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Archive for March 11th, 2005
Friday, March 11th, 2005Raising a Search and Rescue Dog
I stood outside my front door and listened to frenzied yips coming from inside the house. The noise had continued for more than a half hour and it was all I could do not to rush inside and rescue my new puppy. I knew I was being absurd. This was not the first puppy in the world to have separation anxiety and hate being in a crate. I had raised a few puppies before I got this one, however, and she was the first to carry on for such a prolonged period of time. Suddenly the yipping stopped. Quiet fell over the neighborhood. I held my breath and waited. I decided to wait a full ten minutes before going inside and praising her for settling down. The minutes dragged by and everything remained silent. I pushed open my front door, a smile twitching across my face and the words “Good girl,” on my lips. The words died before I could utter them. Inside the crate, my eight week old German Shepherd puppy sat surrounded by shredded cloth. The queen sized blanket I had draped over the crate (just like the puppy training book recommended) was now inside the crate. Soft fragments of cloth surrounded my puppy. Only her dark eyes and huge ears could be seen.
I should have known at that instant what my life would be like living with a Search and Rescue dog. I chose Caribou, my first certified canine partner, for her drive. It is the most important attribute a search and rescue dog can possess. Drive in a dog is equivalent to a Type A personality in a human. Nothing deters a driven dog from its goal. Specifically, driven dogs are ball crazy or highly motivated by prey. Search dogs must possess drive to “get the job done.” Their sole motivation is to complete the game and get the reward…in most cases, their favorite toy. A good search dog will work for hours in difficult terrain and challenging conditions. They don’t want to take rest breaks and will work to the point of exhaustion unless monitored by their handlers. And so, when I decided to pursue a ten year dream of working a search and rescue dog, I went out to find a puppy with high drive. I looked at a lot of puppies over the course of several months before finding Caribou. She was the runt in a litter of three and the only female. From the moment I set eyes on her I knew she was the partner for me. Her bright eyes never left my face. She charged after a squeak toy I threw, pounced on it, killed it with a quick shake of her head, and returned it to me without hesitation. She was a big dog in a puppy’s body with no lack of confidence. I plopped down $200 and took her home that day. Her dislike of the crate was only the first of many challenges. She had no off switch. When I tried to restrict her activity or teach her self-control, she treated me like I was just another dog to be dominated. After a week of no sleep, I gave up trying to get her to spend the night in the crate. She slept in bed with me from that day on, under the covers, her soft head draped across my chest. I fell in love with her despite her stubborn, the “hell with you” attitude.