Sardog

For the sake of you and your dog for goodness sake get someone to show you on a one on one basis how to use this TOOL!

The Tracking dog should indicate almost each of the tracklayers footprints and not vary from these foot prints despite wind conditions. Typical stance with head down sniffing the ground for indication. The Tracking dog is indicating on the disturbed vegetation from the footprints and the bacteria/skin rafts falling each side of the tracklayer. The slower the tracklayer moves the closer the human scent will be falling near the track. The Trailing dog is trained to indicate the skin rafts falling from the person laying the trail. The difference between the two is that the Trailing dog does not work with footprints as such and can locate skin rafts on vegetation, park benches, etc and some cases even some distance from where the person has walked. The Air Scenting dog indicates on airborne bacteria being cast in the wind. Somtimes you see the search & rescue dog put his nose to the ground in an area search (not that often) but their hunting instinct sometimes overrides his training and will put his nose to the ground. We never allow victims to walk to the area they are hiding to eliminate any possibility of the dog using his nose on the ground. It's very hard to train an air scenting dog after it has been taught to track or trail, depends on the dog/breed and training aspects. Our Sarda Qld team concentrates mainly on Urban Search & Rescue (disaster) but pm me and I can put you in touch with a member and you can perhaps catch up with a training day at Whyte Island. Cheers

If it's aggression or something, sure, then those problems can be referred to another 'consulting a professional bevahiourist, here's a list of good'uns' 'sticky' at the top of the forum. Good post AM...but with the above quote I can see a 'flame' being created..everyone has their own ideas of a "good'un and here lies another problem. Just MHO... Cheers

Has anyone on DOL had any personal contact with Professional Dog Trainer George Lygidakis? Thanks in advance

Bev Williams is the Knox Tracking Trial Secretary and organises the Knox Tracking Trial every year. I think Gary Roberts is also a tracking steward for the club as well. Ring the club and ask to contact these people. Good luck and happy tracking (if you can).

Julie confirmed it in the Training section, it was the SARDA team (Gus and River are the two labs), but unfortunately they didn't find anything If I ever go missing OH is on strict instructions to get onto SARDA pronto. I cannot believe it took something like 4 days to get them in on the search Thanks Haven, it now looks like it is a crime scene investigation.

Yes, Rudi & I started SARDA back in 1994 but in the earlier years we specialised in Cadaver Searches for Police Cold Case Unit then branched out into area/wilderness and now Usar. I left the unit for a few months and took over again after he passed away in 2001. We do set up a dummy find if they don't have any success in the actual search. The media just happened to be there as we were setting up the dummy find..... Great exposure for such a worthwhile discipline.

No, they were SARDA dogs. We had a call from Vic Police Search & Rescue to see if we could assist in the search today. The area is very steep terrain and it was really tough. The dogs worked very well but we failed to find any trace of the missing person.

Neatz, PM me and I can give you the name and phone number of a person who runs a tracking group in the Frankston area. Cheers

:cool: MarkS, you are a breath of fresh, very intelligent and common sense advice to this forum. Thank you

I'm not sure how old your dog is but has great potential. The only things that I would comment on is that you and your dog don't seem to be in a rhythm as a team in the heeling pattern. You need to walk a tad faster and have a more even pace and then the dog will be consistant at that pace and not "bobbing" so much. You need to look straight ahead a lot more, the dog knows his heel position. The dog has great head position and with the stand, you are taking too many steps after the hand signal. I would like to see the hand come out at the last three definite paces you are taking before you stop. The dog is anticipating (thinking) "the hand is coming out, oh no, she's still moving, oh does she want a sit, oh no it's a stand"... The recall is very short but I would like to see the dog come in a hell of a lot faster-I'm sure she can. Again, she shows great potential and a lovely attitude. Well done.

"A Dog's Mind" by Bruce Fogle is an excellent book for reference with regard to your query Tess and Bosko.

