I'm training to be a Drowned Victim Search Dog - not a very cuddly job title, I'm afraid - some people think I should be called a Water Search Dog, so I'm compromising. DVSD is what I'll be doing though. My boss Sian is training me, helped by Phil, who's already trained 4 air scenting search dogs, two of whom qualified - Jet, who was a famous dog - was on the telly, had awards, won prizes and found lots of people. Secretly he was very good at finding "courting couples" - I'm not allowed to say what they were really doing! His current dog is my mate Flash, who has found 2 people so far - he gets a bone, and Phil gets a steak every time they find someone, so it's worth doing.
Anyway, Sian took me to Northern Ireland in June this year to a course run by Neil Powell and John Sjoberg. These two chaps have been training and working search dogs, particularly water search dogs for many years. Neil has trained 4 dogs for water search so he really knows what he's doing, and me and Sian are learning lots from him - and I'm sure we're going to learn loads more - he's the Master! Phil came along because he's going to be helping Sian train me - it's not something she can do on her own, particularly as she hasn't trained a dog before me - well, only Ellie, and she doesn't count!! Harold came along too, to see what it's all about.
Apart from the obedience and stock training, which all the dogs have to do before they're accepted for training, I had to learn to bark when I was told to! I was never much of a talker, but Neil showed Sian how to use the ball, and get me so frustrated that I made a noise. When I did that, she had to say "speak", and give me the ball straight away. Neil had to tell Sian a few times that she was too slow giving me the reward - quite right too!! Eventually I learned that if I spoke, i would get the ball, and that's been the start of BIG STUFF!
I also had to learn which smell I was looking for. All the other SARDA dogs look for people smells, fresh, live people smells. Iain Nic's Mij and Gwen's Rolf look for particular people, and then trail that particular person's smell until they find them, or the smell runs out. They're really useful dogs, particularly in places where you get lots of other people.
Learning the smell is called "imprinting", and I did some of that in Ireland. Most of it has been done here though. It's where you get a ball every time you find the particular smell. The first ones were really easy - Flash told me that it's meant to be easy to start with because they have to make sure you get the reward! How easy peasy is that! When you know what the smell is, they make it harder, burying it, making fake burials, and then putting it in water!!
I'm just about at the stage where I bark when I find the stinker, and I get the ball! Until this last weekend's training, I was getting the ball every time I found it, and then I had to speak, but now, I get the ball when I tell Sian I've found it! She certainly seemed happy with what we were doing on Sunday though!
I can't wait to see what comes next, and where the boat comes in ...
but I felt much better when we were back on smooth water again! I was glad to hear that I won't be searching in water that rough! Something called wave slap - not sure what that is, but it's not good for sniffing with!
)- put it in the tub with the piggies, and I can have real human bits to find!!! I'm not sure that's allowed, even with the Animal By-products regulations, but the sentiment is there! Love you hannah!
