Post by oksaradt on Jun 16, 2008 13:00:30 GMT -5
I decided this needed to be addressed now because of the time of year. During the summer the temperatures climb. In Oklahoma, the temperatures can reach over 105'F. Now, to point out the obvious, dogs do not have our cooling system. They can't put on cotton clothes, throw water on them, and let evaporation do its thing to make us more comfortable. Dogs have two means of cooling themselves, the pads of their paws and their tongues. So, it should not be a surprise that a dog has to pant. ?This is a problem??? The more air flow that goes through the dog's mouth, the less air flow that goes past the dog's nasal receptors.
As a dog handler, I want my canine partner to be safe. I don't want to overheat it. I know to check gums and skin. I know to always carry water, maybe with some hydrolyte in it. I know how to get my dogs to drink ice water by tossing a wienie into the bottom of the ice chest to make them go bobbing. As an evidence collector, I want my "sniffing machine" to run at optimum conditions. As what my dogs are sniffing for can be extremely tough to find in the best conditions, why would I be foolish enough to agree to work my dog in 100+F conditions where it's nasal efficiency is going to be minimized? I know handlers that work in the extreme southern states that do this by 20-minute shifts......20 MINUTE SHIFTS!.....oi vey.....in many situations the dog is going to waste 5 minutes acclimating to the area....let's say it's heavy in methane due to swamp conditions then it could take longer. So, imagine how much area such shifts can adequately cover for scattered skeletal remains....maybe an acre per shift....
As an aside, I do know it is common for some search managers to decide to halt searching at night for safety reasons. Usually, this demonstrates they have a lack of understanding of optimum canine scent conditions and are thinking of their human personnel. I understand this. I try to disuade them to allow search dogs to work during the night and not during the day in hot conditions with the premise that if the dogs work at night then they can deploy all the man-to-man searching they want to do during the day. I will want a large deputy with his radio and pistola to protect my butt from miscreants and such. If I'm lucky it's a deputy that has hunting experience and we have a great time going through the woods at night while the dog does its thing.
It is not uncommon for searches my dogs work to take hours in rarely nice conditions. Dax's last search was in heavy six foot tall broadleaf weeds with large boulders, rebar, and heavy equipment. All the earth had been moved and we were looking for possible buried....years old. I can't go into any more detail, but you get the picture. Area size was supposed to be 1/2 acre and expanded to much larger as can be typical.
So with my reasoning established, I can't say enough for the benefits of training with your dog at night. My preferred time to work dogs in the warmer months is to start an hour before dawn and then work till the air temperature and the ground temperature become equal. An example is a search of a plowed field for scattered skeletal remains where one bone turned up. When we arrived, the ground temperatue was 84'F and the air temperature was 69'F. We started searching at 0615. We stopped searching the open field at 0930 as the air temperature had shot up to 87'F. We did go into some nearby woods and search for an additional hour to check for critter dens with skeletal remains as the air temperature there was much cooler. One den (of many) was located with scent, but it was measured to be 10 feet deep back under a very large tree and other remains had been found, so it was left.
For training, I love night searching as it forces the handler to truly trust their dog's training. Even with a glow-collar, the handler has very little input on the dog's body posture and the handler has much fewer oppotunities to do their own visual searches that enables them to cue their dog, right or wrong. You quickly learn the handlers that have confidence in their dog and the training they've done with it and those that have been depending on "crutches". Some dog handlers put bells on their dogs to hear them as you can't see the dog 50 yards away any more. Problems that would seem obvious to the handler(during the day light hours) can be placed in the dark allowing the dog to work without the handler's manipulations. Oh, and the handler also has to come to grips on their choice of indication/alert. A touch no longer may do it as there are no lights on the dog's paws or nose. Shining a bright light on the dog the whole time it's searching tends to blind the dog such that it has to acclimate back to the underbrush each time the handler just has to see what's going on. So, a down, sit, bark, body-bang, etc becomes much more important and the handler has to see the glow-collar go into a stationary position. This is why the bark comes in handy along with a passive target.
This is not limited to HRD. I've often participated in night area searches and trails from all aspects. Building searches are great at night with the power turned off as this is exactly what might be needed in tornado disasters. As a team, you can quickly find out which dog teams are claustrophobic by working basement complexes under buildings with the power turned off. If the weather is crappy outside, a building "dark" training might be just the ticket any time of year.
