Ready! Training the Search and Rescue Dog

The comprehensive guide to training search dogs!

• Choosing a potential SAR dog, and how to socialize and train them
• Obedience exercises and specific SAR training methods
• All about scent: Detailed explanations of how dogs use it and what factors can affect it
• Special commands for SAR dogs like back, turn around, crawl through, and more
• Every type of search from small area and water search to avalanche and disaster searches
• Resource guide and a comprehensive glossary of terminology

This is the most sought-after book of its kind detailing canine search and rescue!

Since the devastation of the September 11, 2001, attacks and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the importance of SAR work has never been greater, and the public's awareness of what these dedicated dogs and handlers do has reached new heights.

Professional search and rescue workers consider Susan Bulanda's Ready! Training the Search and Rescue Dog to be "the bible of Search and Rescue (SAR)." This second edition, expanded, revised, and with new color photography, provides you with the necessary training methods you need to know for dogs in various SAR disciplines, including wilderness, evidence, cadaver, water, avalanche, and disaster searches. The author, an experienced SAR professional, details the goals, target skills, and potential problems at each training level of every SAR task.

SAR handlers and trainers will find a world of experience and wisdom contained between the covers of this second edition. Ready! provides descriptions of every type of search, including specific training methods to accomplish each SAR discipline. Every professional and volunteer SAR worker will profit from the Bulandas' expertise on choosing and socializing a SAR dog, training the dog to alert, managing the search mission, and how to train dogs for specific commands (such as bar, turn around, go to an object, check, slow, crawl through, and others).

If you're curious about the fascinating work of the SAR canine, you'll also enjoy the general chapters about the history of the SAR dog, an explanation of how dogs use scent to locate people or objects, and the functions of the SAR dog. There is also a fascinating chapter on the politics of Canine SAR, a difficult subject that nonetheless needs addressing. Learn about the politics between separate units that respond to a mission as well as the type that occurs within a unit.

This highly specialized training manual offers precise direction for SAR workers for every possible kind of mission, identifying the goals, target skills, methods, and problem solving for each type of search. Color photographs and line drawings help to elucidate difficult concepts explained in the text, such as how scent cones rise, pathing a zigzag grid to work the wind, and how scent moves in water. A resources section and index conclude this information-packed 264-page volume.

A simple, straightforward guide to training an SAR dog, this book walks you through every step of the process, with tests along the way that help you track your dog's progress, what to expect from your dog at each level, helpful tips, and troubleshooting advice for any problems that might arise. Its extensive detail is written in an easy-to-understand manner, making this a great starter book for anyone who wants to get into search and rescue, as well as an excellent resource for research on the subject.

What is required to get a qualified SAR dog mission-ready? Get answers to this question step-by-step with the bible of SAR professionals and volunteers around the world, READY! Training the Search and Rescue Dog, Second Edition!

Susan Bulanda is recognized worldwide as an expert in animal behavior and K9 search and rescue who has formed and run two K9 SAR units. She is a founding member of the National Search Dog Alliance and a former vice president and dog chairperson of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants