The importance of travel training for Search & Rescue Dogs - Part 3

On June 1, 2017 Search & Rescue K9 Redden was found struck by a vehicle and killed, ending his search career much too soon. To honor his memory, the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship was created to support Search & Rescue K9 Teams and their important training. This scholarship will provide opportunities for K9 Teams to participate in essential travel trainings away from their home training site. This blog is the third is a series illustrating the importance of these types of trainings.

I was scrolling through Facebook a few days ago and one of those 1.5x speed life hack videos popped up. “25 Things to do with Bread Clips”. Just another random video in my feed compliments of Facebook’s strange algorithm.  I should have just kept scrolling, but I didn’t. I watched all 25 tips. I have seen bread clips used to organize rubber bands, but I never thought stick one under that ever-hard-to-find end of the packing tape or write “printer” and “laptop” on them and use them to label the tangle of cords under my desk. And this wine lover's favorite, using them as makeshift (although slightly hillbilly) wine glass charms to help everyone keep track of their drinks. Pure genius.

I thought bread clips were just little bits of plastic that I stockpiled in a coffee mug. I now know different. Glad I stopped and watched. Thanks to the different perspective, creativity, and willingness to share of a complete stranger on Facebook, the underneath of my desk is now way more organized and I am ready for the next dinner party. I will never look at those little bits of plastic the same again.

Traveling to a new site to train with your search dog is a bit like scrolling through Facebook. You will see some familiar faces and practice exercises you may already know. But, if a handler is willing to “stop scrolling and watch the video” they will have the opportunity to learn new training techniques and be challenged to work their search skills in ways they never thought of. They will be exposed to training approaches that might be the key to addressing that one issue they have been working on or learn how to give their really good dog the opportunity to be great.

This is where the cream really rises to the top. When a handler is brave enough to step out of their comfort zone and challenge not only their dog’s abilities but their handling skills, exceptional Search & Rescue K9 Teams emerge. 

The first in this series described how training at new sites enhances the abilities of the search dog (read HERE). The second shared how the handler can improve their skills out in the field by training at new places (read HERE). What we are talking about now is having training opportunities and receiving feedback and instruction that can change the way a handler approaches their dog’s training.

The types of trainings that the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship supports are hosted by skilled trainers. These workshops may be hosted by one trainer who provides in depth curriculum on their specific training method or they may be led by a group of trainers bringing many approaches to the table. They all offer the opportunity to work in new environments. These events provide a handler with a fresh perspective on their dog’s abilities and celebrate the dog’s strengths and accomplishments. They also provide guidance in developing training plans to address areas that could be improved and the chance for a K9 team to work real-world scenario based search problems.

In other words, travel training is the best opportunity a K9 team will get to work through the novel challenges presented in a deployment and is absolutely essential to the training of Search & Rescue dogs.

So, while a travel training is a more expensive than a plastic bread clip, and requires a bit more effort than watching a video, the benefit is immeasurable.

We hope this 3-part series has helped you understand why the efforts of the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship are so important. We believe in supporting the hard work and dedication of these Search & Rescue K9 Teams and assisting them in getting the specialized training they need.

Contribute: K9 Redden Scholarship Fund

The importance of travel training for Search & Rescue Dogs - Part 2

On June 1, 2017 Search & Rescue K9 Redden was found struck by a vehicle and killed, ending his search career much too soon. To honor his memory, the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship was created to support Search & Rescue K9 Teams and their important training. This scholarship will provide opportunities for K9 Teams to participate in essential travel trainings away from their home training site. This blog is the second is a series helping our supporters understand the importance of this type of training.

You know how it is when you wake up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water. You stumble out of bed, down the hall, around the kitchen table, get a glass out of the cabinet, and fill it with water. All while half asleep and without turning on the light switch. You don’t run into corners, kick the leg of the table, or trip and fall. You actually could do this in your sleep. Most nights you do. But what happens when you are traveling and you wake up in an unfamiliar hotel room? You stumble over a suitcase, don’t know where the plastic cups are, and really need to turn on the light but you can’t find the light switch.

That’s the difference for a handler between training at home and training at a new site.

When training at home, all your gear is nicely organized and kept in your own personal vehicle. It’s all muscle memory when you grab your leash and collar and toy and take your dog out to run a training problem. You are solely focused on watching your dog’s body language while they search and are analyzing how you think they are working. Sometimes you may even be chatting with your teammates about where to go eat lunch after training. All easy to do when climbing around in the familiarity of one’s home pile. Despite the jagged edges of concrete slabs, twisted rebar, and crushed vehicles wedged in at every angle, an experienced handler finds themselves easily hopping from slab to ledge to vehicle bumper as they follow their dog while he or she searches for a teammate who is hidden in the rubble simulating a person trapped in a building collapse. 

