Thursday, August 20, 2009

Cadaver Training for you and your search dog

International K-9 SAR Services
P.O. Box# 1472,
Longview, Washington 98632 USA.
Office (360) 414-8093. Mobile (503) 705-0258.
Web: www.k9sardog.com
Email: harry98632@yahoo.com
“Service you can count on - Integrity you can trust”.

Cadaver Scent Training.

Recommendation: Don't use real cadaver scent from an individual deceased person until later on in your training. It can be too confusing for the beginning search dogs.

Scent Tubes. Make five scent tubes. Obtain five PCV tubes. 6” in length, ¼ to ½” in width. Capped at both ends. A minimum of 8 - 1/8 to 1/16th of an inch holes drilled in various sides of the tube. Then number the tubes from # 1 though #5.

Once the tubes are completed, boil them in hot water to clean your scent tubes. Once the scent tubes are dry, take a clean syringe with a 22G needle and inject a 4x4 sterile gauze pad or sterile cotton with pseudo scent formula# 1, or # 2. (or) You may also put some unwashed 50 strands of human hair in the scent tube. Make sure they are from one person only, in each scent tube.

In the beginning of your training, keep the scent tubes on the surface; don't bury them for the first 10 search-training missions. This will help your dog learn to use their eyes and nose to find what you are looking for. You may also obtain real human teeth from a dentist and place a single tooth in each scent tube.

Starting your training. Introduce each search dog to the item before they have to go search for it. Give the tube a HUMAN Name. "SAR Dog Valorie this is Debbie, let's go find Debbie".
Put your dog on a down stay and go hide the item under some grass or leaves, or under a pile of rubble. Let the dog see you hide the items each time.

Allow each dog to make a positive find 10 out of 10 times. Get the dog to perform numerous refinds before you give them their reward toy. Once the dog has the idea that he / she is looking for the scents origin, and not a live human on the surface, they'll begin to understand the concepts.

Next, have someone go hide the scent tubes. Let the scent age for 48 hours and then have the search dog work an air scent search pattern and mark each find. Dig up the scent tubes in front of the dog and give the search dog their reward toy on each successful find.

My command for Valorie is "Clear the area". If I don't have a scent article for the missing person. She will then show me everyone who's live, dead, buried or on the surface. It just takes practice and watch your wind currents. Make a diagram for each search. Always make sure the training area is safe for you and your dog. No hazards which may injure either of you. (example broken glass, sharp sticks, wires, etc.). Make sure you work your search dog into the wind. Watch your dog work the Scent Cone.

How to use Pseudo corpse scent formula. 30 days and Post 30 Days.
1). Put on some rubber gloves. Make sure you are wearing safety glasses and do this in a well
ventilated area.


1.

2). Break open an Pseudo scent formula container. Next, draw up the formula into a Syringe.
Inject one capsule of pseudo scent into some cotton or a sterile 4 x 4 gauze pad.
Place the scent into a scent tube.

3). Bury the scent tube in a rubble pile, or under some dirt about two inches. Then return with your
search dog.

Give your dog the "Go search command". For my search dog Valorie I use the command, "Clear the area" when I want her to find everyone out there. When she finds someone alive, she'll stop and dig and bark. Her tail and ears will be up and she will be very happy.

When she finds someone dead, she’ll be very sad. She'll stop, dig, whine, and bark. Her tail will be down. She'll physically get upset at the scent of death. Just by watching her body language I know whether the person is alive or dead under the site.

Carry your dog’s reward toy and hang it from your side on a small rope. When the dog makes a find of someone buried, stop your dog, give her / him their reward toy, and then make her / him refind the victim.

Once this is done, give your dog their reward toy. Repeat this with each training. She / he can't get the reward toy until she / he shows you where the victim is by digging and barking. Or sitting and barking where she / he smells the victim(s).

Try this. If you need any further help, please feel free to contact me and I'll assist you.

Test: The search dog must be able to find the hidden scent tubes with pseudo scent, human hair, or human teeth, 10 out of 10 times, hidden by a separate tester. The dog is passed as a cadaver dog.

Another way of watching for a real “Death Alert” with your search dog is go to an old grave site where the person was buried before 1915.

They didn’t use preservatives before that era. This will be a real deceased person in the ground. Watch how your dog alerts as he / she approaches the grave site.

Please be respectful of the person buried at the site. Don’t let your dog dig at a real grave.

Obey all laws regarding dogs in cemeteries etc.

I.K.9.S.A.R.S. Harry’s Yahoo 360 blog re SAR.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-aczg0BU5erSlJvtwUKlYqssO

Photos of Harry’s search dog teams in action.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/searchdog/page1/

Before your child comes up missing, identify them. If a child is missing, send us the information. We search for missing children and adults.

Write us at searchdog@iinet.com and we’ll send your our free child id kit.
If you hear of anyone who needs our service for a missing person or lost pet, please feel free to pass on our web site info. www.k9sardog.com
Visit our web site www.k9sardog.com for more information.

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