Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

A dog shouldn't have any problem distinguishing between horse and human 
scent. Pulling the trailing dog off was handler error. The handler didn't 
trust his/her trailing dog and apparently doesn't understand how to use 
trailing dogs around horses and other humans.

However, if an Area / Air Scenting Dog is only trained to alert on "human in 
the area" without being specific with scent discrimination for the missing 
person, positioning humans / riders upwind will have that dog confused with 
multiple human scents and nothing to distinguish (and alert on) the missing 
if also upwind. Trailing dogs are trained to scent discriminate but will 
often also air scent, so in general it is safer to position other human 
searchers - including riders - downwind from the working dog.

Joint training with MSAR and SAR Dogs is very advantageous so all with 
animals understand how to best work with the other. It is also very 
advantageous - if not imperative - for MSAR riders to learn about air 
scenting since the horse/mule naturally performs this and can also be 
trained to alert with scent discrimination. http://airscentinghorse.com/

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org

----- Original Message ----- 
> [Busy day.  Here is another situation from someone who wishes
> to be Anonymous.  -Una]
> I soon
> realized the mistake, stopped, turned and asked the trailing
> dog handler if they wanted me to stay put or return to not mess
> up the dog.  The handler did not answer, but then pulled the
> dog from our direction, thinking the dog was trying to follow
> our horses.  The dog then went the opposite way, on a long goose
> chase.  The handler later said horses should never be allowed
> to go ahead of any dog.  This I think is wrong;  a trailing dog
> should be able to distinguish horse scent from human.