  Sally is finding a figurant. March 2005 How can a team of novices do search and rescue? Well, we have help from more experienced instructors from time to time and we get training advice from other SAR-teams and visit trainingcamps. We also base our training on a great book by Sven Järverud, the nestor of search and rescue here in Sweden! And some of us are very skilled when it comes to other dogactivities (various nosework, agility, obedience, fieldhunting, watergames, herding, breeding and so on), a knowledge that we can adapt to this practice. So one can not say that we are that unexperienced...
Building figurant interest: The goal is to make the figurant and the hiding place a pleasent spot to be for the dog. With Kim and Nellie, the owners had to accompany them out in the beginning. When the dogs felt that support, they could interact with the figurant, even though the handler was passive. Sally and Noel only needed a little extra time with the figurant, that used every milli-second to convince them that this was the most attractive place on earth to be! We were all on various stages when we began training together, and the very first problem that arised, was when Kim started to search for the figurants tracks, instead of using the wind to find. Kim is an experienced tracker, and I do not find it strange that he tried to solve the problem with the missing person the way he was taught from puppyhood - by tracking. Unfortunately this behaviour stayed, he was really stubborn and managed to find the tracks even when we had gone over the entire set very carefully! Ofcourse we had the figurant go out in a large bow, but that did not stop Kim from finding the tracks. We solved the problem by continue walking all over the set, so that there would be a number of tracks all over to disquise the figurants way out. We made sure that the wind blew directly from the hiding place into Kims nose, and I did not let him loose until I felt him pulling the lead with his head up and the scent in his nose. This was actually all that was needed. But we also got advice from others: 1) to make the figurant lay out a 20 meter long track that would lead back to the starting point, before he went out into hiding. That way the dog would track in a large bow, only to get back to where he began... Leading to nothing.
2) Put out the figurant while all of us are walking in zig-zag all over the set. That way there would be no track out. Luckily, we did not have to do any of this. But the tips might come in handy for you.
Step 1 in our searchtraining was finding in headwind at various distances from 3 up to 50 meters. We shifted terrain, figurants and how well they were hidden. This exercise gives high motivation for search- and rescuework. But there is a danger in doing too many of them - the dog will easily be dependent on the wind to go out, and when you place the figurant in tailwind, the dog may not understand that he should go out and search since he can not feel the scent in the wind. That is why we introduced our dogs to: Step 2, an extra figurant ("x-figure"> that would give the dog a vision to start from. After we hade placed the figurant, we let the dog see the x-figure move towards the hidingplace a few meters, calling the dog. Then we turned the dog around, the x-figure went back to us on the path and "disappeared" among the others, the dog was turned back and released when he was pulling out towards the hidingplace. This was meant to be a little help for the dog to start, and a help to get the right direction. Our goal was also to use the x-figure to train the dogs to go straight out.  Marie as x-figure for Kim.
Unfortunately, none of our dogs cared about the x-figure. They were all too eager to go out on search-practice to take any notice of him... So we had to do something else to help the dogs with the direction. We used corridors. Instead of going over an entire set of 50x50 meters, we went over a limited area of about 15x50 meters. That would make a scented corridor for the dogs to search in. And see - that was something that our dogs understood! This is how far we have come: Both Sally and Noel are searching independent of the wind. Nellie has started to bring back a toy from the figurant to her handler, the beginning of marking the figurant. Kim is searching straight out most of the time and is no longer hesitant towards any figurant. Mats and Toya are only tracking at this stage. We will begin with two or more figurants for Noel and Sally pretty soon. Nellie and Kim need more practice in corridors with tailwind and Kim needs to overcome his fear of playing with the figurants. Kim and I have actually went to a very experienced schutzhund-trainer for help! If anyone knows how to get a dog to play tug-of-war with a toy - that is the schutzhund-people!!! This was her tip: Choose one person first. I will play with Kim nearby this person. Then I will play with Kim so close that the person can pet and praize him while he is struggling for his favourite toy with me. When that works, the person will get a grip too on the toy, so that both I and her are pulling it. If Kim accepts that, I can let go. He "wins" the toy almost immediately from the other person. Soon Kim will go to her with the toy, begging for more games! See photos below:
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To begin with, we had to get all our dogs to overcome their hesitance towards strangers hiding in the wood (figurants). This hesitation came in various appearances: Kim did not want to go out at all. Sally played with the figurant, but with a very loose grip on the toy. Noel only searched for Marie in the beginning and he chooses very carefully with whom he'd like to interact. Nellie made a shortstop at the hiding place and flew back to Micke without interacting with the figurant at all. And for being a German Shepherd, Toya was unusually careful when contacting the figurants. That turned out to come from inexperience, and solved itself after only a few practice runs.
