Kelly, the real dog

I picked Kelly for the purpose of training and becoming involved in Search and Rescue (SAR). Unfortunately when I began I had really no understanding of what I needed to do or train. At the time I began SAR I was pretty much on my own, there wasn't a real team in the state. I read books and did the best I could. All of this training was pre-clicker knowledge.  I went to some seminars sponsored by NASDN - North American Search Dog Network. It is here that I learned most about SAR dog training. These next two pictures were from a disaster training seminar in Mississippi. The "victim" was our instructor.

A couple years after this seminar Kelly and I went to another NASDN sponsored event. We attempted to become certified. We passed - area search, article search, building search and obedience. We had one last test to pass - tracking. It was what Kelly was the best at, but after 4 days of testing I guess she had had all she could take. She followed the track perfectly (SAR tracking is done off-leash) she went out of my site and I was pretty sure she was at the end of the track. However, when a SAR dog finds their "victim" they are suppose to come back and tell their handler (a "refind") so that the human also knows where the victim is. Well, Kelly found the "victim," even gave her a slurpy kiss. The problem was that the victim was hiding next to a lake and Kelly decided that swimming would be more fun than coming back to tell me of her find. We tried the test again the next day, but by then Kelly was in full burn-out.

A side note: I actually had to teach Kelly to like water. As a puppy she wouldn't even walk into a puddle on her own. By the time of this test Kelly could out-swim any retriever, and loved swimming more than most newfs!

Even though we didn't pass our final test with NASDN, Kelly did pass her tests for the newly formed Oklahoma SAR dog team. She was very, very good at area and building searching, as well as tracking. My problem was that when Kelly was a puppy I had let herchase mice. Chasing "critters" became more and more of a problem each year. That and the fact that I still hadn't taught a solid "refind," led to me retiring Kelly. I still hadn't learned about operant conditioning and clickers yet.

I learned much during these years and look forward to someday training a new SAR dog. This time with the knowledge of experience and operant conditioning. To the right is a picture of Kelly and I walking through some debris from the damage of the Catoosa tornado. Seven people died when that tornado crossed an expressway. While the search dogs found no additional victims of the tornado after we arrived on scene, the search was quite a learning experience. Kelly and I were even on CNN!

Throughout our SAR career, Kelly and I learned about air scent searching, tracking, water rescue, disaster searching and cadaver. Kelly hated cadaver so we didn't work really hard at that one.

Search and Rescue training is a very rewarding way of combining a love of dog training with a need to spend that time doing something more important than winning trophies and ribbons. If you ever find yourself with A LOT of spare time. Look into SAR dog training.

If you would like to see a few more pictures showing some disaster training agility (quite a bit different from AKC agility) click the button below. Because of the pictures, this page may take about 1 minute to load on slower machines.

Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Pam Sheehan — No portion of this web site may be reproduced without written permission.