What Happens Once The Dog Finds The Missing Person?
Because the dogs all work off-leash, once they find the missing person, they have to go tell the handler. This is called an alert. Some alerts involve running up to the handler and jumping up on them, or barking at them, or pulling on a toy hanging off the handler’s belt. The handler then has the dog show them where the missing person is. Other dogs alert by staying at the missing person’s side and barking there, to bring the handler in to the missing person that way. Once the handler gets to a subject, an assessment is done to determine the subject’s medical status, and the information is radioed in to Base. The subject is retrieved from the woods in whatever manner is most prudent for the situation. Top of Page Why Does The Dog Do It? Using positive reinforcement, we train our dogs to use their natural abilities – their scenting ability, their play and prey drives – to accomplish our goal of finding missing people. They comply for a number of reasons: their need to be with their hand
