Training a Working Dog

Choosing dogs for specialized working dog training: Some dogs are meant to serve some very specific needs. In order to train them in special ways they need to have certain standards such as be physically robust, strong, resistant to cold weather, and to work up in high areas like mountains. They must be agile and at the same time cautious when walking over any type of terrain like soft or hard snow and they have to have strong legs. These dogs must have strong characters and not let themselves get distracted or perturbed by people that are freaking out, the sound of helicopters, vehicles, and all the other people that work together to help out with a rescue. They need to be having good temperaments, not be aggressive, have a good disposition to work, and be obedient and assimilative. These dogs also have to be at tracking and be able to discriminate different odors, since their job is to track down people through their smell, and they must be able to do this without discriminating if the person is still alive or has already died.
The work these dogs do is a little easier when the snow is loose. When it is wet or heavy the probabilities of success diminish. Another factor that conditions a good result is the temperature.
In temperatures that are 20 degrees below zero it is difficult for the animals to smell, although there are extraordinary dogs that have been successful in extremely low temperatures with heavy snow. The type of training these dogs get is similar to when they teach dogs to track, especially when they need to dig out objects or people. The training starts with teaching the dog with basic training which is their specialized part that will be done in the high snowy mountain where they will have to work later. The trainers of these dogs are expert skiers and alpinists who know the mountains and who are physically adapted to their work surroundings, the cold, altitude etc.