sarx
Verified Expert/Professional in SAR and K9SAR
What are the success rates, percentage-wise, for well-trained HRD dogs? (High I would guess.) Are records kept charting an individual dog's percentage of success - say, after trials at the end of training?
Yes, like in the 90% plus range. It has been my experience and actually there was a study out recently too that when working with well trained dogs, failure is more often caused by the handler than the dog. We call it GDSH...
Yes, records of EVERYTHING should be kept including success rate.
Training is ongoing as is re-certification and logs are (or should be) kept of all of it. Good handlers will continue with weekly training, it never ends.
I think this is a very important point to bring up, so thank you!
ETA- I think it's important to note that when training properly it is a part-time at best and dang near full time job. The hours you put in the first 18-24 months are ridiculous. The upkeep on training is only slightly better. Oh, and you're doing it for free... This again is where logs come in to play, cuz if you don't have the hours, you don't have the experience, you don't have a reliable dog....