# National Search Dog Alliance Podcast [Free]



## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

The National Search Dog Alliance (NSDA) is pleased to announce our second, of many, planned 'Live PODCAST' on the Internet. 
Our next program will air live at 8 PM EDT on August 24 , 2008. (That will translate to 7 PM CDT, 6 PM MDT, and 5 PM PDT). 
Our Guest will be Mr Art Wolff. He will discuss how Search Dog Teams should go about 'developing relationships with requesting authorities'. This is a very timely topic and Art will bring over 33 years of law enforcement and K-9 SAR experience to our live PODCAST audience. 
To listen and participate in the program, merely go to : http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/21763 on Sunday evening August 24, 2008 at 8 PM EDT.
Once at the Talkshoe Site, you'll see that you have three ways to participate and/or listen to the program. First, you can phone into the show. Our moderator will have your phone muted initially, but if you want to ask our NSDA guest a question, hit *T or *8 on your phone or Text a message that you'd like to speak. Second, you can merely log onto the program, listen to the show on your computer and text your questions into the moderator, he will pass your questions on to our quest speaker. And Third, if you can't tune into the live show, you can down load the PodCast for up to 90 days after the program and listen to it at your leisure. 
From our experience, the preferred method is to call into the program by phone, you will be muted initially so remember to hit *T to let the moderator know you have a question. The chat room option also works but you have to depend on the moderator to convey to Art your question.
Please join us Sunday, August 24, 2008 for information and discussion concerning this very important topic that is always a puzzle for Search Dog Teams to solve. 
The Site will be up 15 minutes prior to the start of the program, so try to sign on early.


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## Linda Addy (Apr 2, 2009)

*NASAR K9 trailing test*

Just had a friend try and failed her NASAR trailing test. The evaluator said that on a national basis only about 12% of the dogs pass this test. This seems like a very high failure rate when compared to the dogs being tested on Area Search. Does any one have any comments on this? I'm training my pup in trailing so if course I have a real interest here.

Thanks Linda


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Yes, there are a few reasons that the trailing test is failed at such a high rate and I have heard some real discussions on that.

First - the vast majority of failures are because people cannot find the start of the trail. That is well established as primary reason. I am amazed at how many people think there will be a scent pad there waiting for them instead of a scenario and a highly contaminated PLS

Second-there have been issues with some of the evaluators being grandfathered in. When a teammate took the course several years ago, her evaluator had never handled a trailing dog and actually said "tracking, trailing its all the same to me". That follows with not being allowed to get too many feet off of the track.

Third - setup. We all realize you have to be able to work a trailing dog mid day [they ran theirs at 2pm] but if you run part of the trail through a clearcut, account for the idea that just maybe the dog will have to work the perimeter in the shaded woods to pick up a lost trail.

So, you can fail if you start the problem right, know when your dog is on and off scent, work the dog properly and find the victim.

When the tests first came out, had an airscent friend fail the airscent test because his dog found the victim too fast. Honest. Dog was a fully operational search dog with multiple live finds at the time.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Oh, quite a few people have migrated over to the NSDA and left NASAR due to NASAR taking ear marked donations for the K9 section and using them for other sections. That, and some of the evaluation fiascos.

Don't get me wrong, NSDA will have a lot of kinks too, but many of the NASAR founding K9 folks went over there.

Whenever possible, we have started doing police certification testing due to credibility.


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## Linda Addy (Apr 2, 2009)

Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your comments about the NASAR trailing test. What you described is similar to what a couple of others have said. The impression I get is that there just is not enough experienced evaluators out there who train and work trailing K9s. I guess one should check out the background of the evaluator before hand and make sure you understand the tests requirements for passing. 

Recently at a Mark Holmes seminar we watch some very interesting behavior in urban trailing around buildings and alleys where the air movement did some unexpected things to scent (boy those smoke bombs come in handy). It was really an eye opener to see (using the smoke bombs) how air moves around parked vehicles, dumpters, and gangways. Ah if we could only see what they smell....

Thanks for your help,
Linda


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