Socializing a new puppy is probably the most important thing you can do to insure that you will have a successful search dog. It is highly important that your search dog, in the end, will be absolutely fearless, courageous, exploratory, and curious. It is equally important that he will not allow any distraction to interfere with his focus on searching.
When you expose your puppy to all kinds of happenings, you are exposing your dog to stress and this is vital. It is an automatic stressful situation for a dog when structured routines are not followed, when daily schedules are not rigidly followed, when different things are introduced into his environment. In today's modern world, occurrences which can cause stress are much more common than they used to be. A dog in a natural state, like all animals in the larger scheme of nature, is an animal that follows the old axiom of "survival of the fittest". The dog that can respond to stressful situations is more likely to survive trauma if he should ever be injured. There are many breeders who will purposely stress an infant with the daily ritual of turning the puppy upside down for a few seconds, laying the puppy on a cold surface, and pinching slightly between the toes, all of these are procedures which tend to mimic the kinds of stress a puppy will undergo when born in the wild, and have long been known as techniques to desensitize the puppy to stress while early in life.
The search dog will end up in precarious situations. He may some day have to walk across highly unstable surfaces. He may be exposed to huge crowds which include ATV's (all terrain vehicles), horses with riders, helicopters, people in extreme situations who are afraid, anxious, hurt or in despair....all of these things and more. He may be attacked by loose dogs or have to go through areas where livestock will surround him. The search dog should be able to sort all these different things out and face situations calmly and still focus on the job required of him.
Exposure at an early age and continuing exposure to all kinds of situations is vital. Don't miss out on opportunities to introduce your puppy to people of all kinds, from the elderly and infirm to the rambunctious and noisy children. If you don't live in areas where you can get to places where there are people, then make the effort to take your puppy to these areas. County fairs, parking lots at malls, neighborhood softball games, parades, flea markets, any place where there are crowds of people are suitable places for exposure for your puppy.
Exposure to other animals in urban and rural areas is also important. The smell of deer and wild things should be introduced to your puppy and you should take the opportunity at that time to correct the dog against being overly interested in such things. Furthermore exposure to other dogs and domesticated livestock teaches him early that these things are common occurrences and will not hurt him. To that end, while you are "socializing" and getting your puppy out and about, you can train him to ignore certain things. Cats and neighborhood dogs should be left alone. Quick corrections on the leash while walking the dog are necessary to teach him that he must pay attention to your command rather than the distraction. If you ignore such sudden situations as umbrellas opening, elevator doors closing, huge trucks going by....all of these noisy and possibly frightening things will be faced by your dog calmly if you face them calmly.
Above all do not touch your dog and praise your dog if he shows fear. What you are actually doing is reinforcing fearful behavior by petting him and reassuring him. What you should do is be quite matter of fact and calm when your dog shows fearfulness about strange or unusual things and allow the dog to investigate and figure out for himself that it is okay. Knowing that YOU are not afraid or upset translates to the dog that it is okay and he will lose his fear.
Search dogs need to be able to focus on the one thing that they are trained to do, to find living humans or dead human tissue (cadaver). Focus is much improved when the dog will not be distracted by other things. This is why exposure to all manner of things is important in the early training of your search dog. It is necessary that your search dog have a one track mind and that he does not allow other things to become more interesting than the search. Exposure and socializing make it much easier to train him that certain things can be disregarded. A Search dog that will devote his entire mind and body to the purpose of finding his human must be your final goal.
