My Search and Rescue Dog...

[Cruentus]

Hi everyone.

I haven't been online in weeks because I have been out of town for various different things.

One of those was a vacation/dog working expedition.

Some have asked me to put pics of my dog here on MT many moons ago...I have just gotten around to getting some photo's of us at work.

So, bear with me... I will attempt to upload them.

 

[Cruentus]

Some more...

 

[Cruentus]

more...

 

[Kacey]

You have a lovely looking dog - with a very kind looking expression. What kind of search and rescue is are the two of you trained for?

 

[Cruentus]

more...

 

[Cruentus]

more (I'll answer some questions when I'm done uploading...sorry... ) ...

 

[Cruentus]

more...

 

[Cruentus]

more...

 

[Cruentus]

Here's the last of them...

I also included a phenomenal sunset back at the cabin there at the end...

 

[Ceicei]

Looks like you are training your dog to a variety of terrain, including caves. Are these terrains where you plan to focus your S&R? Lost and missing people?

- Ceicei

 

[Cruentus]

O.K...

Now for a little background.

My dog's name is Cerberus ("Cerb" for short), and he is an American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT), as his breed is officially recognized by the UKC.

However, the AKC won't recognize the breed (they will only recognize American Staffordshire Terrier's which have been strictly breed for show and not work for the past half century or more) due to it's fighting history, so you get a lot of names that people call the breed (Bulldog, staffie, Amstaff, Yankee Terrier, etc.). Some Native American folks out by where I was staying gave me the nickname "The Staff Man" because they call the breed "staff's".

I chose this breed because APBT are one of the most athletic, intelligent, loyal, and versitile breeds out there. Depending on the individual dog, they can be trained to do just about anything. Despite popular belief as well, they don't have the genetic propensity to bite humans, but any dog will if abused or provoked. So, APBT are great for work, and great around children and people.

I am a "hobby trainer" in that I do not do this exclusively as my job. Cerb is my 1st dog that I am training, so I am learning as much as he is every time we go out. I am very fortunate to be working with some of the best trainers and behaviorists in the world, however, who are professional trainers who do everything from the house pet to police protection work and SAR.

What is nice about being a "hobby trainer" for SAR (Search and Rescue) is that your hobby could someday save a life. You train with other's, join a league or association, and you take calls just like a volunteer or paid on call firefighter would.

Cerb is still a very young dog; only 14 months old. You really can't take calls until the dog is no younger then 2 years old, but people often wait until the dog is 3 or 4 years of age. You really have to wait until the dog is mature with all of his/her adult drive in full development.

Cerb, skill wise, is just about there. His willingness to track overrides all of his other drives. He loves it, and never seems to tire from it. Last week we worked no less then 3-5 hours each day; often going on 2-4 hour hikes with tracks at a time. This is rare for such a young dog. But he loves tracking for the sake of itself, which is why he is so talented. Most dogs track to gain the reward both during and at the end of the track, which is usually a play with a toy of choice or food. Even though I reward him, Cerb tracks for the sake of tracking itself, which is both a rare attribute and important distinction.

He is also incredibly agile with spectacular problem solving skills in the field. Many dogs have to be "babysat" so to speak, especially early in training. Many dogs get spooked and won't do some of the climbing, the heights that you saw in the photo's, etc. Cerb navigated some very rough terrain. He crossed logs, climbed trees and rock faces, swam through swamps and streams with me, and travelled through some very thick vegitation without difficulty. To pose for pictures, I held Cerb on a lead to slow him down. But, most of the time while on the track I had him off lead (no leash). He is also incredably obedient and will come, heel, slow down, sit, downstay, etc., etc., when I ask, even though tracking the scent is of a higher order to Cerb then obedience is.

All and all, I am very pleased and impressed with his work over the past couple of weeks. It'll take some time, but I can't wait to take calls when he is ready!

Paul

 

[Cruentus]

Looks like you are training your dog to a variety of terrain, including caves. Are these terrains where you plan to focus your S&R? Lost and missing people?

- Ceicei

Oh yea...sorry, didn't mention what we are specifically training for.

Yes, we are training for lost/missing persons and disaster work. That is as it stands right now anyway, but to tell you the truth you discover what your dog is capable of and more likely to be successful with and what he isn't likely to be as successful with as you work. But, so far as SAR is concerned, he doesn't seem to be averse to doing anything. I am going to guess, though, that he isn't going to want to do some of the specialty stuff like avalanche work or water search as much, so our focus has been on lost/missing persons stuff on natural terrain. We have just started doing some of the agility for disaster work as well (urban obsticles).

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Great looking dog and great mission!

Jeff

 

[Jade Tigress]

That is so cool Paul. Great dog and great *hobby*/mission. Your dog is quite talented for being so young. The area you trained in is absolutely gorgeous, where is it?

Keep up the good work. :asian:

 

[Ping898]

Paul - He's a beautiful dog. Sounds like you have an awesome hobby and good partner to train with!

 

[terryl965]

Sir lovely Dog and those where some fantastic pics.
Thanks
Terry

 

[Cruentus]

Thanks everyone!

The area we were in was the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario Canada. I love the terrain there; it is an absolutely beautiful place.

Because it is Ontario, I should mention that I unfortunatily did run into an extreme breed bias and a few problems while I was there, which is unfortunate. I might not go back if some things don't change, which would be a shame. That is worth a seperate discussion, however, which I intend to start over in the study. I gotta run now, so stay tuned...

Paul

 

[bluemtn]

Beautiful dog, and from my understanding of the breed- well built for that kind of work. Sorry to hear you had some problems with people- it'll take a long time for people to undo what they learned in the past.

 

[matt.m]

beautiful dog. Beautiful dog, you should be proud of him.

 

[MA-Caver]

Way cool pics and a way cool dog. The Cave Search And Rescue group I trained with once had a day with the state and privately owned search and rescue dogs for a day in a cave. I missed out on that day personally for some reason or another, t'was a few years back.
They were the usual garden variety SAR breeds of german shepards and golden retreivers. A close caving buddy of mine was present that day and was sent into a popular cave to "hide"... ten or fifteen minutes later the dogs and their handlers were sent in, (pretty amazing in-of-itself as the cave's entrance is a belly crawl of roughly 20-30 feet long before opening up into a room). Within ten or fifteen minutes of that... the dog found my friend. Shocked the heck out of him that he was found so quick as he knew the cave intimately and hid in one of the most out of the way spots he knew of. But you can't fool the nose.
His mistake was trying to rub as much of the cave dirt onto his coveralls as he could... duh! That's rubbing your scent all over the cave and making it like a trail of lights saying "HERE HE IS!"

Here's to you and your dog and good luck to both of you on your searches.