Comment by Snoopys Friend — December 11, 2009 @ 10:51 am

Well yes, some of us are.

But what’s your point?

CARDA is a large organization with dozens of training groups all over California. Different Training Group Leaders and different sponsors (who mentor newbies) have their own individual training styles, much as one sees in other dog training disciplines. It’s not cookie cutter. I don’t doubt that Snoopys Friend was told what was relayed here but realize that isn’t representative of CARDA.

For example, in my CARDA training group we have a certified Labrador Retriever SAR dog who is also a titled Senior Hunter and halfway to his Master Hunter title. So he hunts for ducks to retrieve and finds lost people, in different contexts. If you are ever lost, you would be very fortunate to have this outstanding SAR dog looking for you.

Certainly it is not OK for a SAR dog to chase critters in a SAR context, but in many cases this can be managed effectively with an e-collar.

It’s more problematic IMO for a SAR dog to be frequently attracted to critter scent in a SAR context. Being strongly hardwired for crittering is why many dogs from hunting breeds aren’t suitable for SAR.

If a SAR dog can wear different hats, such as killing vermin at home while staying focused on finding the missing person in a SAR context, I don’t care.

I’ve never heard a recommendation for a SAR dog to have severely restricted access to his own back yard.

My own SAR dogs — currently two operational dogs and one advanced trainee in this household — spend significant time hunting mice in the hayfield, and Ms. Pip has it in for groundhogs in a very personal way.

And there was the incident with the sick squirrel where we made a muscled, tattooed ex-con flee the scene in horror, but that’s another story.

In our previous home the dogs had 24/7 access to a fenced yard — the better to keep critters out of the vegetable garden, my dear — and they now free-range on our 26 acres, along with poultry and cats who they protect from predators.

They have zero difficulty remaining focused on SAR tasks or minding a command to “leave it.” Same is true of our trainees’ dogs. And our two previous partners of Sainted Memory. Just. Not. An. Issue. They understand perfectly well the difference between SAR dog time and regular dog time.

I did have to break my second partner of chasing deer. I did not do this by locking her up all day. Nor did she learn this by killing mice in the pantry.

I have never seen any dog “ruined” for any purpose by being permitted, even encouraged, to kill rodents. I suppose it would be a big problem if your hobby was breeding fancy mice, or if your kid was especially fond of his hamster, and you didn’t practice effective rodent containment.

In which case, buy a golden retriever.

Dogster today has a cool video on a service dog that started chasing birds and had to be let out of a service program, now the dog surfs and is a fund raiser. The owner decided not to fight its natural instinct.

Recently I hired a trainer to work with me and my young strong Doberman when I first took him to a big park with lots of squirrels and turkeys. By instinct that dog wanted to chase all of them, ducks, geese, squirrels and the roaming bands of turkeys. Now a flock can come right up to him and he doesn’t budge. Of course this is only my experience and it coincides with what I wish out of my dogs.

LauraS - that was almost the first thing I was told. Lucky me!

There must be SOME reason for this discrepancy in people’s experience with CARDA. Difference in regional groups? Difference between what new members are told v.s. more experienced members/members who already have a training background?

Surely SOMETHING accounts for this disparity. I’m sure Snoopys Friend didn’t just make it up.