Serious Training of Dogs

Serious training of dogs start at about six months of age when the puppy is ready to start the more serious stages of training.

Dogs younger than this lack the ability to concentrate on more demanding training. For these dogs need normal training only.

Training periods should be held once or twice a day, be short in the beginning and gradually increase to 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Longer training periods will tire the dog and may bore it.

Do not forget to correct the dog immediately and be generous with praise when it performs well.

Training Equipment

Before beginning training, the trainer should purchase a choke collar and a leash. If used properly, the leash and choke collar make very good training tools.

The trainer should put the collar on the dog and allow it to get used to it for a day or two. After the dog is used to the collar, the lead should be applied on the collar.

The trainer gradually increases control, and the dog learns that the collar and lead are used to restrain and not meant to harm it.

Common Terminology

• Training: The procedure of infusing obedience cleanliness and reliability.
• Breaking: To make the dog perfect through regular and repeated practice for responding to instructions given orally, by signals and whistles or by eyes Command of The known stimuli from owner expecting appropriate instruction response.
• Collar: A leather or good plastic strap fastened round the neck. It contains a metallic ring for joining the lead.
• Lead: A strong cord of silk, plastic or leather or a metallic chain.
• Sit down: Instruction for sitting.
• Get up: Instruction for rising.
• Come on: Instruction for calling. The dog should be called by name, viz. come on Tony.
• Carry: Instruction for carrying an object holding with teeth. Food should be avoided.
• Fetch: Instruction for finding an object thrown away before the dog, e.g. to fetch a ball thrown in the lawn.

Training Schedule

The training syllabus of dog should start from organizing natural urges like hunger, urination, defaecation, rest and housing.

This should be followed by training for guarding, house breaking, search and seizure, etc.

The training should be divided into several lessons and different courses may be followed for the training of dogs for specialized purposes.

Practice to call name by natural urges like Natural urges include hunger, thirst, urination and defecation:

• The dog should be given a single name on arrival in the house.
• The place for feeding and watering should normally be fixed.
• Fix places for urination and defaecation; the dog should not be allowed to urinate or defaecate at any other place in the house or yard.
• Dogs normally defaecate immediately after awaking and eating or drinking.
• Practice to come back when called.

Training for Obedience, Collar and Lead, Guarding and Barking

• Training for obedience: The dog should be taught to understand the common instruction by practice like sitting down, lying down, getting up, go fetch, bark and lift fore-limbs.
• Training for collar and lead: A good-quality collar should be harnessed on the pet dog. A tag in the collar may bear the name of dog and address.
• A leather cord makes a good lead and does not inconvenience the owner when the dog is taken for a walk.
• Training for guarding and barking: Dogs should be given ample practice of barking when strangers are likely to present at the door, or trespass.

Detection Dog for Sniffer Dog

A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to and works at using its sense (almost always the sense of smell) detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, or blood.

Hunting dogs that search for game and search dogs that search for missing humans are generally not considered detection dogs.

There is some overlap, as in the case of human remains detection dogs (sometimes called cadaver dogs), trained to detect human remains. They are also used for drug raids to find where the drugs are.

Detection dogs have been trained to search for many substances, including:

• Plants, animals, produce and other agricultural items (used by customs services to detect possible invasive species.
• Crime evidence
• Currency
• Drugs
• Explosives

Police Dog

A police dog is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work.

A growing number of law-enforcement organizations outfit dogs with bulletproof vests, and some even go so far as to make the dogs sworn officers, with their own police badges and IDs Furthermore, a police dog killed in the line of duty is given a full police funeral.

Mine Detection Dog

Dogs are now used in several countries for mine clearance operations. Procedures vary from one country to another, but the following general principles apply in all of them.

First, each dog requires extensive training, together with his handler. This is usually done at a combined dog breeding and training centre.

The dogs are tested within a few weeks of birth to assess their potential. After a few months, as skills improve, a selected dog will work with his handler every day.

There will a strong bond development between the dog and the handler and it is lifelong one.

