working dogs

Intense teens work with Search and Rescue Dogs

Troubled teens, at-risk teens, difficult children, juvenile delinquents, angry and defiant kids. No matter the term, parents send their children to us at The Family Foundation School after they have tried therapy, medication, alternative schools, more discipline, less discipline, you name it.  Every semester between 15 and 20 of the 200+ students come to work with me in the dog training program, now entering its 5th year.

You may be familiar with other canine training programs, where prisoners train dogs, or where students interact with therapy dogs or where they train dogs to become assistance dogs for people with disabilities.

At my school, we train Search and Rescue dogs.  Not to knock assistance dogs. They do phenomenal work. They need to have great temperaments. They are smart and exceptionally well trained.  But the SAR dog is something else.

Your ideal SAR dog is “high drive,” a polite way of saying–you probably wouldn’t want this dog for a pet.  In fact, many search dogs are rescued from animal

shelters where they were surrendered because their clueless owners didn’t or couldn’t deal with their intense personalities. SAR dogs, with boundless energy are exactly what my kids need.

Students (and staff) in our dog-training program are a special bunch.  We tend to be a little less comfortable with verbal expression.  We have a hard time sitting still.  A substantial minority of us have trouble trusting other people.  None of that gets in the way of our work with dogs.    Dog’s don’t care if we talk, or not. Dogs are at their best when they are moving,  they crave exercise and, best of all, dogs can’t lie.

Training SAR dogs lets us play to our strengths.  Instead of talking, we observe canine behavior. A good trainer needs to learn to anticipate the dog’s next move and to read a dog’s mood.  We channel our energy into playing with our dogs.  Playing tug of war is one of the ways that the dogs are rewarded. Most of the training is based upon positive reinforcement. Oh yea, and we get to pretend we are lost–and hang out in the woods waiting to be rescued.  For many of my students, that’s the best part. Even though they know its only practice, it still makes you feel good to know that you have been rescued. I’ve been saved 100s of times by now and I still get excited every time a dog finds me.

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Tagged as: Assistance dog, at-risk teens, dog training, juvenile delinquents, SAR, Search and rescue, search dogs, working dogs

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