So, in summary, dog teams should search "smart" and (geez) certifying groups should "test smart" by not forcing dog teams to test in adverse conditions. The point of the testing is to determine if the dog team can work in common conditions, not extremes. The handler is often at the mercy of the testing group. I'm fortunately at a point in my dog career where I can tell those setting up testing in dangerous conditions to "take a hike" as they are demonstrating the lack of foresight they should expect of the dog teams they are testing.
Thanks for letting me soapbox.
Jim
As a dog handler, I want my canine partner to be safe. I don't want to overheat it. I know to check gums and skin. I know to always carry water, maybe with some hydrolyte in it. I know how to get my dogs to drink ice water by tossing a wienie into the bottom of the ice chest to make them go bobbing. As an evidence collector, I want my "sniffing machine" to run at optimum conditions. As what my dogs are sniffing for can be extremely tough to find in the best conditions, why would I be foolish enough to agree to work my dog in 100+F conditions where it's nasal efficiency is going to be minimized? I know handlers that work in the extreme southern states that do this by 20-minute shifts......20 MINUTE SHIFTS!.....oi vey.....in many situations the dog is going to waste 5 minutes acclimating to the area....let's say it's heavy in methane due to swamp conditions then it could take longer. So, imagine how much area such shifts can adequately cover for scattered skeletal remains....maybe an acre per shift....
As an aside, I do know it is common for some search managers to decide to halt searching at night for safety reasons. Usually, this demonstrates they have a lack of understanding of optimum canine scent conditions and are thinking of their human personnel. I understand this. I try to disuade them to allow search dogs to work during the night and not during the day in hot conditions with the premise that if the dogs work at night then they can deploy all the man-to-man searching they want to do during the day. I will want a large deputy with his radio and pistola to protect my butt from miscreants and such. If I'm lucky it's a deputy that has hunting experience and we have a great time going through the woods at night while the dog does its thing.
It is not uncommon for searches my dogs work to take hours in rarely nice conditions. Dax's last search was in heavy six foot tall broadleaf weeds with large boulders, rebar, and heavy equipment. All the earth had been moved and we were looking for possible buried....years old. I can't go into any more detail, but you get the picture. Area size was supposed to be 1/2 acre and expanded to much larger as can be typical.
So with my reasoning established, I can't say enough for the benefits of training with your dog at night. My preferred time to work dogs in the warmer months is to start an hour before dawn and then work till the air temperature and the ground temperature become equal. An example is a search of a plowed field for scattered skeletal remains where one bone turned up. When we arrived, the ground temperatue was 84'F and the air temperature was 69'F. We started searching at 0615. We stopped searching the open field at 0930 as the air temperature had shot up to 87'F. We did go into some nearby woods and search for an additional hour to check for critter dens with skeletal remains as the air temperature there was much cooler. One den (of many) was located with scent, but it was measured to be 10 feet deep back under a very large tree and other remains had been found, so it was left.
For training, I love night searching as it forces the handler to truly trust their dog's training. Even with a glow-collar, the handler has very little input on the dog's body posture and the handler has much fewer oppotunities to do their own visual searches that enables them to cue their dog, right or wrong. You quickly learn the handlers that have confidence in their dog and the training they've done with it and those that have been depending on "crutches". Some dog handlers put bells on their dogs to hear them as you can't see the dog 50 yards away any more. Problems that would seem obvious to the handler(during the day light hours) can be placed in the dark allowing the dog to work without the handler's manipulations. Oh, and the handler also has to come to grips on their choice of indication/alert. A touch no longer may do it as there are no lights on the dog's paws or nose. Shining a bright light on the dog the whole time it's searching tends to blind the dog such that it has to acclimate back to the underbrush each time the handler just has to see what's going on. So, a down, sit, bark, body-bang, etc becomes much more important and the handler has to see the glow-collar go into a stationary position. This is why the bark comes in handy along with a passive target.
This is not limited to HRD. I've often participated in night area searches and trails from all aspects. Building searches are great at night with the power turned off as this is exactly what might be needed in tornado disasters. As a team, you can quickly find out which dog teams are claustrophobic by working basement complexes under buildings with the power turned off. If the weather is crappy outside, a building "dark" training might be just the ticket any time of year.
So, in summary, dog teams should search "smart" and (geez) certifying groups should "test smart" by not forcing dog teams to test in adverse conditions. The point of the testing is to determine if the dog team can work in common conditions, not extremes. The handler is often at the mercy of the testing group. I'm fortunately at a point in my dog career where I can tell those setting up testing in dangerous conditions to "take a hike" as they are demonstrating the lack of foresight they should expect of the dog teams they are testing.
Thanks for letting me soapbox.
Jim
