When I was in Indianapolis, I went out to California each year for 4-6 weeks and trained with CASSDA (California Swiss Search Dog Association) and they brought trainers such as Tony Enzler and Edi Bucher to teach us. It was a great experience. We traned in the Truckee area for wilderness and at an old Kaiser Aluminum site in the L.A. area for disaster. The latter was really fascinating, it was nothing but ruin and rubble for miles. It gave you a feeling you were in a sci-fi mass destruction movie.

In SAR the priority is on being able to "clear" an area so that you can keep narrowing the search area down. So you start out with "crude" searches where you let the dog range out quite a bit and where the probability of having cleared the area is 90 per cent or so. You watch your dog's reaction and also the terrain and scenting conditions to determine the degree of probability that you estimate.

Areas with probability of higher than 90 are crossed off, and areas with lower probability are searched using a finer grid. Needless to say, your dog has to have a reliable alert or one mistake and you are gone from the team.

The Swiss teach their dogs a reliable alert, using either a Bringsel or a bark alert to make the alert reliable. As with all operant conditioning, the alert is taught first, since it is the final behavior we want. Wilderness Search dogs generally learn a Bringsel alert, whereas disaster dogs learn to alert by barking and digging.
The Swiss teach the dogs to range in defined patterns, much like upland hunting, and to work together much like hunting in brace. The SAR handler, much like the upland hunter, must learn to adjust to different scenting conditions, different terrain, and to direct his dog accordingly.
Similar to hunting, the SAR handler can clear an area, but must not pass by evidence or victim.
SAR work takes a dog and handler with very stable nerves, since the dog might have to be lifted via harness into a ravine or might have to work next to cranes and jackhammers, which are being used to stabalize a structure.
Real SAR work makes almost anything else I've ever done including Schutzhund look like child's play. It puts both handler and dog into conditions that involve cold, hunger, distraction and other forms of stress and discomfort.
Maugh