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Positive Reinforcement
A powerful nose
is the first requirement for finding a missing person,
body under the water, or in the debris of building rubble. The
dog
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Cross Roads Search and Rescue of
Illinois, Inc. |
must also be highly intelligent, with the ability to think
independently to solve a variety of complex scent problems.
However, the dog needs more than these gifts of nature and
breeding to be effective. According to experts in scent-dog
training,
these talented dogs must be handled and trained with a simple
but highly effective technique: positive reinforcement.
No other training method is as effective in producing
competent,
reliable and willing scent dogs. A good example of the rewards
of this type of training is the narcotics detection dog. He will
work
for hours hunting the scent of illicit drugs just to play with
his ball or toy for a few minutes.