The Labrador, One Fine Search and Rescue Breed

You'll likely find labradors in various venues working due to their great abilities as a breed. They can usually be found in police street patrols, airports and various other public places due to their inherent ability to concentrate and pick up scents in the midst of numerous happenings that pull away most other dogs focus. They have steadily become increasingly popular due to their ability to keep a steady head in extreme problematic circumstances where other dogs like Dobermans and German shepherds have less ability to do so.

What originally was frontier claimed by the St. Bernard breed, labradors have been able to show even better abilities for enduring and working in rescue situations. The labradors ability to pick up scents as placed him among the top rescue and disaster dog breeds available today. This tremendous scent ability as placed them in the midst of disaster aftermaths like earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. mainly to find both alive and dead people buried underneath debris. Due to the concentration required in dangerous circumstances in disasters such as these, this dog breed has continuously shown it's worth. The difficult situations it often encounters includes completely destroyed buildings, unbelievable debris, complete chaos from disaster teams and victims, perilous fires, and numerous other happenings that attempt to divide a dog's attention.

These occurrences will often be packed with circumstances even humans have major problems with including smoke from the fire, dust and debris impregnated air, gas spewing from burst pipe lines, flooded areas mixed with floating debris and more. Even with all these various circumstances, labradors have a great ability to focus on the task at hand of tracking human victims for rescue. Once human scent has been found, the dog immediately gives indication to this through various ways including scratching, barking and more. The handler, due to his or her training, will immediately know and understand the dog's communication. The Labrador will easily know whether the victim will be alive or dead.

Another great characteristic found in labradors is their ability to work efficiently. Working efficiently means doing the job and a focused, gentle and calm manner in order to get that one job done without bringing character problems to the table like aggressiveness or anxiety. While many other dog breeds have continually been eliminated from rescue and disaster training, Labrador, on average, excels.

A great example of a successful labrador disaster and rescue dog is a dog named “Tigger”. Living near Grand Rapids Michigan, this four-year-old yellow lab continually does various work mainly in the recovery of missing persons. She has a tremendous ability to pick up the scent of a human being. Interestingly enough, she can even pick up the scent of a human located underneath the water.

Whenever she does her job well, she gets rewarded by being given a flying disc. Instead of getting a paycheck like us humans, she finds great reward and enjoyment through this disc she has. Basically, it's almost like a toy but she finds more intrigue in this than some puppy would find in any basic toy. She knows getting the disc means she has done her job well.

Maybe not all labradors have the ability to become disaster and rescue dogs but on average this breed has a much better chance of being able to work in this area. Even so, a Labrador that would not make the cut of becoming a working dog like this, would still have that great labrador ability to learn. Labrador dogs have a great ability to be trained. They find learning as a great enjoyable challenge that makes their life more interesting. They also enjoyed the bonding with their master or handler.

Try learning some of the best techniques of training your Labrador to make your bond with him or her even stronger. Also, the more your Labrador learns, the better ability he has to become a great obeying member of your family.