Cadaver Dog-SOOO excited

[Mrs.K]

I just talked with the Lady that has most of the experience and say about our team.

She said that they are in need of Cadaver Dogs.

I was like "REALLY? WE DO THAT?" and she said "Yes, but we would have to talk to our trainer about the materials."

I told her that I am very interested in training Judge as a Cadaver dog and if we could talk this weekend about it and she said that I could even train Yukon as a Cadaver Dog despite his age.

Oh my god I am sooo excited.

So here are my questions.

What does it take to train a Cadaver Dog?
How do you start? Of course find/indication/re-find as a foundation, right?

How long does it generally take?

[Blazings]

I can't give you any info on that, but it sure sounds like an exciting thing to do with your dog!
Good luck with it!

[Mrs.K]

Thanks. This is so amazing. This trule is truly the land of all possibilities. In Germany I couldn't even get my hands on anything like that AT ALL.

Now it all depends if the team has the materials to get us started. Please wish me luck!!! She said they are in need and we'll talk about it on Sunday.

[Lilie]

That is wonderful Mrs. K! Best of luck!

[FG167]

Originally Posted by Mrs.K

So here are my questions.

What does it take to train a Cadaver Dog?
How do you start? Of course find/indication/re-find as a foundation, right?

How long does it generally take?

Are you going to be doing ONLY HRD or are you going to be expected to detect HR in your wilderness air scent requirements? The training for the indication is different. For wilderness air scent - you DO want the find, indication, refind - the same as for a live person or an article. For ONLY HRD dogs, they usually STAY with what they've found and indicate with a scratch, a sit, a down, or I also know a dog that points it with her nose as well.

You start by imprinting on material (aka human remains of some sort, or blood or hair/teeth etc). You reward every time the dog sniffs at or gets interested in it. Some dogs are naturally afraid of the smell - Madix and Mason (my two that I imprinted on it) were not so it was REALLY simple to get them into sniffing it and then reward. Then you start hiding it in REALLY simple spots, bring them around, when they sniff - you praise and reward. Once they are getting the hang of WHAT they're looking for, you start working in the indication. This is where the training is different for purely HRD dogs. For your pup I think this would be the chain. But, for your older dog who is used to training and probably won't be quite as frantic as pups usually are, you may start the indication right away. Madix was a REALLY focused puppy so I started luring him into a down as soon as he caught the smell (not with food though, with his toy and then tugging as the reward).

Every dog learns differently and at a different pace. Plus it depends on what sources you get to work with. Mason could find something as little as a few teeth and a hank of hair...submerged in water. And he wasn't the best on our team. We usually told new members that they should expect a solid 1.5 years of training at the least to get their Field Support Certification and get their dogs to the level of deployment.

Hope this helps!!

[Mrs.K]

Yes your post really helped , if I do the HRD I will be doing that only with Judge and Yukon.
She said that usually they have SAR/HRD Dogs but the specialized dogs do the work much better and so I'd be training them in HRD only and Indra as my SAR dog.

Hopefully we have the materials. It all comes down to that....

[CassandGunnar]

LadyLaw had posts about cadaver dogs a few weeks ago. I also believe that she trains and works her own cadaver dogs.
She could probably give you a lot of info.

[jocoyn]

Ladylaw does have more experience than I do by far

I have trained, nationally (NAPWDA, IPWDA advanced) ceritified (2008,2009,2010) and work a single purpose cadaver dog. For anything other than finding someone recently deceased on a wildnerness search I strongly support a single purpose dog.

What you do depends a lot on how the dog is used. Detection work is detection work and not rocket science. It helps a lot to have the handler have air scent experience and experience reading a dogs body language because it is critical to success (even with a trained indication).

Other issues are legal issues (cadaver dogs frequently do wind up in court), serious training record documentation, search strategy, and now that you dog had indicated.......where is the body? That itself can be very difficult as scent can travel through soil, in groundwater, be released by vegetation etc. Criminal cadaver searches do not always take you into the nicest areas (needles on ground, got to meet a drug lord, chained pit bulls, etc.)

I would say a brand new trainer AND a solid training program, maybe one year to get the dog up to a basic level (certify), but then what materials? You need the full spectrum and acess to small and large sources of various ages, type, and stages of decomp (not just the teeth, blood, and hair that some folks use) . Most certifications require dog to be at least 18 months old to test anyway.

Our team requires a person to have field experience with working an air scent dog before starting in on cadaver to build a foundation in "dog reading" and scent transport. and to make sure they have the right temperament to work in a crime scene type environment. Plus can they handle the dead people part of it too........

We don't do a refind with our cadaver dogs. We do a passive alert though I agree with ladylaw that, honestly, an agressive alert really should not be a problem (but it is with a lot of people) - You have to have your dog working in a fairly visual range so you can see / read the nuances of their body language. You really do.

The very first step is to make sure your dog is not averse to the odor. If the dog is, stop it. 2nd thing, most people really prefer ball crazy dogs and it definitely makes training a LOT easier. I have worked with both and will not even consider a food dog for cadaver work but that is personal preference.

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I did my imprinting with throws of scented towels (there is a whole sequence there) and went active to passive and I have a solid passive dog.

A lot of folks are really hot on Randy Hare and i want to get to one of his seminars.

The old school method of imprinting on lineups of blocks also has its adherants.

I really don't have enough experience with the different methods to evaluate the pros and cons of each. My last certificaion test the "suggestion for improvment" was that the dog was solid, that I need more experience with working out strategy for different scenarios.

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[Mrs.K]

Thank you so much for your input. I will definitely write down a couple of questions and will ask them of Sunday of how much of a spectrum and access to training we have and since it wouldn't make sense if we only have access to hair, blood and teeth.

[ladylaw203]

What does it take to train a Cadaver Dog?
How do you start? Of course find/indication/re-find as a foundation, right?

How long does it generally take?



Well, I will probably be discouraging but I want you to know the pros and cons.

The first thing is that the dog must have drive. NO food reward. The dog MUST have an insatiable desire for his reward be it ball,kong bumper or whatever because that is how a solid dog is imprinted. The dog must have rock solid nerves. If the dog passes eval then you have to address training aids. NO HAIR. Blood is of little use . Placenta is a marginal aid. If you do not have access to all types of decomposed tissue comprised of the entire spectrum of human decomposition,do not waste your time. I know this sounds harsh but it is true.
The dog is not fully operational unless the dog's threshold is high enough for a full set of remains in the water or above ground, all the way down to a buried set of remains and disarticulated. It takes many months to train a dog for this field. Not to mention the dog must be proofed off of non target odors. It takes months for me to train the cadaver dogs for Iraq and Afghanistan and I am working multiple scenarios a day and their training continues once in theater.
Human bone can be purchased but it is getting difficult to import and is very expensive. I just spent $700 for a partial skull, a long bone, a partial jaw and pelvis. Purchasing is the only way you will obtain bone.
I will answer any questions you have gladly,but you must realize that this is not an easy endeavor. You must also check the laws in your state with regard to possession of HR>

I do NOT reccomend cross training. A live find dog should be seperate from a cadaver dog. There are problems with cross training and no dog is solid on separate indications. You will have limitations with the dog.