The dog becomes acutely sensitive both explosive vapour smells and human behaviour around him. This becomes important in testing the dog’s performance later.

Once a dog and his handler reach the required level of performance for field work after about 18 months to 2 years, they will be assigned to a demining dog field centre.

This centre has appropriate accommodation and medical support for handlers and veterinary support for the dogs.

General training program schedule for mine detection dog is as follows:

• 1-6 Month Social training and ball play.
• 6-12 months Obedience.
• 12-18 months Ball & explosives.
• 18-20 months Mines.
• 20-22 months Handler.

The dogs will need supplementary (maintenance) training all the time, particularly if they are to work with different mines and/or devices containing different kinds of explosives.

The dog is introduced to the task and commanded by the handler to traverse the upwind edge of the task.

The handler then steps about 60 cm sideways, and the dog performs another traverse, and so on.

If one dog completes an entire task area, another dog is introduced with his handler and again checks the same task area.

If neither dog indicates explosives, the task area is declared to be safe and clear.

A dog is trained to indicate the presence of explosive by calmly sitting a short distance from the location where the scent was discovered.

When any dog indicates, the location is marked by placing markers on the edges of the task area.

If this is the first dog, another dog will be introduced and will traverse the area up to the indicated location again.

Manual deminers can safely approach the location across ground which has been ‘cleared’ by both dogs. Maybe the second dog will indicate a location which was missed by the first dog.

Problems in using Dog for Mine Detection

• Failure to detect mines.
• Disease problem while introducing dog in new countries.
• Quarantine restriction may be troublesome.
• Lack of trained veterinarians.
• Dogs need to acclimatise after arrival in a new country and environment.
• Times claimed for acclimatisation are between 2 weeks and 6 months.

Dogs in Search and Rescue (SAR)

The use of dogs in search and rescue (SAR) is a valuable component in responding to law enforcement requests for missing people.

Dedicated handlers and hard working, well-trained dogs are required in search efforts to be effective in their task. Search and rescue (SAR) dogs detect human scent.

Although the exact processes are still researched, it may include skin rafts (scent-carrying skin cells that drop off living humans at a rate of about 40,000 cells per minute), evaporated perspiration, respiratory gases, or decomposition gases released by bacterial action on human skin or tissues. Search and rescue dogs are typically worked by a small team on foot.

From their training and experience, search and rescue dogs can be classified broadly as either air scenting dogs or trailing (and tracking) dogs.

They also can be classified according to whether they “scent discriminate” or “non-scent discriminate”, and under what conditions they can work.

Scent discriminating dogs have proven their ability to alert only on the scent of an individual person, after being given a sample of that person’s scent.

Non-scent discriminating dogs alert on or follow any scent of a given type, such as any human scent or any cadaver scent.

SAR dogs can be trained specifically for rubble searches, for water searches, and for avalanche searches.

Air scenting dogs primarily use airborne human scent to home in on subjects, whereas trailing dogs rely on scent of the specific subject.

Air scenting dogs typically work off-lead, are non-scent discriminating (eg, locate scent from any human as opposed to a specific person), and cover large areas of terrain.

These dogs are trained to follow diffused or wind-borne scent back to its source, return to the handler and indicate contact with the subject, and then lead the handler back to the subject. German Shepherd, Labrador retrievers, Border Collies are known as good air scenting dogs.

Tracking dogs follow ground scent:

• Trailing dogs are scent discriminating and require a scent article from the subject.
• Work on-lead or off lead to follow the subject’s path.
• Tracking dogs follow ground disturbance using non-human scent (eg, crushed vegetation, disturbed earth) in following the subject’s movements.
• The effectiveness of tracking dogs is highly dependent upon the terrain (some surfaces, such as grass, retain scent better than others, such as pavement), the age of the trail (fresher is easier to follow), the path (the dog is most likely to lose the trail if there are sharp turns or changes in direction), and the number of contaminating paths that cross the subject’s path.

Disaster Dogs

Disaster dogs are used to locate victims of catastrophic or mass-casualty events (eg, earthquakes, landslides, building collapses, aviation incidents).