1- The choice of the dog

First of all, the breed of the dog is important. Not because all the dogs can have enough scent and can listen to their master, but the grounds they operate on may be difficult, great agility together with dog weight and adapted size are required. The Dutch Shepherd dog seems to be quite adapted to the required conditions. However, one must be careful because there are exceptions, as all doctor's sons aren't doctors, it's the same with dogs.

Therefore, the choice of the dog is of prime importance. The puppy must like to play and have a good behaviour with people, which is the basics of dog training. He must also possess a scent above the average. Rough grounds should not scare him. All these requirements are simple to spot out on a young dog. The dog will be called to share his life among other dogs, other animals and non-familiar people, he must be not aggressive nor shy, let alone easily frightened. To test your puppy, take him out to another city, far from home. If he is not scared by people or cars, and if he walks with the nose on the ground, you've got THE right dog.

2- Training the dog

First aid and assistance centres in French Departments and large cities all offer at least one facility for humanity search with adapted training dog grounds. Training is organised twice a week .Whether the dog belongs to a person or to a group, he must have but one master.If you leave your dog in the kennels and take him out only for trainings, you will get poor results. The dog must share his life with his master. He will be with him as often as possible in the city and the open country as well, meet people, and other animals.A lot will be asked to your dog. Therefore he must have full trust and reliance to his master i order to accomplish his tasks.

The puppy begins to be in search for his master who is hiding close by. Then you give him a reward. The puppy will associate findings with rewards. Progressively, the dog will be in search for unknown people in non-familiar areas.Regularly, he will be under conditions of real disasters : search at night, with noise, smoke-producing equipment, in locations crowded with people and other animals as well. The dog may be brought to the site by helicopter, after a mussel trip. Two years are necessary to build-up the team first-aid master/dog. Mandatory periods of probation are required, ratified by a "Sécurité Civile" diploma.

Our dog can climb up a latter, jump, crawl, move into a smoked tunnel. If he finds a person, he will bark and scratch the ground to alert his master.
He is totally oblivious of the rest of the world surrounding him.
He remains concentrated on his task.Today we own a total of 7 dogs : Poppée, Rhodes, Roch, S'Zeus (allias Shérif), Tharun, U’Apollon (Luxembourg) -for puppies of des Crocs de l’Olympe and their cousin Rudy (no kennel name) for search in debris and one dog Sphinx des Crocs de l’Olympe for avalanches.