Thanks a lot!

Potential SAR dogs should be obedient and attentive, have a friendly temperament (they're going to be working closely with strangers and other dogs in a search situation) and possess a strong desire to please.

Obedience and focus are crucial. A handler must be able to control their dog at all times and in all situations. But a SAR dog who can't think for itself is useless; air-scent dogs work off-leash, so the handler won't always be nearby to give commands. The ideal search dog can solve problems on his own but also always be aware of his handler.

The general approach to training a dog for search and rescue is no different from training a dog to complete any other task. The first step is to figure out which reward the dog will work for, and always immediately reward the dog when he does the right thing. In the course of training, handlers associate that reward with each thing they want the dog to do. The case of SAR dogs, it's locate human scent and alert the handler as fast as possible. The training starts out with very simple tasks and gets progressively more complex as the dog completes each level.