I too have developed the ability to hop around our pile. But just a month ago however, in preparation for a large-scale training exercise our team was conducting, they reconfigured our rubble pile and plopped a large piece of concrete right in the middle of a slab us handers often use to access the pile. From the ground, it seemed pretty innocuous and I gave it no thought as I sent Redden up to work. He shot up on the pile and before I could even clip the leash around my waist he had found the “victim” and was barking to let me know. I jogged up the slab as I had a thousand times, excited to see how he had so cleverly and quickly worked the problem, and…

“What the…”

“Who put this dang piece of concrete in my way!”

As I tried to get past it, one of my cargo pockets caught on a small piece of rebar. I squeezed and wriggled to get around this newly placed road block. I quietly cursed the person who had messed up my nice little path. After a little contorting and rearranging of gear, I made it through and Redden got rewarded. No harm, no foul. It was all probably a little comical to watch, and in training, it was no big deal.

In a real disaster situation though, a handler must be prepared for navigating rubble like this. Unknown paths to cross, crevices to squeeze through, and snag hazards everywhere. A handler must be comfortable working out of an unfamiliar vehicle, or bus, or 4-wheeler. And while in a disaster they won’t be discussing where to go to lunch, it’s MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for everyone out in the field, a handler needs to be communicating what they see to their Search Team Manager, keeping a sharp eye out for dangers like downed electrical wires, and still be watching their dog’s body language and analyzing how they are working.

A handler’s ability to do all this well requires practice, and practice can only occur if a handler trains away from their home pile. Just as I described in the first blog (read HERE) how a dog needs to travel to new piles so they learn to search in any situation at any time, a handler needs to travel so they can practice managing their search dog in unfamiliar environments.

Working out of a rental car at a training site that someone have never been to before helps a handler become more effective in the field. This experience helps them in a real disaster to be able to stay focused on their dog which is the key to finding people trapped under the rubble.

There are no “light switches” a handler can turn on in a real disaster to help mitigate the challenges of working amid all the devastation and destruction. They can only travel and train and travel and train some more to be as prepared as possible for when the call comes in.

The K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship supports these handlers in not only providing excellent training for their dogs, but in their pursuit to be the best handlers they can be.

You can support dedicated and hard-working search and rescue dog handlers and their K9s.

Contribute: K9 Redden Scholarship Fund

The importance of travel training for Search & Rescue Dogs - Part 1

On June 1, 2017 Search & Rescue K9 Redden was found struck by a vehicle and killed, ending his search career much too soon. To honor his memory, the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship was created to support Search & Rescue K9 Teams and their important training.

There is a bump in the road at the base of the exit ramp where we get off to train at our home rubble pile. Redden had been to this training center at least 2-3 times a week for the past two years. I don’t remember exactly how early in his training he began doing it, but he, like all my search dogs in the past, go from quietly laying in their crate while I am driving to standing at full attention and barking with excitement every time we hit that bump.

Why?

Because dogs are masters of understanding physical cues. When I point to the ground, that meant lay down. When I started walking to a certain spot on our back porch, that meant it was time for dinner. And when he rode in his crate in the truck and the truck went over this particular bump, it meant GO TIME. He knew that in just a few minutes we would be at our training site where all his friends would play hide-n-seek with him.

In reality, the cue that he was getting ready to do his favorite thing started long before we even loaded in the truck. I put on my dog training clothes, filled up the same water jugs, and put the same set of gear in my truck each time. All of which let him know he would be getting to work soon.

Although not trained cues like pointing to the ground, these cues had been repeated so many times that they had an immense power. They got him mentally and physically primed so when I leaned over his shoulder, whispered “find” into his ear, and released the clasp on his collar, he was off like a rocket knowing that if he worked hard enough and fast enough he would find that person “trapped” under the rubble and he would get to play a game of tug.

So why are travel trainings important?

Because there are no bumps at the exit ramp of a real disaster.

One of the lessons a search dog learns at a travel training is that people can be “trapped” anywhere, anytime. That just because they didn’t go over that bump in the road does not mean they aren’t going to go to work. That any time could be go time.

That is why when the search dogs arrived in Joplin Missouri in the dark wee hours of the morning after a devastating F5 tornado, the dogs went straight to work. And the same for when the dogs arrived at the World Trade Center following the attacks of 9/11, the Oso Washington Mud Slide, and Hurricane Katrina.

We were fortunate. Redden got more travel training than most dogs, but we knew it was never enough. When a person’s life literally depends on the skill and speed of your dog, there is no such thing as being too prepared.

The K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship was created to honor him and to help ensure that search dogs across the country receive the important and specialized travel training they need.

Contribute: K9 Redden Scholarship Fund

Your support of these 4-legged heroes through the K9 Redden Memorial Disaster Dog Training Scholarship is sincerely appreciated!