I know him. I did see the article and I think he may post here as well. This is edited as I don't think I should have named names.... :p Oooops, sorry, it's way too hot here in Victoria :p

I have tried the whistle type as shown above and they are very hard to master. The Ray Gonia Dog Whistle is what I use in search & rescue and you may be able to purchase one or similar from John Lawton at Specialised Dog Accessories in Victoria, there are a number of different types available and they are really good for dog work. Pm me for his phone number. I will try to post a pic - not sure if it will work though

K9: This is "Yo", LL bred him and sent him OS. Me thinks he may be a "SOS" - of course that would make him the 2nd best SOS.

OMG LL..by the end of the day you may be a balanced or maybe unbalanced trainer NW..you can supply the coffee.....we will need it.

Ducky: It's english, just tried to get a bit more respect for my dog by saying it's german. Sardog: Another different story, no wonder you are not getting any credibility here Comparing the two does not have any more or less respect, I think it's you who has lost it not your English Pointer. Nothing wrong with an EP if you know what you are doing!

Ducky, for one reason or an other I was thinking you had an English Pointer. GSP, now that's a different ball game. Fiona, you suggested sar. I was thinking more along the lines of tracking. Shorthairs love to "range/quarter" quite a distance and they are very headstrong and trying to do sar work with one is quite a challenge, believe me, I know. Working a GSP within a confined area with total control they are a very good dog. BUT, having said that, Ducky with your attitude, I'm not sure that you would maybe take the advice of anyone trying to help you as displayed in all these posts, except of course K9 - which I might add, his post was initiated by me through an email to him as I thought that if you would take anyone's advice, it may be K9's - and I was correct - thanks K9 and thank god for the dog's sake! You mentioned that you had bought the pup for showing, I would then make the assumption that your GSP is not from working lines. This again is another issue. My advice (for what it's worth) is tracking. Find yourself a tracking group and you can have all the fun and enjoyment doing what they love to do, use their nose. GUNDOGS ARE FUNDOGS

Ditto Rachelle and it's a POINTER "GUNDOGS ARE FUNDOGS" Ducky, I hope you are really getting the message here, Jeff's advice is always spot on. We can't all be wrong.

Good post Jeff. Ducky, you really scare me with your attitude. You cannot gain experience reading anything out of a book, please go to someone like K9Force, he's the expert in this field.

Thanks NW. I was wondering if there were any handlers out there who actually paid the $800 package. A friend of mine was also at the evening talk but she was also interested in hearing if anyone attended the 'hands-on' package. Have that ready for the 23rd...

Did anyone attend the Jan Fennell Course on October 30th? If so, what did you think?

This thread is interesting. Most of the time if a poster asks for a reference regarding a behavourist etc there are various degrees of information given. I would hope those who have given either cryptic one word or one line answers can give more information of their personal contact with Craig Murray. Hearsay is very damning to ones reputation. I had personal contact with both Craig and Steve Austin many years ago when I was working with the VicPolice ColdCase Unit with my cadaver dog and found both above persons knowledgeable and helpful in this area.

Many thanks for your kind words. This year has been the best year for us with regard to recognition of the value of the sardog in an emergency rescue operation....and yaay Cin, a major coup to be called out. Whilst the deployment activity of the past two days was not to 'rescue' as such, it was a very hard task asked of our dogs given the fact that we do not train the dogs to detect human remains. Having said that and how badly burnt the remains were, the time frame of change of scent from live bacteria to cadaver is around 36 hours so we were boardering on the inevitable result. The challenge put in front of the dogs was extremely high and at times dangerous but we (and the dogs) know our boundaries and we would not put them in a high risk situation. The victim is now listed as a missing person. After completing our Urban Search & Rescue Category 1 certification back in May, the MFB, CFA and SES became aware of the unique ability the dogs have to search a disaster site accurately and efficiently and for this reason we are now on the K9 data base (Australia wide) to be called to a disaster. As I have posted recently we have Tom Middlemas arriving in a week to conduct a 3 week training course where he will be also testing and up-grading the operational sardogs to continue their International accreditation. We have been able to secure the use of the whole of the Yallourn Power Station for a 5-day workshop, the CFA Training Grounds at Carrum Downs where we are conducting testing and demonstration for emergency service personnel and police emergency service personnel (dog squad) and for building search we have the use of the empty Royal Melb. Hospital Psych. wing. Other areas for individual testing have been secured around Melb. metro and outer suburbs.

LL: very little loss of function You have answered your question.....