Training

You have the boat, the divers or the scent generator, access to the lake.  If this is the first time you have been in charge of organizing a  What else should you be thinking about?

1. Check your gear way ahead of time. This is especially important at the start of the season. Do it far enough in advance so that you have time to get things repaired or replaced.
   A few years ago, I got out our inflatable boat the night before training.  It had been nicely packed away for the winter.   Mice had eaten holes right in the side.  There we were scrambling for a replacement at the last minute.
2. Remind your team members about the equipment they will need just for water work. If you have done a lot of water training this list will seem obvious. But if you usually do wilderness work–its very likely that you won’t remember one or more of the following:
   • Shade–it will be in short supply. Bring your own. 10 by 10 pop-ups work great
   • PFDs
   • Clothes suitable for boating and towels to dry off with for handler and dog.  Sound obvious?  Try it. Don’t remind them and see how many of your teammates show up in their usual BDUs and Hiking Boots
3. Boat Tenders:  On searches you will often have local people driving your boat. But on trainings that job often falls to team members.  Develop a cadre of experienced boat handlers and get them in your boat and out practicing before your water training day.
4. Set up will take longer than you expect, way longer. If you have divers factor in the time it takes for them to get geared up. Also, they will need to swap out frequently. If you are using some other source like  a scent pump, it still takes a God-awful amount of time to set up a problem. The hose will always float; the dobber, float or anchor will always come loose, the pump will fail, batteries die. Count on it.By the way, did you invite the local dive team to practice with you? Great. Want to keep them happy?  Feed them. And if the weather is at all chilly to arrange for hot food.
5. Assign team members to crowd control and public relations.  If you are training in a high use area and you have two boats, put one of your people in the second boat to answer questions and manage traffic from the water as well. Use one of your most experienced people. Make sure they have the answers to frequently asked questions.  Who are you?  Did somebody drown? Who gave you permission to train here? Can the dogs really smell things under water? Have you ever found a body? What do you train with?  Are you putting body parts in the water? You get the idea.
6. Run your most experienced dogs first.  Get the kinks out of your set-up using dogs that know what they are doing
7. Have observers on shore watching the dog’s behavior with some way to communicate to the handler. This is good advice for searches as well. It’s damned hard to see subtle changes in K-9 behavior from behind the dog.
8. If you have a large team, set up multiple problems so that handlers can use down-time profitably.
9. Pre-plan rotating your key positions. Your observers can’t watch all the dogs, they need to work their own. Likewise, your drivers and Public Relations staff.
10. Try to plan 5 water training days a year.  Your dogs need the repetitions. You need the practice.  You put all this work into planning a super training day for your team.  Get the most out of it and do it again.

{ 0 comments }