Developing the Search Passion

By making use of its drives, we introduce the dog to the behavior we require. This behavior is not forced on the dog, and we didn’t direct it. Both points are important, because the dog learns to search of its own free will. At the same time, it discovers the finer points of search work by trial and error.

Ultimately, it is important that the replacement prey never be the goal of searching. This sock toy should never be hidden under the snow or under rubble without making a connection with human odor. It is only during the first step in training search playing that the dog can be allowed to search without human odor, since these searches are only intended to create a passion for searching in the dog.

If we don’t pay attention to the drive behavior of the dog, then our attempt to train might lead to the wrong effect. If we hide the sock toy and then expect the untrained dog to search for it, the dog won’t know what it has to do. It will probably do everything except search. Likely impatient by now, we will bring the dog to the ball’s hiding place and show the dog where the ball is. This action will create a misunderstanding between handler and dog. Maybe in its short life the dog has already heard our grumbling before and it was always accompanied by something unpleasant. To the dog it may look like this: the handler is grumbling because of the ball in the sock. It may conclude that searching for the toy is not allowed!

With that we have, without wanting to, thrown up a barrier between the dog and its prey object—the ball in the sock. It may be possible to overcome this barrier, but somewhere in the dog’s mind there will always be an inhibited feeling that may prevent the dog from reaching its highest potential as a search and rescue dog.

Assume that you have built up the training correctly: first you openly threw the sock toy away and later you hid it. As soon as the dog has found this toy, it picks it up and carries it around, full of pride. For the dog this is real, living prey. Don’t interfere with the sock toy during searching or afterwards, when the dog carries its prey. You can praise the dog and tell it what a great dog it is, but wait patiently until the dog lays the prey in front of your feet.

React quickly, however, if the dog lies down somewhere and begins to destroy the prey. Your loud and clear interference in this situation will indicate to the dog that this destruction (eating the prey) is incorrect and anti-social. However, if the dog begins to chew on the prey while carrying it, then do not react. This behavior comes from wild dogs and hunting dogs of the past, which, if they found the prey, were allowed to press out the blood and body fluids as a reward while carrying it. This behavior is no longer allowed for the modern hunting dog for commercial reasons, but it’s fine for our future search and rescue dog. Remember that the replacement prey, in the mind of the dog, is still living. The chewing allows us to gauge how much the dog is enjoying its hunting behavior.

Figure 5.2 Items such as tennis balls or toys are unsuitable as training prey. Although the dog can chew on them, it can’t develop its hunting drive as well as it can with a ball in a sock.

In an understanding between handler and dog based on real pack behavior, the dog will eventually lay the prey at the handler’s feet. Why does it do that? Dogs still have the instincts of their wolf forebears, which also carry the prey back to the pack, allowing the prey to be shared. That is exactly what our dog is doing now. As a pack animal, the dog expects us to share in the prey. In the dog’s view, it would be anti-social if we picked up the sock toy and simply put it in our pocket, thereby confiscating the entire prey.

After laying the prey in front of its handler, the dog expects the handler, as a member of the pack, to divide the prey. This prey sharing must not degenerate into an obedience exercise like being offered a biscuit for sitting in front of the handler, because the way the dog works out its hunting behavior is always right.

This behavior is related to old hunting rituals. After a hunting dog found the wild animal a hunter shot, it waited quietly beside the hunter, who took over the carcass. After the belly was opened, the dog got, as a reward, the biggest part of the bowels. We share the prey with our dog the same way. Take the sock toy and lay a dog biscuit on it, held up with thumb and forefinger. Wait briefly to heighten the dog’s excitement a bit higher and then allow the dog to get the biscuit. Repeat this action once or twice more with a dog biscuit. Remember that the reward has to be offered on the replacement prey to form a connection with the replacement prey. Then keep the sock toy and put it away until the next training. Never leave the sock toy with the dog.

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