The experience of acting as a training aid or “body” for search and rescue groups is an all-around positive one. Joining a bunch of strangers on an otherwise empty mountain range to help them train their useful search dogs is wonderful.

Social and often tennis ball obsessed dogs all run around together during down time. Indulging in funny banter between specialist dog trainers and a cold lunch on a warm hillside is great fun. It's an honour to be a little bit of this group of people that, alongside their dogs, give up time and regularly large parts of their own lives to help other people.

Many of the search and rescue dog training teams have been all over the world. Teams enter threatening areas of natural disaster to play their part in saving lives. By employing their dogs natural acute senses to find the lost and wounded these folk and their trained canine partners make a change.

The role of a “body” is to sit as still as practical in a corner of the hillside. The volunteer waits while the search and rescue dog finds and recognizes the perfume then leads his handler to its source. Depending on the individual dogs training stage this should be over a timescale of a few minutes or many hours. Training periods happen over a full day or weekend with players usually camping or sleeping in brief accommodation.

If you are interested in this sort of volunteering the very first thing to do is get in contact with your local search and rescue team. They are going to be able to help and counsel on how you can get embroiled. If you've got a young dog that you want to train as a search and rescue dog they also should be able to offer information as to whether your dog is suitable.

For further information about search and rescue dog training and all other facets of reward based dog training, please feel free to visit The Dog Trick Academy community site.